I love teaching kids felt crafts as they are so enthusiastic. Kids get so much pleasure seeing something being created from soft and fluffy wool into a finished piece of felt. Teaching kids felt crafts is easy to do and you can pass on the enjoyment of felt making.
I have taught children in schools and in after school clubs, ages ranging from kindergarten to teenagers and with kids felt crafts you can improve children’s fine motor skills.
ArtFelt has designed many simple to use kits, including a mouse kit which is based on a project I regularly did in class. I get great feedback from children and adults that make them with me. The mouse kit is ideal for children aged 8 upwards
The rainbow friendship bangle is something I have done in school with 5 year-olds
Start by watching my mouse kit tutorial, you don’t have to watch the whole thing the bit you need to focus on is in the first part where I demonstrate how to make a multi-coloured mouse tail.
More details: https://artfelt.co.uk/video/mouse-family-kit-tutorial/
You will need:
- 3 grams white merino fine fleece
- Very small amounts of coloured merino fleece
Equipment:
- Bubble wrap (small bubbles)
- Grated soap I use pure olive oil soap
- A bottle with a nozzle
Method:
Dilute about 1 teaspoon of soap with very hot water, put in bottle
Divide the white fleece in 1 long thin strand, a bit thicker than a pencil
Form a circle see photo. As a guide for the right size, wrap it around the child’s fist.
Roll it a bit between your fingers, place three bits of fleece at about 1/3 of the way round yellow, red and blue roll them in just like I demonstrate in the mouse video. Its surprising how good quite small children can get at wrapping the coloured fleece. You will have to remind them to keep the coloured fleece very thin and small.
- Cover the whole friendship bangle with as many bits of coloured fleece
- Saturate with soapy water
- Place on bubble wrap
- Pat and pinch the bangle for a few minutes
- As the bangle gets stronger, rub and roll on the bubble wrap
- Play around with the bangle – you can be quite firm.
- Rub it between your hands screw it up into a ball and then throw (the children love this bit) on to the bubble wrap.
- Photo below shows before and after felting with soap and water.
Kids felt crafts tip: use the soap to make your hands super soapy this will stop the fibres lifting.
- Finally keep manipulating the bangle by stretching and rubbing, ideally the bangle should feel nice and strong almost like leather.
- Rinse out the soap, shape and put to dry
You can now enjoy kids felt crafts. Well done on your finished bangle – wear it with pride
Other kids felt crafts that are ideal to share with children is the Artfelt elephant picture kit. I have 2 versions of this kit, one with pink elephants. The other has grey elephants that can be personalised with a child’s name. Both kits are fun and playful I show you how to make the elephants ears flap!
More details: https://artfelt.co.uk/video/elephant-picture-kit-tutorial/
Another frequently requested kids felt craft is the heart kit it is very popular with teenagers.
More details: https://artfelt.co.uk/video/4-heart-felt-kit-tutorial/
Andrea Coleman of Artfelt
