Our winter has been nuts this year. We made it through November, December, and January with almost no snow at all, and then had two consecutive February storms that each dumped a foot of snow on us. That meant a whole lotta snow days right in a row. By the end of those weeks, my kids and I were officially stir crazy. I sure could have used this duct tape and paperclip necklace idea then. This craft is fun enough to be kid-friendly, and quiet enough to be mom-approved!
I am joining up with Carolina from 30 Minute Crafts and Angie from The Country Chic Cottage and guest host, Stacey from Glued to My Crafts, for another round of Craft Lightning. This month they challenged us to create a kids craft that could be made in less than 15 minutes. Many kids are coming up on some kind of Spring Break, so these projects could be a sanity saver if they are stuck indoors!
All you really need to make these fun chains are paper clips and duct tape. I will include a supply list at the end of this post if you are interested.
I like to be able to leave the project supplies with my kids and walk away from them while they are working, but little hands sometimes have trouble ripping duct tape. Thankfully, I found a simple solution to this problem. I took a craft knife and cut small notches all the way around one side of the roll of duct tape. This made a handy starter tear (sort like you find on packages of fruit snacks) at regular intervals all along the roll of tape. This not only makes it easy for the kids to rip the tape themselves, but it makes sure the pieces of tape are all about the same size.
I showed my daughter how to link the paperclips together, and she took off from there. Obviously, you can use any kind of paper clips, but she really liked being able to create patterns with the colored paper clips.
Once each paper clip was added to the chain, she would wrap that clip in duct tape. This gave each clip the appearance of being a “bead” on the necklace and kept the clips from detaching from the chain.
Even though this is a quick craft, it can easily translate into a project that will keep your kids busy on a day off of school. My daughter spent a quiet hour working on a few necklaces and bracelets for family members, which allowed me to get a bit of work done around the house!
Be sure to visit Glued to My Crafts, 30 Minute Crafts, and The Country Chic Cottage to see all the quick, kids’ crafts that are shared this week.
I found this colorful duct tape at Dollar Tree, but you can use any duct tape that strikes your fancy. I included a few of my favorite styles in the materials list below. These are affiliate links, so if you make a purchase (of anything on Amazon, not just these items) after clicking through, I will earn a small commission. Ads and affiliate links are the way I am able to keep this website running and to offer you free tutorials all year long. Thank you so much for supporting me and Mad in Crafts!
For more kid-friendly projects, check out these posts:
MAKE A MOD PODGE WINDOW MOSAIC
This is great Jess! Thanks for joining!
These are so much fun! I love how colorful they are!
Okay, you know I would wear that myself, right? Adorable craft and love your little bitty demonstrator!