Crafting with children

If you are a crafter, you are probably a hoarder. It's impossible to throw away that sheet of stickers with only one left on it, the few elements of a kit that aren't enough to make anything with, a scrap of ribbon too  short to tie in a bow.....  they all get jumbled together and end up getting in your way until in desperation you throw them all out. And a week later, wish you hadn't.

But if there are children around, these scraps become treasure! All you need for a great crafting session are your odds and ends, some plain paper, child friendly inks and/or felt tip pens and some child safe scissors and glue, probably all of which are lurking around your craft box already.

My granddaughter Lara is three years old and has loved  stamping ever since she was able to hold a small stanp in her tiny hands. She always chooses wood backed stamps, and always goes for the "grown up"designs of flowwers, leaves, butterflies and trees, and never  the cute animal and fairy stamps I have set aside for her. But as she is getting more capable with glue and scissors, she has started to love making collages, often making up stories about the various elements and colours as she goes along. She loves using my paper punches too, although she isn't strong enough to use them without help yeet.

Yesterday we were planning a trip to Legoland, but the dreadful weather made us decide to stay at home and do some crafting instead. Here are Lara's creations

And Lara was very proud to display her work on the fridge!