Books and Kids are nearly synonyms (except for these days with the gadgets) but those who love books really love books!

My niece who is 12 is very creative and artistic. I enjoy her company the most. Her curiosity has no limits. Recently I gifted her some amazing books for the new year. I planned on slipping these bookmarks into the books before wrapping as a surprise. Instead I decided to share this craft with her as she'd be more than happy to do it with me or even independently later.

Here we go. We sat together and while I guided her, she smartly took the lead and now has more ideas for this 'Craft for kids' contests.

Hang on tight with us and as we jointly work on this project. Hope you love the fun!

Supplies

1) Plastic canvas

2) Yarn (red, white, blue, pink, yellow and green colors)

3) Needle

4) Scissors

Step 1: Pattern Design

In this step, I designed the patterns on paper for my niece's ease to follow.

Pattern 1 [Image 5]

Row 1 - 4 Horizontal lines, 4 vertical, 4 horizontal and so on and so forth

Row 2 - 4 Vertical lines 4 horizontal and so on and so forth

Row 3 - 4 Horizontal lines, 4 vertical, 4 horizontal and so on and so forth

Pattern 2 [Image 1]

Row 1 - VVV lines

Row 2 - VVV lines

Continued this all throughout

Additional patterns

Pattern 3 [Image 7]

Row 1 - Square

Row 2 - Square

Row nth - Square

Pattern 4 [Image 7]

Row 1 - Square

Row 2 - Square in the center of the above 2 squares

Row nth - Square

Step 2: Cutting the Canvas

In this step I cut the canvas with 12 holes in total to make up for these patterns.

Step 3: The Patriotic Bookmark

In this Blue, White and Red patriotic bookmark,

I let my niece pick the blue color yarn first and made

4 horizontal lines across the 4 dots/holes

Next 4 vertical lines

Next 4 horizontal lines

Next 4 vertical lines

Up until the end of the strip

Next I chose the white color yarn and made

Next 4 vertical lines

Next 4 horizontal lines

Next 4 vertical lines

Next 4 horizontal lines

Up until the end of the strip

Next I chose the red color yarn and made

4 horizontal lines

Next 4 vertical lines

Next 4 horizontal lines

Next 4 vertical lines

Up until the end of the strip

This completed the entire bookmark. She was elated.

The reverse looks like a neat digital pattern.

My niece found it very easy to do this entirely and now she's learnt this pattern hands-on.

Step 4: The Zig-Zag Pattern

In this pattern, the colors were red, pink, green, yellow, blue and white - Repeating after every 6 colors.

I asked my niece to choose the red color yarn and run it like a VV [image 2] and asked her to complete this with repeating the pattern after 6 rows in the same color.

Similar zig-zag patterns was repeated with the 6 colors.

The reverse of both the bookmarks looks amazing.

Finally, she was able to complete both these books within a couple of hours. I'm glad she enjoyed this simple creativity. Congratulations if you were able to do this just as my niece!