Painted glass ornaments 2

I finally convinced my children that you didn't always need to use brushes when we have paint. I had my kids pick 2 colors of paint and then we put a puddle of each color inside the glass ornament and they had to tilt the ornament all over in order to have the paint cover the entire inside. My son decided that his looked like the earth. :) They all look really cool.

supplies needed:

paint (I used tempera)

clear glass ornaments (I got mine from Michael's)

Stained Glass Ornaments

So I watched a show on the Food Network Sunday night, Down Home with the Neeley's, I think, but I can't find the recipe link on their website. They put Jolly Ranchers in metal cookie cutters and they melted them in the oven at 350 degrees for 6 minutes. They made it look so easy. I sprayed the cookie cutters with cooking spray and then I poked a hole in it with the end of a paint brush while it was still warm and melted. I had such a hard time getting those suckers out...they do look super cute though.

Supplies needed:

metal cookie cutters

jolly ranchers

cooking spray

Glittery salt dough ornaments

We made some salt dough combining

1 c. salt

2 c. flour

1 cup water
1 T. lemon juice

also needed: cookie cutters, glitter and Elmer's glue

We split the batch into 2 and then used some food coloring to knead some color into it. Then we floured our work surface and cut out some trees and stars using cookie cutters. We used a straw to punch holes in the ornaments and then I put it in the oven for about 2 hours at 250 degrees until they were hard. After they cooled down the kids brushed on some glue and put the ornament in a bowl and sprinkled them with glitter to limit the sparkles on my floor (hee hee).
After the glue was dry we put ribbon in it to hand them from the tree.

I can't express into words the excitement a little bit of glitter brought to the kids today. They kept asking for something else to glitter. Fortunately, the cat escaped unscathed.

Candy cane and wreath ornaments

We have a slew of pom poms in various sizes, so today we made candy cane and wreath ornaments for the tree. In order to help out my 2 year old, I put the glue on the template first so she could just put the pom poms on herself. Please ignore the excess glue that has not yet dried from my overzealous gluer :)

Supplies needed:

Card stock-- green and white

pom poms

glue

ribbon

Crayon ornaments

Today we used the crayons we made for this project, but you could definitely use old crayons that have lost their appeal :) We used a box grater to shred them and I put them in a cupcake tin. For the shape of the cutout we traced cookie cutters on craft foam (mine is adhesive, but you could just use glue) and then cut out the middle.

I let the kids put whatever colors they wanted in the middle of some wax paper and then I folded the wax paper over, sandwiching the crayon shavings in the middle. Then I put the wax paper in between some cloth napkins and ironed them on medium until melted.

After they cooled and hardened again, We took our foam cut out and put it over the wax paper then we cut the excess around it. Then we placed the same color foam rectangle completely covering the back. Then we used some Fiskars scissors to decorate the edges and a hole puncher to string the ribbon through. We used them as ornaments, but they would also be super cute as gift tags as well.

The kids loved doing this and I had to pry them away from the table in order to get them to stop playing in the crayon shavings :)

supplies needed:

crayons

vegetable peeler or cheese grater

wax paper

iron

cloth to iron on

cookie cutters

foam sheets

decorative scissors such as fiskars

Painting glass ornaments

Such a trusting mother I am. "Put this glass ornament on your finger to paint it, but don't drop it!" HA! Only one ornament was broken during craft time today. LOL

I bought a pack of glass ornaments from Michael's and we painted them with acrylic paints. Once they dried, I put my kids' initials on the one they made and attached a ribbon around the loop.

Notice our creative drying method :)

Snowflake Ornaments

I planned a few crafts for the kids on Thanksgiving and they did a great job! I had glued 3 craft sticks togetehr to look like a snowflake earlier this week and my husband drilled holes in the top of one of the sticks so that we could string it and hang it on the tree. We used, markers, buttons, sequins, and pom poms to decorate them. They all turned out really well and just like real snowflakes, not one looked the same. :)

Beaded candy canes craft

Ever since we saw candy canes at Target, the kids have mentioned them several times since, so I decided we would make our own. It is a little too early for me to buy them, so tonight we worked on our patterns. I am actually amazed at how well my 2 year old did. We used pony beads and pipe cleaners. They look great and we can't wait to put them on the Christmas tree at the end of the week! I hope my husband reads this post and realizes that we WILL be putting the tree up this weekend. :) It is one of my favorite things to do with my kids.

Cinnamon Dough Ornaments

We made some yummy smelling ornaments for our Christmas tree this morning. They were super easy to make as well. All you need is apple sauce, cinnamon, glue, cookie cutters and a straw. I got the directions from Kaboose Crafts. Check it out! The kids had a great time making them. I had to stress several times WE DON'T EAT THESE. :) I can't wait until they are all dry in a few days so I can string them on the red ribbon. They will be too cute.