It’s Father’s Day this weekend, and we’ve been doing little hand made presents to give to the Daddy in our lives. We made a really cute hand print picture frame, and have a dad-friendly shoulder bag for him, so we needed something to wrap it all in, so we made some wrapping paper – although this says ‘Daddy’ it can be for anyone for any occassion!
I’ve come to the conclusion that the best crafts for us are short and sweet one – 15 minutes start to finish is about as long as Ameli can stay interested for.
I find that one of the hardest things for me is to just let Ameli create. I have an idea in my head of what the activity should be, and then get really frustrated when it doesn’t go ‘to plan’. It’s been interesting – and a little freeing – learning to sit back and allow Ameli to explore and find her own way of doing things.
This particular activity was meant to be toothbrush art. We used to do it as kids and I thought it would be a fun way to decorate the paper. Ameli couldn’t really get the ‘flick’ of the bristles figured out and instead used the toothbrush to paint her hand, as we were doing in the hand print art. It worked out, in the end, and was messy and fun.
- For this craft you’ll need two sheets of paper – one large enough to wrap the present (or use various pages and stick them together)
- stickytape or bluetack
- Paint
- Paint brushes/toothbrush/hands
Cut out the name or word you want to have visible in your final paper – we cut out the letters for D A D D Y, and I used tape folded double to hold the letters to the paper.
Let your toddler go with the paint, and cover as much as the page as possible. Make sure the areas around the letters are thoroughly covered.
Once the paint has dried, remove the letters to reveal your card and wrapping in one.
Tip: use the same colour paper for both, as when you pull the letters off, some of the paper may remain behind. Alternatively, laminate the letters so they don’t tear if the pain makes them stick a little.
Learning through play: talk about, discus and trace the outlines of the letters. You’ll be surprised how quickly your toddler will learn to recognise and remember the letters!
[pinit]
