Homemade Winter Lacing Cards for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Lacing cards are a fun way for toddlers and preschoolers to develop fine motor skills. You can make your own lacing cards easily using a cereal box and a hole punch. Today I’ll show you how to make a snowflake lacing card, a winter hat lacing card and a mitten lacing card to accompany the winter-themed activities that you’re doing with your kids this month.

The hooligans have returned from their Christmas break, and we’re getting back into our groove here. We’ve spent the majority of the past two days playing, re-connecting and enjoying the snow that we finally got over the holidays!

I have lots of winter-themed activities planned for the kids this month. Today we kicked things off with some simple homemade winter lacing cards.

I loved lacing cards when I was a child, and I enjoy making them and changing them up seasonally for the hooligans. You can see some of them here:

• Valentine’s Lacing Cards
• Christmas Tree Lacing Cards
• Fall Leaf Lacing Cards

Today’s lacing cards are perfect for January and a preschool winter theme.

This is an easy project to prepare, and it doesn’t have to cost you a thing. We use cardboard from a cereal box to make our cards, and for some of them, we’ve added wallpaper samples for colour and texture.

Let me show you how I made them.

Homemade Winter Lacing Cards for Toddlers and Preschoolers

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Supplies:

• pencil & paper
• cardboard (a cereal box is great)
• wall paper samples or patterned paper
• glue stick
• hole-punch
• shoelace OR a *child’s sewing needle and a length of yarn

*instructions for making a very simple  child’s sewing needle can be found further down this page

How to make your lacing cards:

Draw your template

Choose a shape for your lacing card and draw it on a piece of paper and cut it out.

I drew the mitt and the winter hat free-hand, but I used a simple template that I found online for the snowflake. You can find some good snowflake templates here.

Transfer your template to cardboard & cut out

Then trace the shape on your cardboard and cut that out.

If you’re using patterned/coloured paper:

If you’ll be covering your lacing card with patterned paper, swipe a glue stick over your shape, and glue it to the wrong side of the patterned paper.

Note: Wallpaper samples are an inexpensive alternative to using patterned scrapbook paper. Pop into your local paint and paper shop, and ask if they have any out-of-date wallpaper books that they’d be willing to part with. The store in my town is always more than happy to give me theirs, and we use them for all kinds of projects.

Once you’ve glued your paper to the cardboard, trim away the excess.

Punch holes

Using a paper punch, punch holes all around the edges of your lacing card.

Add a shoelace or a plastic sewing needle and yarn

Your child can use a shoelace or a kid’s sewing needle and a length of yarn to do their lacing.

If using a shoelace, tie a knot in one end of the lace to prevent it from slipping through the holes when your child is lacing.

In the even that you don’t have a child’s sewing needle, you can make your own:

How to make a child’s sewing needle from a drinking straw

Shorten a drinking straw, and cut a slit in one end.  Insert your yarn into the straw, secure it in the slit, and it’s ready to use.

If you use a plastic straw from a Rubbermaid brand re-usable sippy cup, the sewing needle will last forever!

That’s all there is to it! These winter lacing cards will keep your kids busy and entertained, and help them develop their fine-motor and early sewing skills this winter.

More Winter Crafts and Activities for Kids:

• Build a Snowman Activity Tray
• Building Snowflakes on a Mirror
• Diamond Dig – Snow Sensory Bin 
• Doily Snowflakes
• Beaded Snowflake Craft

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Jackie Currie

Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.