Monday, June 7, 2010

Reusable Count-down Chain



My 5-year-old loves to make count-down chains.  Truth be told, I really like them too.  However, when school ended and he wanted to make one for our vacation to Alaska later this summer I thought to myself, "That is going to take a lot of paper."  Paper that will be thrown away.  And then we'll have to make another one the next time there is something to count down.  So I came up with a really simple, re-usable "paper" chain.

Supplies:
felt . . . how much depends on how many rings you plan on making
Velcro coins . . .we used these and found them at Walmart


First, my son and I picked out the colors we wanted for our chain.  We used a random hodge podge of colors but I thought it would be fun to do a red, yellow, and blue one as well.

I decided that I wanted my strips to be 1 1/4 inches wide so I measured and cut... and then used that as my guide for the rest.  I wasn't really concerned about precision--just as long as they were close.  Next, I stuck my Velcro to the correct sides.  If you really wanted to make it secure you could go ahead and sew them as well.  To me it just wasn't worth the time.  (As long as you hold on to one side of the Velcro while you are taking them apart then they should stay secure.)

And finally, because I know myself and wouldn't want certain colors next to or too close to each other, I had my son hand the strips to me at random so I could link them.




Today we hung them in the kitchen . . . let the count-down begin!

4 comments:

  1. You also find coins and the velcro tape stuff at:

    http://www.itapestore.com/velcrocoinscirclesdotsvelcoins.aspx

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  2. so so cute I love it.

    I need your help ladies. I am working on a button for my crafty blog and I can't seem to figure out how to add the scroll box so people can grab it. Can you help me?

    My blog isn't up and going yet but if you want to check it out it is www.creativecomrades.blogspot.com

    I plan to feature your blog first since it is the reason I got started. I'll let you know when that happens.

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