Marvelous Matchsticks

These wooden sticks were part of our childhood collection of crafting materials that my mother passed along to the kids and they were keen to try painting them, coming up with a few designs.

Materials

• Wooden matchsticks (without the match heads, these are purchased at craft stores)
• Paint
• Brushes
• Craft glue
• Cardstock (we used black, but any colour can work, just a thicker style of paper)
• Any other items you would like to add (for instance, our daughter wanted to use reinforcements)

• Craft tray
• Smock

Directions

• Don your smock.

• Lay your matchsticks on your craft tray and paint them.

• Allow to dry overnight.

• Remove them from the craft tray (we found a metal flipper made this process speedy) and carefully separate them. (To easily clean your craft tray, depending on the type of paint you used- soak it and scrub it with a S.O.S. pad made of steel wool, discarding the pad after.)

• Glue your sticks down to your cardstock, using your craft glue.  For younger children, you could glue your sticks into the glue you put on the paper.  For older children, putting the glue onto the stick itself works well in minimizing any glue marks.  If you are comfortable with it, you could also use a glue gun with supervision, based on your age and abilities.

• Our daughter wanted to make a “pattern”- this style of design would be great for learning about symmetry.  As seen as the end of the post, you could do realistic images or more abstract arrangements.

• Allow to dry overnight and display your work!  (This would be a perfect way to re-use a frame where the glass has been chipped, broken etc. and therefore removed.)

Purpose

• Using different materials to create images

Safety Notes

• Small items such as matchsticks could be a choking hazard, therefore be sure to keep them out the reach of children ages 0-3 years or those that tend to put things in their mouths.
• Wear a smock and use a craft tray to protect your clothing and work surfaces.