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How adorable are these little yarn tassel doll charms? They were actually inspired by our yarn ghost charms that we made. I noticed how much the tassels looked like dresses and out sprung the idea for this little craft. My son has really enjoyed making these to gift to his nan and aunties, he found them a bit tricky at the start but soon picked it up. He’s also made one to gift to his cousin to go on her school bag – such a cute idea!
(small objects can be choking hazards, this activity is best suited to older children and children should be supervised at all times)
How to make a tassel doll keyring
First you’ll need to cut out a rectangle from your cardboard, it doesn’t need to be anything fancy – you can see here that were using a battered up piece of cereal box! You’ll need to make sure the height of the rectangle matches the length you want your tassel to be.
Starting at the bottom side, take your yarn and begin wrapping it around your cardboard. Make sure it’s secure but not so tight that it buckles your cardboard. Continue wrapping it around and then once you have reached your desired thickness cut it off at the bottom side where you first started.
Cut off a length of yarn and fold it in half. Then, tie a loop at the centre fold.
Using the two loose ends, tie your loop tightly around the centre of your yarn.
Slip your yarn off of your cardboard. Turn it inside out so that the loop is outside and on top as you can see above.
Place your scissors through the loops and then gently snip them open. I find that the best way to ensure that the ends are snipped evenly is to pull downwards as I snip to ensure I’m snipping the bottom center of each loop.
Now cut two lengths of yarn. Tie one just below the top of your tassel to create the dress shape and the other onto the loop just above your tassel to create arms.
Take your wooden bead and draw your dolls face on to it before threading it onto your loop. Finish off by adding a keying onto the top of your loop. Don’t these yarn tassel doll charms look adorable?
*please note this post may contain amazon affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase via any of the links provided i may make a commission. This comes at no extra cost to you and helps me keep this site up and running*
Here I am again with another puppet craft that we made to use with our cardboard puppet theatre! I absolutely love this one. My son decided he wanted to make this after reading the night pirates – a story about a little boy and a gang of rough, tough girl pirates. Both my son and I both found this one the most fun to make just because it was a bit different with plaiting the hair and adding some fun stripy decoration. Our cute wooden spoon girl pirate puppet makes the perfect addition to the crew of our pirate captain puppet!
Self adhesive felt(Felt and flet glue also works but we prefer to use self adhesive felt as it means my son can do the sticking rather than just watching me glue it – we just remove the backing paper from the parts we want to stick).
First take your lollipop stick and glue it centrally across the top of your wooden spoon neck to make the arms. Next, give your pirate some hair. To make our hair we glued wool scraps around the curve of the spoon head, then plaited each side before fastening with a coloured wool scrap.
Next give your puppet two eyes and a mouth. Cut out a bandanna and add some stripes to it before sticking it down on the top of your puppet’s head. Once you have done that, place your puppet on the back of your felt and draw her shirt shape around her before cutting it out. Remember, your shirt will need to be wider in all places than your puppet.
To save felt you could just stick one shirt piece to the front of your puppet. However we’re planning on using our puppets long term so wanted to make them sturdy as possible. We drew around our shirt shape and cut out a second identical piece to make the back. If you decide to cut out a back piece too remember to draw around the dress with both felt sides facing outwards as they will be on the spoon, otherwise your pieces might not match up!
Once you’ve finished cutting out your pirate shirt, add some stripes to your front one so it matches your pirate bandanna. To attach your shirt to your puppet lightly stick one to the front of your wooden spoon handle and one to the back of it. Then, pinch the two together so that they meet and secure in the middle.
Repeat the same process to give your tough girl pirate some black pirate trousers. Then, cut out a white sword blade and a black hilt and stick them down in place together on one of your lollipop stick hands. You’ll notice my little lad also made some snips to the pirate’s trousers too – apparently it makes them more pirate-y!
