I went home this weekend for my sister’s bachelorette party. Now, I don’t mind airports. I don’t mind getting through security and waiting in the terminal for my flight. I do mind when I actually get on the plane and actually fly. I know. I’m weird. Sue me for being claustrophobic and being 33k feet in the air. Anyways, while I was waiting to board the flight, I noticed a family sitting a few rows ahead of me. The youngest had this plastic thing in one hand that looked like a bunch of cut off test tubes and a needle-pokey-thing in the other. I swear I stared at this girl for a good 10 minutes trying to figure out what this thing was! (Yes, I eventually got caught.) That weird thing and what she was making was a Rainbow Loom design, otherwise known to make rubber band bracelets.

Rainbow Loom Patterns and Designs: What Are Those Things

Apparently these are all the rage with the kids and in classrooms. I must have been living under a rock because kids are doing so much stuff with these and I didn’t even know about it. They are mostly intended for rubber band bracelets, but once you get the basic process down, you can make anything and everything with this easy kids craft. The patterns give people of all ages a bit of a brain teaser and keep your hands busy, while it is still simple enough that kindergarten teachers are using it in their classrooms to train fine motor skills.

Just to show you how intense these easy kids craft projects can turn into, I highly encourage you to check out the story of an 11-year old girl from Northhamtonshire, England, who made a dress out of loomed rubber bands. Yes. You read that right. She created the first adult-sized loom dress in England. It took her over 80 hours and 24,000 rubber bands to create this incredible dress. She sold it on eBay for 150£ to earn money for her vacation.

This is a loom ladder. It looks like cut off test tubes to me. But the sides of it are open, so you can grab the rubber bands with ease and precision. You can buy these at your local craft store, most likely in the kids’ section. The kits should come with some starter rubber bands.

These are the rubber bands. They look like the kind they give you for braces, but don’t worry, these won’t go anywhere near your pearly whites. They come in a variety of different colors so you or your child will be able to make one for every color of the rainbow!

Your most important tool is the needle-pokey-thing. In real life, it’s just called a hook. This will help you weave and connect the rubber bands on the loom.