Would you like to paint without using any paint?
My kids thought I was nuts when I asked them that question this morning, but my nutty ideas are always my best ideas, and this one worked out a treat!
We painted without paint… instead we painted with yarn!
This is a really low mess, easy art activity, that is almost mesmerizing!
All you need is clear self-adhesive book covering (which we call contact paper), scissors, some tape and some coloured yarn. That’s it, that’s really all you need.
We taped the self-adhesive paper, stick side up, to a sheet of paper so we could move it around easily, but you could tape it straight onto the table if you like. You just need to add a little tape at each corner to keep it still.
We collected a whole lot of different coloured knitting yarn and cut it into randomly sized pieces, ready to go. Now all your need to do is arrange the yarn onto the sticky paper.
The yarn sticks to the self-adhesive paper, no glue required, so you can arrange it any way you like, and take it off and rearrange if it you change your mind.
You can make a specific picture or design, or just fill the sticky paper with random swirls of colour.
Izzy made an emoji, and Morgan and I found our zen with random swirls and patterns.
When we were done we laid another piece of self-adhesive paper over the top to keep everything in place and both the kids put theirs on their bedroom windows. They look cool with the sun shining through the gaps and lighting up all the colours.
This is one of the easiest creative activities we’ve done. You really have to give this a go some time, it’s really cool!
Wow!!!! That looks so very amazing. Love!!!
I love this! The color, textures, and designs are stunning!
Simply gorgeous !! My son’s still 4 so he barely makes any intentional pattern !
I LOVE this idea! I’m going to do this tomorrow with my four and five year olds!
You can do this on indoor/outdoor carpet as well. It works like Velcro and provides a reusable art experience. I purchased a piece of indoor outdoor carpet and cut it into placemats sized pieces. Very versatile.
Oh that is a great idea! I’ll have to have a look for some carpet squares!
Make sure it’s that indoor outdoor grassy stuff. I took a piece of yarn with me to test before I bought.
What do you mean by indoor outdoor grassy stuff? Are you able to post a picture or link to a picture please? That sounds like an awesome idea!!
Love it. Looking for a non messy form of painting with a group of 5/6 year olds. I might have them trace their names with yarn, then outline the lines until the page is filled. Thanks for the perfect idea!
Absolutely beautiful! I must try it with my learners. They will love it!! Thanks
NICE!!
This is fabulous. And I just thought of a super quirky idea to do with it!!! My daughters birthday party is coming up soon and I am gonna sew some contact paper to the aprons they will be wearing for the water color painting. I think they will be tickled pink to do yarn painting on their aprons!!! Then I will suggest the parents sew the yarn down like quilting. I am so excited after seeing this. Thanks for sharing!!!
I was wondering if you had tried putting a picture on the paper you taped the contact paper to, so that you are copying the design. It made me think of The Starry Night painting.
I love your blog! I featured this craft on my blog today:
http://abrightneighborhood.com/index.php/2017/02/06/library-book-parade-extra-yarn/
Please note yarn art was originally done by the Huichol Indians of Northern Mexico.(Wonderful examples online) Excited to try it using the adhesive paper, usually I’ve used white glue; which is messier and can be more difficult to control.
Thanks so much for sharing the history of yarn art!
I came here to say this! I do Huichol yarn paintings with my students every year. I am going to have to try this.
Please help me understand something. So, you basically have yarn in between 2 sheets of paper and you place it in the window? That’s is? Can I see a photo of it in the window! I just don’t get it, it’s not really painting….just yarn on paper? Thanks!
Yes technically it is not ‘painting’ as there is no paint involved. It’s making (or painting) a picture using yarn and contact paper.
So colourful and abstract which I like. I’d like to have a shot myself, ????
Thank you for this idea! Volunteers are not allowed in the school this year and as head room parent for my son’s room, I am trying to be creative to make it a fun year for the kids. I am leading virtual crafts and don’t want it to get too messy for the teacher and this is PERFECT! I can have everything cut and prepared, ready for them to create with virtually NO cleanup! It will be a great twenty minutes for them to unwind and be creative!
Hello!! Can you link the sticky paper??? I can’t find it anywhere and it’d be perfect for a lesson I have in mind coming up. Amazing work :)
It’s clear, self-adhesive contact paper, the stuff you cover books with. Here’s an Amazon link if that’s helpful – https://amzn.to/4a2fgE9
How do you store it if they do not finish it in one class period?
I think these would be hard to store unfinished, you’d have to check how long the contact paper stays sticky out in the open. You could try stacking them gently on top of one another or putting each one in a snap lock bag? I’d probably just have kids work on a small version so they’d be able to finish it in one sitting.
Could you just save the backing paper and put it over the piece for storage until ready to continue working?
I tried this and the yarn did not stick to the contact paper. What am I missing? I placed the sticky side up and the yarn repels off of it.
I’m not sure what could be going wrong. The sticky side of even cheap contact paper should be sticky enough to hold the yarn in place.