Velcro Stick Art

I mentioned a few weeks ago that for this past Christmas Benzo and I did a lot of DIY gifts for our kids.  One of them was velcro stick art.  We’ve been playing with it a lot lately so I thought I would share the project on the blog.  It is literally the EASIEST project ever.

I found the idea on Pinterest on the blog How Does She:

Stick Art Kit with Free Printables

You can probably guess how to put it together by the picture below.

All you need is BIG popsicle sticks, self-adhesive round velcro and something to put it all in.  I bought the zippered pouch below at the dollar store.  It works perfectly.

The stick art is a great quiet activity for little hands.  It is also a great opportunity to talk about shapes and letters as you try to build them out of the sticks.  And with lots of sticks you can build the more complicated shapes like hexagon and octagon and easily count the sides.  I think I made around 6-8 of each color.

I didn’t originally intend on getting the colored sticks but when I went to the craft store that was all they had.  I had my toddler with me and wasn’t about to make a second stop so colored sticks it was.  I ended up being really happy I made it with colored sticks because it gives you more opportunities to talk about colors in addition to shapes.  The other day while I was making dinner I asked my older son to make a purple house with a yellow roof.  The extra element of color captured his interest (instead of just “make a house”).  He also gets creative and makes “pizza” or really big, crazy shapes using all the sticks at once.  It’s fun to see what he comes up with that’s not on the cards.

I printed the printables front and back on white cardstock.  I meant to “laminate” them with clear contact paper so they would last longer, but I never got around to it.  I’m sure it won’t be long before they are destroyed and I will have to replace them with new prints.

Here are the sticks in action at a church service not long ago.  They did a decent job of keeping our kids busy and quiet!  The kit fits easily in the diaper bag.

Again this is the easiest DIY project you will ever do.  It takes literally 10 minutes to stick the velcro on the sticks and then print out the printable cards.  With the colored sticks I think this would make a great DIY gift for Easter baskets next month!

For the official instructions and the free printables (!) please see the following link:

Stick Art Kit with Free Printables

Thanks How Does She for such a great idea!