We have made a couple of Lion crafts over the last few years. The first was when we painted a paper plate and then attached strips of yellow and orange paper hair (picture in the middle in the above panel). Cutting the strips of paper to attach as the hair was a great way to practice scissor skills! We also rolled the paper around a pencil to curl it – another fun way to strengthen little fingers and develop fine motor skills.
Next, we gave the adorable lions that we had made a hair cut to practice our scissor skills some more (right picture above). We started by cutting off the curls with scissors and then snipping a fringe pattern around the plate. It’s a little hard to see – you may need to zoom in.
And then just yesterday we made these Lacing Lions (pictured on the left)! This activity is a great way to practice fine motor skills and pincer grip, and to introduce some easy sewing techniques.
These lacing lions are so easy to put together. They are made from a piece of recycled card, and the really neat thing is that once you have made the lion, you can lace the yarn over and over again.
Keep reading to see how we made these Lacing Lions!
This is what you will need:
- A piece of recycled card
- Yellow paint (I used acrylic paint)
- Paintbrush
- Pencil
- Black marker pen
- Bamboo skewer
- Orange or yellow yarn
- Plastic sewing needle
This is what you will need to do:
1. Trace a circle in the middle of your card with pencil. You might like to trace a small plate or bowl to get a nice even circle shape. Once you are happy with your circle shape, paint it yellow and add some ears. Allow the paint to dry completely.
2. Next, take your bamboo skewer and press holes around the edge of the circle. Remember that the bamboo skewers are sharp. An adult will need to do this step.
3. Trace a second larger circle around your painted circle with pencil.
4. Take your bamboo skewer again and very carefully press holes through the card along the second pencil line. The trick with this step is to make sure that you match the holes up with those on the smaller circles so that they are in pairs. (remember that the bamboo skewers are sharp. Please use them carefully!).
5. Decorate the face of your lion. We drew eyes, a nose and mouth with black marker pen and then used a little bit of water colour paint to give red, rosy cheeks.
6. Start lacing! To do this, thread some orange yarn onto a plastic needle and start pushing the needle through the holes in the card.
7. At this point, I felt as though our lion looked a little bit more like a sun than a lion! ha ha!
8. So I used the bamboo skewer to add more holes around the edge of the lion and we added more layers of yarn.
This is how the finished lion looked!
Here is a quick video of how we made these Lions.
Thank you so much for reading all the way down to the end of this article. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Jacinta Xx
And here is a free lion template for you to practice your fine motor and scissor skills!
cintaandco.com 