Butterfly, Butterfly by Peter Horacek is one of Summer and Emma’s favorite books. It’s a book about color, insects and nature with a surprise pop-up in the end. No wonder they love it so much!
So when I was coming up with ideas for their next craft project, I thought this vibrant book would be a great inspiration.
We made a mobile filled with many different ornaments to hang by their bedroom window, so I decided to call it window charms.
Materials needed are the following: dried branch, poster paint, cardboard, beads, yarn, assorted ribbon and string, scissors, single hole puncher
1. Get hold of a branch, approximately one foot long and thick enough to hold things up. Paint it white or any color you like.
2. Prepare your trinkets. Decide on what charms you want to hang on your mobile and make them first. I wanted ours to have handpainted shapes so I cut out cardboard leaves, butterflies and circles which I had Summer and Emma paint using colors that are prominent in the book.
I also wanted to include yarn pom poms because they’re just so irresistibly cute, so I made some in advance. If you like to learn how to make these, just watch this five minute tutorial on YouTube.
3. Once all your charms are ready, string them together. Punch holes on your cardboard shapes so you can easily attach them to the string. Make several in different lengths and combinations. Summer particularly enjoyed stringing the beads. I had to exclude Emma from this part, though, because she’s a little too young to handle small beads.
4. Tie the stringed ornaments onto the wood in the order you desire. You may also add more ribbon.
5. Once you’ve filled the wooden branch and you’re happy with it, tie a string on both ends and hang it by the window.
It looks really lovely when the wind blows on it. The charms turn and the ribbons flutter. The girls’ window is just beside their bed so they like to look at it and watch it move while lying down.
It’s also a great way to decorate an otherwise plain and boring window. You can even attach small bells, plastic or metal objects so they make a little noise, like a wind chime.
Why not try making window charms with your kids this weekend!
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