From the very first stick men drawings of mummy and daddy to the more sophisticated artworks produced in school art lessons, getting creative plays a very important part in any child’s development. But have you considered the stapler as a creative tool?
The humble stapler is historically an organisational tool used to join together pieces of paper. However, it can also be used by children to express their creativity and individuality. Here are six ways to get your child stapling away.
1. Make pouches
Kids love arts and crafts and one way a stapler can be brought into this is to make simple personalised paper pouches. The pouches could hold anything from money to items for school, or even some other paper creations. So, for example, your child could draw a dog on the pouch and inside there could be drawings of the dog’s toys in the pouch or even a pretend lead and collar.
2. Simple shapes
Staples can be used to create simple shapes like faces with eyes, a nose and a mouth or creatures that are long and thin with lots of little legs, such as caterpillars. To make this easier, a long-arm stapler is best because it will mean that it’s possible to staple right at the centre of a piece of paper.
3. Flowers and feathers
As confidence grows, it’s time to move on to more complex art for kids. Shapes such as flowers and feathers can be the next step, and are a great way for children to get used to creating simple and symmetrical patterns that can become more detailed as their stapling skills develop.
4. Write words or captions
Of course, this kind of art can go beyond pictures to help with literacy too. A little experimentation will mean your child will soon be able to create an alphabet using staples so they might also want to incorporate words into their designs or write the title of the picture on it too.
5. Re-create other works of art
Once they’re becoming true masters of the stapler, it’s a fun project to try to recreate a famous image or picture. Start with a Van Gogh still life of sunflowers before moving on to more complicated images. Then you could even frame your child’s creation, or stick it on the wall using a staple gun! Remember, you’ll also need to have a big supply of staples for this kind of work to truly create a masterpiece.
6. Mixing up the medium
Your child can create fantastic effects by using paint or pens on an image and then embellishing the image with staples.
Of all the arts and crafts ideas out there, stapling is one that is suitable for virtually any age and will really push their creativity and inventiveness.
