A Couple of Crafts to Make for Your Infant

At this point, he just rolls around, crawls, and coos. He is too wiggly to do many art projects with. However, you can take advantage of those few moments of blessed peace that come during nap time to make some art projects yourself for your baby. These are actually projects that can be used and are inexpensive to make. Since nap times are never long enough to actually get anything completely finished, these projects may take a little while to make. In the end, they are worth the ten to twenty minutes you get to spend on them a few times a week.

The Squid

My daughter loves to chew on strings and straps. My hooded sweatshirt strings are a particular favorite. I got tired of her eating my clothes all the time. I had some scrap fabric and yarn lying around that quickly got made into a toy full of strings that she can chew on all she wants.

Cut the fabric into 15 thin strips that are long enough to braid. Tie knots in one end of three pieces of fabric. Repeat to make two more. Braid each of the three knotted fabric pieces, and secure with another knot at the end. That makes 3 braided fabric strings, and it leaves six pieces of fabric.

Tie a knot at the end of three pieces of yarn six or seven inches long. Braid the pieces of yarn together, and secure with a knot at the bottom. Repeat this process to make two more yarn braids.

Tie a piece of braided yarn and two pieces of fabric into a knot at the end. Braid the yarn and the fabric together. Tie a knot at the bottom. It is okay if the yarn or fabric sticks out at the bottom some. Do this twice more to make two more yarn and fabric braids.

Line all of the strands and braids up in one hand evenly, with the knots next to each other. Wrap yarn around the knots tightly with the other hand. Wrap it until it forms a small ball at the top of the strands and braids. Tie it off tightly with no loose strands that could choke your baby.

Placemat

9 x 16 inch construction paper, scissors, and clear contact paper are the essential materials needed to make a simple place mat. This will be handy when the kiddo starts to actually eat at the table.

I chose to make my daughter's placemat by coloring pictures of the globe and numbers in Spanish I printed off the Internet. I also added words in different languages that mean "Hello."

Choose any theme you want to use to decorate your place mat. Some ideas are to cut out different shapes in various colors from some construction paper, use scrap booking scissors with fancy edges to decorate the edges of some squares, write the alphabet or your child's name on the placemat, or put family pictures on it.

Cut two pieces of clear contact paper just big enough to provide a little overlap over the edges of the 9 x 16 inch construction paper. Peel the backing off of the contact paper pieces. Place the two pieces of contact paper sticky side up on a hard, flat surface. Put your placemat decorations on each of the two pieces of contact paper. Ensure that you put the sides of the decorations you want to be face up on the placemat face down when you put them on the contact paper. Keep your decorations within the 9 x 16 inch construction paper size.

Put a piece of construction paper on the sticky side of each piece of contact paper. Bond the construction paper and contact paper together by rubbing across the construction paper hard. So you have two pieces of decorated construction paper with clear contact paper on top.

Put the two pieces of construction paper back to back, with the sticky sides of the contact paper facing each other. Smooth out the edges, and ensure that there is a good seal around the edges of the construction paper. Press hard all over the construction paper on both sides to ensure the contact paper and the construction paper have bonded well. Trim the edges of the construction paper with a pair of scissors.

When your kiddo wakes up from his nap and wants to eat your hair or chew on your purse strap, hand him the squid. When he is ready to throw spaghetti from one side of the room to the other from a booster chair at the table, he can do so with his plate on his placemat.