“Hiding Heidi” and Craft

Hiding Heidi By Fiona Woodcock and Texture/Camoflauge Craft

Hiding Heidi is an absolutely adorable and charming book.  It is about a little girl named Heidi who is  practically an expert at hide-and-seek.  She plays it all the time and is so good, in fact, that she spends quite a bit of time alone and waiting to be found.  Eventually, she appears to get a bit lonely and tries playing other games with her friends.  She has a bunch of fun and learns that she has several ither talents she never knew she had.  It is a book about exploration and trying new things and it is full of the most beautiful illustrations.  I have mentioned before that I love books with pattern and texture and Fiona does not disappoint in this book!  I love how Heidi camoflages into her environment with colors and patterns in the illustrations.

I was so inspired by the concept that I though it would make a fantastic craft for littles.  Below are the instructions of the accompanying craft for this fabulous book that comes out later this fall.

HIDING HEIDI CRAFT

This is an incredibly super craft that toddlers, as well as older children can enjoy.  Chances are you already have the supplies for it too!  The supplies you will need are:

• paint in various colors
• 2 sheets of card stock
• paper plate
• scissors
• black marker  (sharpie works best)
• glue
• stamping tool (we used corn)

As I mentioned above, we used corn as our stamping tool.  I shucked it and then broke it in half to make two “stamps”.  I thought it would make a lovely circular splash of color and I was very pleased with the results.  However, the possibilities are endless with stamping tools you can use!  Think carrots for more circles, or apple slices, or potatoes.  Just open your fridge and use what you have!

My little guy and I each did two sheets in two different color schemes.  You need two sheets because when you are done covering your cardstock in stamps (and it’s dry) you layer one sheet of card stock on top of the other.    To do this, you designate one sheet as the top sheet and cut out a triangle in the middle.  Then you glue your cut-out top sheet onto your bottom sheet. (Or you can glue your cut out triangle on top of the other sheet.  I have an example of both in my final photo.

Afterwards, you just draw on the rest of your “Heidi” and you are done!  My little guy is just a toddler so I drew them on for us.  I also decided to switch one of his sheets with one of my sheets to have a bit of color pop in our finished result.  However, I also could have kept our pairs together.  That would have just resulted in a “Heidi” that was even better at hiding!  It’s really just a matter of personal preference.

Aren’t they cute?!  I was so pleased with the results!  If you are in a hurry, or just want to simplify, you could even just use craft paper that already has a pattern on it and skip to the cutting step.  Easy-peasy.  This project is not only great as an extension activity for the book, but it is also great to accompany lessons on camouflage or patterns.  Enjoy!

Click here to pre-order Hiding Heidi  *affiliate link

If you give this Beyond the Book activity a try I’d love to hear how it goes! Share it on Instagram using hashtag #beyondthebook (I’m on Instagram as @book.nerd.mommy) or even just comment here with your thoughts. It would make my day! Or to simply save for later pin the image below.