Yarn Puff Monsters

The Making of Yarn Puff Monsters    

     First of all, this is not an original idea. I find many, if not most of my inspiration from other bloggers and pins on Pinterest. However, the sky is the limit when it comes to tweaking an inspired idea to make it one of a kind. And kids are all unique, so having each child add their personal sense of style and flair makes their creations diverse and original.

   
     These adorable creatures are super easy for kids to "help" create. While a grown up will have to help with scissors, the kids get to be creative with colors and it's a useful counting tool. Start by letting the kids pick the colors the of yarn, antenna, and googly eyes. Then using a pre-cut cardboard wheel, have the kids wrap the yarn around and around while they count out loud. My kids can count to 20 on their own, so I had them count to 20 and helped them continue to count to 30 to push them to the next level, and repeated our counting 2 or 3 times depending on the thickness of the yarn they chose.

     I did not have to purchase anything for this project because the items are supplies I always have in my crafting medium. All that is required is yarn, pipe cleaners, cardboard for your wrapping wheel, googly eyes, and glue. I used a hot glue gun so they projects would be slightly more durable and we didn't have a long wait time to get to play with them.

     After, you have wrapped the yarn around the wheel 60-90 times, the kids will need to pass the project to their grown-up helper to cut the yarn. It can require a little muscle to cut, and/or very sharp scissors. Then you can pull the warn away from the cardboard wrapping stencil, find the middle of the cut yarn and tie the bundle together with another strand of yarn.

     Then just let go or flip the yarn around for a bit to make it into the shape of a puff or ball. My kids wanted theirs to be a bit more shaggy, so we kept the yarn long and it took the shape of a mop end, instead of a ball. However, if you prefer a rounder shape you can use shorter lengths of yarn or you can double the number of times you wrap the yarn around the cardboard wheel.
   

Finally, you can pull the yarn back and wrap the pipe cleaner around tight to have it stick out as the antenna. Twist the pipe cleaner to have it stay firmly in place. I used the end of a BIC ink pen to coil the pipe cleaner into the antenna springs. The puff balls at the ends of the antenna were just an extra touch we wanted to add to ours. I placed a big drop of hot glue at the top of the spring and the kids carefully placed the puff ball on the glue. We also just dabbed two dots of glue on the yarn to stick the googly eyes in place. The kids have plastic tweezers that they used for this step so they wouldn't accidentally burn their finger tips on the glue. I did not get a photo of it, unfortunately, because my hands were busy trying to help my tots with this step.