I just saw a post on Childhood101.com all about Embroidery for children and it reminded me that we had done an activity in our summer camp with embroidery that I had  not posted about. We actually did 2 kinds of embroidery this summer. The real kind was done on embroidery material with a hoop and the kind I will talk about now, on paper. The best yarn to sew with for this is Embroidery Giant Floss  along with Embroidery Needles. The younger the children are, the blunter the needles should be. I  know it sounds weird to embroider on paper but, I actually got the idea from a post I saw a while ago on Skip to My Lou. She did an activity with embroidered paintings. Her son painted a tiger on canvas and sewed in the stripes. I loved it then and kept the idea in my mind to use at one point. Even though she used paint and canvas, I just transferred that idea to be a mixed media art activity of drawing and sewing. When people do embroidery with kids, they usually have the children draw their image on a piece of paper to make the pictures and then transfer the artwork onto the material. This activity keeps the embroidered work on the paper itself. The children can choose which parts of the artwork they want painted,, drawn or colored and sewn. After they draw the picture, depending on the sharpness of the needle, they can immediately start sewing on the lines. I did found , that it worked better if the children made holes where their lines are to make it easier to push through to the other side. To make it easier to push through, I gave them Styrofoam trays to put the drawings on top of so when they pricked their holes, it would go all the way through. I then very simply showed them how to follow the lines with their needles and thread.They also had to make decisions about which part of their picture they wanted sewn.   Even though these pictures were lovely, I think there are a lot more possibilities for this idea, especially with kids a bit older that can plan it out more. I loved mixed media and sewing on the artwork just adds an extra dimension. If you like this activity, please share it.