AnchorMommy

Easy craft: Winter Mitten Garland

December 9, 2010 by Shannon

Maybe it was all of the snow that we got last week, but I’ve been struck by an uncontrollable urge to craft, craft, craft. Most of the projects are kid-focused, like this easy winter mitten garland. Isn’t it cute?

It’s a really fun project that kids as young as two can do. And when you’re done, you end up with some really colorful, winter-themed decor. In fact, I think this might be a really nice project to save for after the holiday, when you need something to keep little hands busy. Plus, I’ve noticed that it’s kind of tough to find good winter-themed crafts that are not holiday related. This one is appropriate all winter long!

Winter Mitten Garland

What you need:

• Several sheets of construction paper
• Twine or yarn
• Hole punch
• Stickers, crayons, markers, paint, etc.

1. First, place your child’s hand on one of the pieces of construction paper. Make sure the child’s fingers are together and the thumb is spread out. Trace around the hand so you end up with a mitten shape. (Don’t trace individual fingers.)
2. Put the paper with the tracing on top of about 4 or 5 other pieces of colored construction paper. Cut out the mitten shape. Repeat, depending on how many mitten shapes you’d like to have your child decorate and/or how long you want your mitten garland to be. (NOTE: If you have more than one child, you could trace out everyone’s hand and have everyone make their own garland, or you could even trace parent hands to create a big family mitten garland.)
3. Let your child loose with markers, stickers, crayons or even glitter! Once the mittens are decorated, punch a hole along the wrist area of each mitten.
4. String the mittens on yarn or twine, about 4 inches apart. Hang, and enjoy!

I used twine (perhaps it’s a jute twine? I’m not sure) because it’s what I had around. It works great because it’s kind of rough and holds the mittens in place on the garland. Perhaps some yarns might allow the mittens to slide around, so if that’s what you’re going to use, you might want to test out your yarn with a few mittens once you get started. If you need to, you could tie knots to keep each mitten in place, but that’s a lot of work. Twine was definitely easy.

And that’s it! Kellan was totally absorbed in this project. And he was super proud of the results, which we hung in his bedroom window.