The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Woven Hearts Mobile

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 Here is a little  yarn wrap heart art project that uses a simple sewing and weaving method that is both beautiful in its results and manageable for young children. It’s a lovely Valentine’s day craft for kids and is fantastic for hand-eye co-ordination, fine motor skills and concentration! It looks beautiful on display too.
Yarn wrapped hearts mobile Valentine's day craft for kids
 To make this mobile, we started with a piece of cardboard box which I cut into three heart shapes. They happened to be large, medium and small, which turned out nicely when we hung them up at the end!
I cut out a smaller heart from the middle of each, to create a border ready for weaving. The girls painted the hearts on both sides, in a range of colours.

When they were dry I found some thick  yarn in pink, red and purple shades and cut them into manageable lengths for working with (each no longer than arm length.)

I stuck the end onto the back of one of the hearts using sellotape and then demonstrated how to push the yarn through the middle, then around the outside and back, wrapping it around the border tightly. Cakie picked up the idea much more quickly than I imagined and I left her to do it her own way, wrapping some  widely and at an angle, leaving spaces and sometimes even loose. We were not aiming for a “cookie-cutter” result, but a process-driven art activity (as with most of our art ideas!)

I helped her by taping down the ends as she reached them, then she chose which colour to work with next. I also helped her finish them off each time that she wanted to move onto the next heart (she wanted to do about half of each and every one, but they required some patience and she did ask me to help in the end!)

When they were finished I trimmed off any loose ends, lay them over a long piece of yarn and stuck them down firmly with tape.

They are then easy to hang up at the window (or from the ceiling if you have a hook at the ready!)

Simple but very pretty and effective and perfect as a decoration for Valentine’s Day (or for any time of year!)

Learning Links:
creativity: experiment with a range of materials and dimensions, weaving and sewing, creating with recycled materials
physical: hand-eye co-ordination skills, fine motor skills, pincer grasp
phse: concentrate on a project for extended periods of time, complete a self-intiated project, work collaboratively, be proud of own achievements

Comments

  1. Amanda says

    You always have the best ideas for things to do with my 2 year old, whenever I need an idea for something to do I first check here! We are going to try making these today. (It is our rainy day project today) Thank you for posting all these awesome projects.

  3. Ali says

    Your woven hearts are really lovely. I am pinning this and definitely going to set it up for my daughter – she will love it.