Feb 7, 2010

Toilet roll tube valentine's necklaces

I know, it sounds too glamourous to be true doesn't it!

When I had the idea, I wasn't sure if my girls at three and five were going to be able to do this without getting cross at the thread and beads being fiddly, but they actually did pretty darn well. My three year old had no desire to make her necklace symmetrical, but she still happily threaded all the beads herself. My five year old made lots of necklaces with different designs.

All you need is a toilet roll tube, some sissors and a hole punch to make the hearts. Start bysquashing the loo roll flat, then cutting it in cm wide sections.

Then reverse one of the creases on itself and bend it a bit to make the heart shape.

Hole punch where the string is going to be threaded through.

Give kids sloppy paint to coat the hearts in. I usually cover a baking tray with a sheet of tin foil with this sort of small paint project, because the kids then seem to try and keep the mess to the tray.


Once they are dry, you might need to reshape them a bit, but they will be fairly sturdy, and you can start threading them with beads.

We have a random assortment of beads from all over the place, so I just gave the kids some that were valentine colours and they set about threading them together.

I reckon this would keep girlies up to about eight or nine years old happy for quite a while. There are many many different combinations that you could come up with. Older kids might want to make the heart shapes themselves out of card, rather than cutting up toilet rolls.

If you put a couple of strategic snips in the cardboard hearts then you can make them interlock in different ways...

They are looking pretty all hung up in our kitchen at the moment, but will be making their way to Grandmas soon.

Their dad made them a present each last night that I think he'll probably put on his blog soon, and so he was awarded with a bogroll necklace of love. Pretty.

32 comments:

Sam said...

Those are gorgeous! I never would have know they were from toilet paper rolls. Thanks for sharing!

Kori said...

So, you are totally my hero! I love everything you do and you inspire me to be a more creative mommy! I saw this www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca|productSubCat~~p|2534374302101589~~f|/Assortments/Lakeshore/ShopByCategory/blockplaymanipulatives/viewall.jsp and was wondering how YOU would make these if you were gonna do them for your kids. I was thinking of using a foodsaver machine my parents have for the ink one, but didn't know what I would fill it with.

htebazile said...

these are beautiful!! You are soo creative! Thanks for sharing all your wonderful ideas with us :)

Amy's Stocking Stuffers said...

That is so clever! Love the recycling aspect. ;-)

maryanne @ mama smiles said...

Lovely =)

Sal-my-gal said...

Oh, yea! I've been looking for a Valentine craft that is not a card. Thank you!

Sheila said...

Beautiful! I'll recommned this to my friend who has girls. I have only boys. :(

M for Short said...

Wow! I love the simplicity of the materials, and the extraordinary
results. Very nice kid friendly project.

Mama to 5 said...

very cute idea! 1st time visiting your blog - I love it! I am going to sign up to follow you! :)

Karin said...

Great idea -- I love it. And nice tip about the tinfoil-covred baking sheets too.

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

Those are so cute! I love the different designs. Thanks so much, I'll be linking.

Melissa said...

OOo sloppy painting, my favourite. :) These are awesome. Also, you now have a new follower.

Amanda said...

That is one of the most creative things I have seen this month!! I love them!

Trish said...

I lovee this..can't wait for the roll to get over!Will link back,when we make these!

Zorica-Filzlaus said...

Loooovely:)
Very cute

Heather - Dollarstorecrafts.com said...

GREAT idea!! You always have the best ideas and projects.

Julianna said...

This is a wonderful idea! I'm going to try to make this for my little girl. Thanks for sharing!

Sheila said...

I was wondering what you used for the string. Thanks!

Lindsey said...

Kori: Those things look cool and the foodsaver idea is a really good one! I'd love to have a play with one of those. I've seen people on other kid craft blogs just use paint in a ziplock bag that's been reinforced with tape. They drew with cotton buds so as not to break the bag.

Sheila: I used some quite ancient (pre 1950s J&P Coats) cotton crochet thread that I found in a craft bag at a local thrift store. Crochet thread is nice for the kids to thread with, because it comes in bright colours and it doesn't ravel at the ends that much as they thread with it.

dongdong said...

Hi! Saw this at crafty crow. I love this! We also made this if you want to see it.

Lindsey said...

That's great! I clicked through your profile to see :) Love them!

I'll do another round up of people that have tried our crafts in the future, so I'll link to your heart necklaces when I do that.

Julianna said...

Check out my blog to see my attempt at this! I have a whole new respect for toliet paper rolls.

Cynthia Devening said...

I guess toilet paper heart love must be in the air. I just did a tut on my website for a heart wreath and then stumbled upon your post this morning. Those necklaces are too cute.

lili said...

Your blog is amazing! We try the necklaces yesterday with my children! They are beautiful and the kids were very happy. Thank you!
http://petit-papier-caillou-ciseaux.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post_5436.html

Anne said...

Thank you very much for this very good idea : my french pupils did it for their mothers this year !
Kids were very proud of their necklaces, and mothers were proud to wear the gift !

Rachel@AllFreeHolidayCrafts said...

This is such a great craft, I just had to link to it! You can see the link here:

http://www.allfreeholidaycrafts.com/Kids-Valentines-Crafts/Cardboard-Tube-Heart-Necklaces

Hope that's okay with you!
-Rachel
rbernstein@primecp.com

Anonymous said...

mandy
That looks so fun. I am going to do it with my friend today. Love it. So cute.

JILL S. said...

I make a few crafts with toilet paper rolls! This is fab!

Paru Mahtani said...

This a fantastic project!
Thanks so much for sharing!

Sarah Forhan said...

Love this! Great kids craft project. I added your link to our Crafters 4 Kids facebook page. I think our readers will really enjoy the link.

Tami said...

Just stopping by to let you know that I've featured your craft on Family Fun Crafts! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/cardboard-tube-valentine-necklace/


If you have other kid friendly crafts, I'd love it if you would submit them. :) If you would like to display a
featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above.

Carolyn @ Mama's Little Muse said...

What a cute idea!