Gimp Plastic Lacing Projects for Kids

Many of us remember Gimp or Plastic lacing projects from summer camp and craft projects done as children. Gimp is a great fine motor project for children. It also has a practical applications that can later be applied to teaching knots. I suprised more than a few people during my camping experiences with my ability to learn knot tying. I didn't have the heart to tell them it came from years of working with summer camp students tying and fixing gimp projects.

Stitches:

Barrel Stitch

Basic Stitches with Pictures and Explanations

Box Stitch

Box Stitch with Great Pictures

Butterfly Stitch Directions with Pictures

Diamond/Spiral Stitch

Finishing Stitches

Pictures of the Stitches

Scoubidou Stiches and Projects

Starter Stitches

Starting the Project on a Keychain



Projects:

Boondoggle Projects

Gimp Barrette

Making Friends

Making Friends Lanyard First Aid Kits

Making Friends Key Ring

Spiral Keychain



Picture Credits: jc.westbrook flickr.com

Make Friendship Bracelets

Friendship bracelets have been a favorite craft for kids for some time. The craft is also valuable for teaching fine motor skills, math skills, and language arts skills as well. Children involved in arts and crafts be shown how to use these same skills to make progress across the curriculum.

Friendship bracelets can be made from a variety of different materials. They are often accented with letter or other beads to personalize and decorate. Learning how to create these bracelets and making them is a way to increase fine motor skills for all children. The skills involved with reading and following directions, sketching, planning, and designing patterns that are more complicated involves language arts and math skills. It is important to teach children the math and language vocabulary without ruining the fun of the activity involved.

Resources for Making Your Own:

Beaded Friendship Bracelets Hands on Crafts for Kids

Beaded Friendship Bracelet Kaboose

BillyBear4Kids Friendship Bracelet Directions

BillyBear4Kids Friendship Bracelet Directions for Adding Letters

Cross Knot Friendship Bracelet

Floss Friendship Bracelet

DIY Friendship Bracelet

DLTK Basic Friendship Bracelets Directions

Family Fun Friendship Bracelets

Friendship Bracelet Instructions

Heather's Friendship Bracelet Directions

Kaboose Easy Braided Friendship Bracelet

Making Friends Chunky Friendship Bracelet

Making Friends Daisy Bracelet

Making Friends Diagonal Friendship Bracelet

Zoom Friendship Bracelets

Picture Credits miahalf0 flickr.com

Clothespins Craft and Learning Experience

The old fashioned clothespins, those without springs, have long been utilized for doll making. With the head, body and legs provided, children and adults merely had to provide arms, and clothing to have a toy ready to play. Modern crafters have created even more amazing dolls but children are still making the basic dolls to enjoy. These dolls become the characters of stories, move in to child created doll homes, and head off on child created adventures of all kinds.

Doll materials are easy enough to acquire. Craft stores, dollar stores, and even some department stores carry the old fashioned clothespins. The basic decorative aspects can come from many scraps and materials already found in the house. For those who want to purchase supplies and create more specific dolls the materials are readily available. I have included links and will be adding more as I find them on creative ways to make the dolls and to utilize them in fun play and learning situations.

About.Com Making Clothespin Dolls

Baby Clothespin Doll

Clothespin Bed

Clothespin Puppets

Cowboys and Other Professionals

Essortment Clothespin Dolls

Going Sew Crazy Clothespin Dolls

Halloween Clothespin Dolls

Instructables Clothespin Dolls

Kid's Birthday Party Clothespin Dolls

Kokeshi Doll

Pilgrim Clothespin Directions

Snowman

This Little Project

Raggedy Ann Clothespin Doll Directions

Toy Soldier AllFree Crafts

Toy Soldier

Picture Credits: purejuice2 flickr.com Eric Kilby flickr.com