Kid artwork soft toy/cushions.

I've been meaning to do this project for a while because we still have a load of spare bed sheet left over from the kiddy glue batik project. It was a disastrously rainy day today and we had 8 kids over, so this seemed like the perfect time. They all got pretty into this project, boys and girls equally. Age ranges were 2 to 6 years old, but I bet kids up to 8 or 9 would enjoy it too. Lots of pictures for this post, so be patient.

I taped some ripped up bed sheet onto cut up cardboard (that we have a never ending stash of courtesy of Costco raids) to make kind of easy to draw on canvases that wouldn't let the pens bleed through onto other stuff. The kids then drew whatever they felt like onto the sheets with permanent markers (coloured sharpies). The four and six year olds did a great job drawing dinosaurs, trains, robots and all sorts, and the two year olds just had at it with scribbly patterns and a couple of smiley faces.

In the photos you can only see five of the kids that were over, because by the time we had all 8, I no longer had a spare hand to take a photo, especially with magic markers in the equation. Surprisingly no one drew on anything or anyone they weren't supposed to, so that's a good day right there!
Once they had finished their drawing, they tore off the tape and fabric and I pinned the pictures to a yellow bed sheet and cut them out and hemmed them with the sewing machine, leaving a small gap to turn them inside out. The kids then filled the toys/cushions with stuffing (this took quite some time, because it was also very fun just to play with the mountains of fluffy stuffing).

Finally I hand sewed up the hole for them and they took their little creations home. My four year old daughter still has hers left to finish, because she wanted to cover the whole canvas in intricate robot flower type things. All in all we managed 9 of these little toys and the kids were quite proud of them. They should wash without fading too I would have thought. I think a few might be going to grandparents this Christmas. I just wish I had got a photo of the dinosaur one, because it rocked so hard!

If I can get some cheap white pillow cases from Goodwill then I'll let my girls do one of those each too at some point. Maybe I can get them to make their own Christmas stockings this way.