Yarn Painting.
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!
This is such a great idea for a low-mess craft! My kids always get frustrated with glue dripping everywhere, so using yarn as a painting tool sounds perfect. Do you think it works better with thicker or thinner yarn for younger toddlers?
This would be a very tricky activity for young toddlers no matter what sort of yard you used. For little ones I’d recommend cutting the yarn into small pieces and allowing the kids to stick it to the contact paper any way they wanted.
This is such a lovely, simple idea! I’ve been looking for low-mess art projects to do with my four-year-old, and yarn painting seems perfect for practicing fine motor skills without the cleanup hassle of glue sticks. Did you find that thicker yarn worked better, or would regular craft yarn be fine for little hands?
Thicker yarn is definitely easier for little hands, but it will be a toss up between too thick and it not sticking well.