Backseat Craft Time

We have all heard of backseat drivers, but how about backseat crafters?  I wanted to find something fun and creative for the kids to do on the drive, but it also needed to be something that didn’t make a mess and that they could do with only minimal parental assistance.

Burlap Sewing

What you need:

• Plastic embroidery hoop
• Burlap in various colors
• Dull plastic needles
• Crochet Thread

This was super easy to put together and on the trial run, I could tell that The Boy Child was really enjoying it.  He wanted more thread when he ran out.

Burlap is fairly cheap and I picked out 3 different colors and bought a quarter yard of each.  I got about 5 squares from each color.  I also bought a plastic embroidery hoop that is a 10 inch diameter.  In retrospect, I may have gone even a little smaller on the hoop size.  When looking for needles, look near the plastic canvas for the very large plastic ones.  I found the biggest dullest needle I could to make sure there is the least chance for accidents and/or injury.  I got a rainbow spool of crochet thread because I didn’t want to take more than one and still wanted it to be colorful.

Everything folded down nicely into baggies and now that is in the travel bag and ready for our trip.  A couple tips for when it is time for the kids to actually do this craft.  Make sure you have a small pair of scissors you can keep in your glove box or somewhere else safe in the car so you can cut the thread when you need it.  Also, if you double the thread on the needle and then knot it together, you won’t find yourself re-threading the needle 15 times.  This may not be an issue with older kids, but The Boy Child kept pulling the needle off the thread until I figured this out.

Foam Sticker Cards

What you need:

• Foam sheets
• Foam stickers
• Markers

This one is even easier.  I found a large pack of foam rectangles at Walmart for really cheap (I have also seen them at various dollar stores) then I went to Michael’s craft store and found some foam stickers that were on sale.

I cut some of the rectangles in half and left some bigger.  I put them in baggies, emptied all the foam stickers into one baggie, threw some markers in with the other coloring supplies and I was done.

 I just have to make sure to take along an extra trash sack that they can throw the back of the stickers into as they are peeling them off.  Nothing fancy, but hopefully effective.

Pipe Cleaner Crafting

What you need:

• Pipe cleaners
• Crystal Light container or some other kind of plastic container with a lid

Ease and affordability was the rule of the day and this craft is the easiest and cheapest of the three.  I bought three bags of pipe cleaners at the dollar store, brought them home, and then divided them into 2 piles.  I then cut them in half so they would better fit into my container.  I took a Crystal Light plactic container that I around the house and stuffed the pipe cleaners down inside of it.  Put on the lid, throw it in the take along bag and you are ready to go.

I thought about making some shapes on my own, taking pictures of them, and printing them off on a sheet as something he could try to copy, but I eventually decided against this.  The Boy Child (and I think little kids in general) can get frustrated when they can’t do something as good as an adult.  If he feels he can’t get it right, he just hands it to me and asks me to do it for him.  I didn’t want frustration or to end up doing it myself, so I left it more open ended.  And the possibilities really do seem endless.  They can make shapes or objects.  They can practice making letters.  They can have a pipe cleaner fashion show for jewelry they have made with them.  They can build props to use with other toys.  Whatever their imaginations can think of.

So there are some backseat craft ideas for you.  Nothing too complicated, but still fun and creative and a way to get them off the electronic devices for a while.

Happy Travels!

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