Weaving is one of my favourite activities. There’s something incredibly satisfying of weaving a few pieces of yarn, paper or whatever you’ve got together into a new creation.
Paper weaving is one of those great art activities where you don’t need many supplies. When I was younger, I weaved several placemats together and then “laminated” with contact paper. Those placemats had a high spot of honour on my family’s dining table for a long time.
During the holiday season, we received many holiday cards from friends and family. The thickness of many had me thinking about weaving again! My four-year-old and I spent a happy afternoon weaving a few of the cards together.
Although the fun of the afternoon was truly enough – these little weaved beauties could be used with our latest Christmas photo as a new decoration, a great thank you card for grandparents or you could save their for next year’s unique card from your family.
Materials Needed:
-Old Greeting Cards
-Glue
-Scissors/Exacto Knife
-Ruler
Instructions:
Parent Part: Cut slots in the page you are using as your base for weaving on to.
In greeting cards, I made 1″ lines lengthwise, and cut up to 0.5″ from the top. (If you have an exacto knife cut until 0.5″ from the bottom as well. If you are using scissors, no worries, you can glue it!)
Parent Part: Cut strips of paper for weaving.
Cut strips of 0.5″ for weaving between the base. Leave ends longer then the width of what you are weaving if possible.
Time for Weaving! Give your child the base and the strips and demonstrate the over/under pattern to take on each strip. Remind them if they lose their way, you can always check the last strip’s beginning to see where you could start again. Continue until all the slots are filled, and trim ends up to base if desired.
Love love this activity, Holly! So wonderful for little fingers to build dexterity. I will try it this weekend for my 5 yo for sure.
Love this idea for little ones! Such a creative way to reuse old cards and to enhance their dexterity! Thanks for sharing Holly!
My boys would greatly enjoy this weaving activity. I have tons of magazines we could use for this.
I tried to do shoe lace weaving with my daughter to make a purse. The weaving was easy enough, but it did not look much like a purse.
This is a great idea! Not only is it fun and creates good use of family time, but it’s also a great sensory and tactile activity for kids. And I love seeing finished projects. I’m definitely going to try this. Maybe not just with Christmas cards but other things too. I can’t wait!