I don’t know what is it about zipper pulls, but it has been an obsession for both of my kids, but especially my almost 11 year old daughter. She went through phases of stuffed animals, rubber band arts, and most recently little pop-it toys hanging on her backpack. If seems that if she could, she would hang all her most prized possessions on her backpack zippers, a ton of them.

That being said, Doodle crate really outdid themselves this time with DIY zipper pulls. When she saw the theme of this month’s Kiwico crate, her eyes lit up. She has been getting a bit bored with the latest Doodle crates, so much so that we started looking into ordering a different one for her, but other crafty crates cost around $30 instead of $20, so I didn’t pull the plug yet. But after this month’s crate, I might not have to, because she has a renewed appreciation of Doodle crate again.

Milla has been diving into crafts and arts lately and can spend hours making bracelets from little rubber bands or colorful strings. Lately beads have joined the scene too. She gets inspiration from YouTube tutorials and is really talented. She said she will be selling bracelets for a living when she gets older. I guess we have an aspiring entrepreneur on our hands. And we’ll encourage such spirit every way we can.

This month’s Doodle crate contained just what she needed – more ideas for crafts. I now have been instructed to find similar crafts online for her and since her birthday is in just a couple of weeks, I don’t mind at all. This latest KiwiCo project was stitching and spirelli string art and this is exactly what I’m looking for now.

The project was pretty simple and I have to agree with my daughter that it was pretty entertaining too. Everything she needed was included – strings, stitching and spirelli blanks, tape sheet, cords and clasps, and felt sticky shapes for the back of finished zipper pulls.

Stitching for Milla was less fun than spirelli art, so she tackled it first. She had to use a needle and pull string through various holes in chosen patterns. There were some design patterns provided or she could come up with her own, and I think she did it both ways. All her work is always very precise, because she’s very thorough and attentive to detail, so all the stitched pulls look clean and orderly. I wish my son was more like his sister…

Her favorite part about this crate was creating spirelli patterns with various color strings. Here her imagination could really sore. We were working on the crates outside this time because the weather was simply perfect and I was happy to see my daughter’s face fully content with the activity, her brother close by and dog asleep by her side. Days like these are the ones to be remembered for sure.

After the little zipper pulls were finished, she added cords to each one of them and also attached sticky felt shapes to hide the back side of yarns weaving. She made 6 zipper pulls and now we have to find 6 places to hang them on. Backpack zippers are already occupied with cute little nick knacks, so we keep searching. They look so good that I would hate for them to not get used.

After completing this whole project, which didn’t take her long, Milla is dreaming about more work like this, so I have to find similar projects online somewhere. I like it when she gets busy with crafts and doesn’t spend time playing games on her iPad. She is our artsy girl and we’ll do anything to continue encouraging her. Thankfully Doodle does a good job from time to time and that helps.

So far this project was her second favorite after the felt succulent garden creation. I hope KiwiCo will include more stuff like this because this is what all the girls like.