My youngest son has taken a liking to necklace-making (and wearing) as of late. We seem to have an endless supply of magazines, so I came up with this idea to keep my kids busy and to make use of those old magazines.

ADVERTISEMENT

To get started, you will need:
Flower paper punch
Small (1/8″ – 1/16″) hole punch
Embroidery needle
Colored straws (we used about five yellow ones for our necklace)
A few magazines
String
Tape

Step 1: Let your kids tear out magazine pages filled with colors. Try to get all the colors of the rainbow. Once torn out, arrange by hue. This is a great exercise in sorting and identifying color.

Step 2: Punch out flower shapes. The flower punch can be a little tricky, so my kids needed my help with this part.

Step 3: Punch out holes from center of each flower.

Step 4: Cut a length of string about 25-28 inches long. Knot or attach a piece of tape to one end. Thread the other end of the string through the eye of an embroidery needle and tie securely.

Step 5: Cut straw into 1-1 1/2″ long pieces.

Step 6: Place two flowers of the same color back-to-back (with the common color facing outwards). Thread onto string. Then thread a piece of straw. Then thread another set of two flowers that are in the same color family. Repeat with the rest of the flowers, progressing with each color in the rainbow.

Step 7: When finished, tie off the string. You may want to have the back of the necklace (the part that drapes around your child’s neck) without any flowers — the paper bothered my son who can easily get irritated!