DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Ladybug Bean Bag
The project requires either sewing or hot glue skills. A child of age 7
or so could do the project with adult supervision. Younger children can
help stuff the project and would love to receive it as a gift from an older
sibling, parent or grandparent.
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You could put in stuffing instead of rice to make this more of a "pillow
ladybug" than a beanbag.
There is a choice between a small bean bag (regular sized beanbag) and an
extra large beanbag (basically the size of a full sheet of paper).
This is a terrific first sewing project for children. If using it as
such, I recommend having the children sew the body pieces together using a
running stitch or a blanket stitch and then glue the remaining pieces
together. I would fill with pillow stuffing instead of rice ... stuffing
won't leak out as easily if the child didn't keep their stitches tight enough.
Susan adds: for the lady bug bean bag craft, I wanted to use it for younger children while still retaining the use of the different texture. I did two versions. For one I used the
templates in felt but only one side with the small version and I made it smaller on the photocopier. Then we cut out the pieces in felt and glued them on to
popsicle sticks and made finger puppets. For the second version I used foam pieces and we did the same thing and glued them onto
popsicle sticks
Materials:
 | Print out the template (see bottom of this page)
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| Cut out the template pieces
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| Scotch tape the ladybug body template to one of the pieces of black felt.
 | Cut the shape from the felt |
| I scotch tape templates onto felt instead of pinning them as I find it
easier... it doesn't "buckle" as much. It's very easy to
just pull any tape off the felt after cutting |
| Make sure you scotch tape liberally!
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| Repeat with the second piece of felt.
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| Scotch tape the wing to the red felt and cut out. Repeat a second
time
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| Scotch tape the circle to the leftover black felt and cut out the
circle... you can make 2 to 6 circles, depending on how many spots you want
on your ladybug.
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| put the two body pieces together and hot glue
them, leaving a space at the top to add rice or stuffing.
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| If you're hot gluing, do a 2 to 4 inch section at a time (so the
glue doesn't harden on you).
| The less experienced you are with hot glue, the shorter the
section should be. |
| I usually have my daughter use a popsicle stick to press
pieces together without getting any of the heated glue on her
skin... I just use my fingers. |
| My 9 year old daughter has been able to use my "low temp
craft glue gun" with supervision for a couple of years.
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| Fill with rice or small beans (a funnel or a home made funnel made of
paper will help with the pouring). Sew or glue the hole shut.
| NOTE: I usually put 4 or 5 cotton balls in before I add the
rice... this keeps the bean bags from being too heavy.
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