Yarn Crafts Kids Can Make

We’re obsessed with pajaki (“pie-yonky”) chandeliers! This Polish craft, traditionally made with colorful paper flowers, is the perfect foil for gray winter days. Spend a few hours helping your child make our woolly version with yarn and felt, and you’ll both feel brighter!

With Rorschach string printing, every piece of art becomes a surprise! 

Make It:  Fold a piece of heavyweight paper in half, then open it. Mix ¼ cup tempera paint with 1 to 2 Tbs. water for your “ink.” Make a bunch of colors! Dip a piece of yarn into the paint, then squeeze it between your fingers to remove the excess. Arrange the string on one side of the paper with an end hanging off the edge. Add another color, if you’d like. Fold the paper. Place a heavy book on top, then hold it down as you slowly pull out the yarn. Open the paper, then let the image dry. Think about what it might be! Add features with a marker.

A lazy summer day is a great time for your kids to write little notes to the people they care about. Recreating the summer sun with brightly colored yarn is easy on this cute homemade card.

Make It: Run a 9x6-1/4 inch piece of blue cardstock through your printer to add a sentiment, or simply write a cute phrase. Fold in half. Create the grass by randomly snipping chunks from green paper; glue to the card. Lightly trace a lid with a pencil to create the sun shape and use a ruler to draw lines for the sun's rays. Then add glue over the pencil lines and have your child help place the yarn on the glue, trimming away any excess. Fill in the inside of the sun in the same way, swirling the yarn around the center.

Get crafty -- and a little messy, too -- when you and your kids sculpt this adorable ladybug from red and black yarn.

Make It: Blow up two balloons, one larger than the other. In a nonstick bowl, create a mixture of one part Elmer's glue and one part water. Your kids will love dipping red and black yarn into the mixture and wrapping it around the balloons. Once you've reached your desired coverage, allow it to dry for 24 hours or until the yarn hardens. Then pop and remove the balloons and trim the bottom edges of the ladybug to create a flat base. Decorate by adding black chenille stems for antennae, googly eyes on the face, and black felt dots on the body. Attach the head using black chenille stems.

Add some fresh color to your child's games of dress-up by wrapping ordinary plastic bracelets with brightly colored yarn.

Make It: Attach a long strand of yarn to a store-bought plastic bracelet with a knot, and wrap it tightly around. Switch strands as desired by tying a new color to the end of the old one and wrapping over the loose ends. Continue until the whole bracelet is tightly wrapped. Finish with another knot and tuck any loose ends under the yarn.

Made from fluffy balls of yarn and chenille stems, this harmless, fuzzy spider is sure to win over your child's heart and imagination.

Make It: Wrap black yarn around a 3-inch scrap of chipboard 100 times. Keeping the shape, slip the yarn off the chipboard and tie another piece tightly around the middle. Snip all the loops to create loose ends and fluff them up to form a ball. Repeat to create a second ball. Next, cut a small rectangular piece of chipboard and punch four holes in each end. Insert the stems and bend to style the legs. Placing glue on one side of each ball of yarn, sandwich them together with the chipboard in the middle and allow to dry. Add googly eyes to make a face. Attach a long piece of string at the top to complete the marionette and tie a colorful ribbon around it.

Capture that perfect summer sky and help your kids create their own brilliant rainbows with multicolor pieces of yarn.

Make It: Clip various sizes of green yarn for grass and use double-stick tape to adhere to the bottom of an 8x10-inch piece of blue cardstock. Trace around a bowl with a pencil to create the bottom arch of the rainbow; draw similar arches at 1/4-inch intervals until you have enough lines to create a rainbow. Add glue to each line while your kids place on the yarn. Trim off excess yarn. For extra fun, gently pull apart cotton balls and glue them to the sky as fluffy clouds.

Your little one will feel extra proud when you display her artwork on the fridge with the pretty flower magnets she helped create.

Make It: Using a 1-inch circle punch, cut five petals from pink paper, five from purple, and three from yellow. If you like, use a larger circle punch to make five blue petals for variety (or use the 1-inch punch for consistency). Lightly sand the edges of the petals to create white rims. Next, cut out three chipboard circles to serve as the base and glue on the petals as shown. Fill the yellow centers with glue; beginning at the outer edge, wind yellow yarn to fill the circle. Trim any excess. Allow the centers to dry, pressing under a book if necessary. Then add them to the center of the petals. To finish, add magnets to the chipboard with a hot-glue gun.

Summer reading is fun when your child has a beautiful bookmark with yarn tassels to mark her place.

Make It: Cut a narrow strip of cardstock to serve as the base, round the edges, and add a grommet to the top. Cut out a photo of your child on a summertime adventure and glue it to the bookmark, adding a small strip of colored cardstock to the top and bottom of the photo as shown. Embellish by letting your child wrap colored yarn around the bookmark, adhering it to the back with glue. Finish by tying a thick bunch of yarn through the grommet. Now get a jump-start on that summer reading list!

Dress up a basic paper doll with cute spiral hair made from yarn.

Make It: Mix equal parts glue and water in a disposable bowl. Dip yellow yarn into the mixture, then twist the yarn around a pencil that's been wrapped with wax paper (for easier removal). Allow to dry. Slip yarn off the pencil and trim for the desired hairstyle. Adhere to a paper doll base and add tied shoes, a dress, and a bow for her hair if you like.

Copyright & copy 2010 Meredith Corporation.