Homemade Crayon Rubbing Cards

I use a lot of hot glue around here to, well, you know, glue stuff together, but you may have noticed that I have used hot glue for play too. Case in point: the invisible letters and numbers. Well, a long time ago (pre-blogging era), I made these DIY hot glue gun crayon rubbing cards for J.

We have only recently revisited them, which reminded me how awesome they really are.  They are simple to make and cost nearly nothing to make.  Plus, you could make any kind of design you want, making it easy to tailor to your child's interests.

So if you are looking for a simple busy bag idea for kids, then look no further than these homemade crayon rubbing cards.

How to Make Easy DIY Crayon Rubbing Cards for Kids Using Hot Glue

Here's what you'll need to make some homemade crayon rubbing cards using hot glue:

• Cardboard
• Pencil or marker
• Hot glue

To make the crayon rubbing cards, I cut some thick cardboard into very rough square shapes.  I say very rough because I have a tendency to eyeball instead of measure.  If you don't believe me, ask my husband about how I cook.

I then drew the designs I wanted onto the cardboard using pencil. 

My designs include a star, apple, flower, tree, smiley face, cat, swirl, and leaf.  But, like I mentioned previously, pick designs that appeal to your child.  

Once you have your designs drawn, follow your drawing with the hot glue.  Be sure to make it thick.  A small layer of hot glue will yield terrible crayon rubbings.  The more raised up the glue is, the better.

Here are the cards that I made.  As you can see, the boys have also colored on the cards themselves.  

Once the hot glue is dry, feel free to do some crayon rubbings. Simply place the cards underneath a sheet of paper and rub the crayons over the paper. It's a great fine motor activity for kids! Find more fine motor activities for kids in our fine motor activity books.

Toss some scrap paper, some crayons, and your homemade crayon rubbing cards into a sealable bag and take it with you on the go. So simple and frugal!

Other Ideas You'll Love

Fine Motor Mix & Match Animals Busy Bag

Pool Noodles & Rubber Bands Fine Motor Activity

No Sew Portable Road Play Set

This post is part of a series called the Busy Bag of the Month Series. Here are some other great busy bag ideas for kids.

Felt Haunted House Busy Bag from Toddler Approved

Pumpkin Felt Play from No Twiddle Twaddle

Cookie Math Play Dough Mat from Coffee Cups and Crayons

Halloween Math Busy Bag from The Educators' Spin on It

Halloween Busy Bag: Counting Ghosts

With Halloween approaching, I thought it would be the ideal time to come up with a Halloween inspired busy bag for kids. So get prepared to haunt some houses and count some ghosts!

Halloween Busy Bag Idea for Kids

I found some adorable ghost glass stones at Michaels a week or two ago so they were perfect for this busy bag.  However, you could easily substitute white or clear glass stones.  Just draw some faces on using permanent marker.  Or you could try using orange ones and make some Jack-o-Lanterns using a permanent marker.

To make the haunted house cards, you'll need some black construction paper and a white crayon.  I cut the black construction paper into quarters.  Then using a white crayon, I drew houses on the black paper.  I tried to make them look imperfect and funky.  Then each house was given a house number from 1-10.

The activity itself is pretty self-explanatory.  Count the number of ghosts needed to haunt each house.  And since counting was involved, J was happy to try out the busy bag for me yesterday.

As you can see, he enjoyed lining the ghosts up just perfectly.

However, ten houses wasn't enough to satisfy him.  Once J finished house #10, he started to improvise a bit.  Here's house #13 with its 13 ghosts.

Don't you love these little ghost stones?!  I think they are so cute!

Other Ideas You'll Love

Halloween Activities for Kids

Acorn Math Busy Bag from Toddler Approved

Pumpkin Number Matching Busy Bag from Coffee Cups and Crayons

Fine Motor Color Game from The Pleasantest Thing

No Sew Portable Roads Busy Bag Idea for Kids

I am happy to be taking part of the Busy Bag of the Month Series and can you believe that I fit three mountains, ten roads, two lakes, five trees, oodles of bushes, a barn, and a handful of cars all into one bag?  Well, you better believe it!

This no sew car themed busy bag for kids is absolutely adorable!

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When I originally made the roads for the magnetic roads (if you haven't checked them out, they are awesome!), I painted an additional ten roads.  Initially I was going to make two identical play sets, one for J and one for K.  Then I decided, instead, to make a magnetic play set and a non-magnetic play set. This busy bag is the non-magnetic set.

What You'll Need to Make This Car Themed Busy Bag for Kids

Here is what I used:

• Wide craft sticks
• Black acrylic paint
• Yellow acrylic paint
• Felt
• Pipe cleaners
• Pom poms
• Hot glue gun
• Small cars & buildings - I used the Safari Ltd. Down on the Farm Toob and the Safari Ltd. On the Road Toob

To make this version, I painted ten craft sticks with black acrylic paint.  When they were dry, I then painted the yellow dotted lines.  I also made pipe cleaner trees (instructions on how to make them can be found here on Play Trains).  The grass is simply two pieces of uncut green felt and the bushes are various green pom poms.  The lakes are just pieces of blue felt cut free hand.

Then I decided to make some mountains using scrap pieces of felt.  I simply folded a piece of grey felt until it was a mountain shape and used a hot glue gun to hold it together.  To make the mountains snow capped, cut a small piece of white felt and hot glue it to the top of the mountains.  You may have to trim the base of the mountain to make it sit flat.

Once you have all the pieces made, grab some vehicles and other accessories to finish it off.  I used the barn from the Safari Ltd. Down on the Farm Toob and various cars from the Safari Ltd. On the Road Toob.  If you have this toob, then you could also add some boats to the water.

All the pieces easily fit in a large freezer bag for easy storage and maximum portability.

Other Ideas You'll Love

DIY Road Signs for Car Play

Invitation to Play: Cars & a Magna-Doodle

DIY Upcycled Car Dashboard Sensory Board

Be sure to check out the other amazing busy bags from the Busy Bag of the Month Series.

Counting Apples Busy Bag from The Educators' Spin On It
Building Block Busy Bag With Pool Noodles from Coffee Cups and Crayons
Touch and Feel ABCs Busy Bag from The Pleasantest Thing