Our very own printing press :)

All you need to do is use a bunch of foam stickers on a piece of cardboard and then use a roller (the small foam craft size) or a foam brush to brush on some white paint and then put a sheet of paper over it and press all over with your hands. I think we will use hearts for Valentine's Day. Note to self...try making wrapping paper with it next Christmas. It turned out so cute!

Supplies needed:

paint

foam stickers

cardboard

foam brush or roller

Craft Stick Christmas tree

Christmas tree season will soon be over, so we had to hurry and get this craft in before the big guy in red came. I was inspired by this Christmas tree craft from this site. First we glued some craft sicks to make the tree. I cut the craft sticks with a pair of scissors to make them shorter. Then we colored the tree with markers and glued sequins on them and a yellow pom pom for the star. How festive!

Supplies needed:

craft sticks

markers

glue

scissors

yellow pom pom

sequins

Home made wrapping paper

Both of my kids are getting each other presents for Christmas and they wanted to make their own wrapping paper this year. We drew a squiggley line across a 4 foot piece of easel paper and we used sponges cut out as Christmas lights and giant ink pads to decorate the paper. It looks so cute!!

Supplies needed:

sponges

sharp scissors

easel paper

ink pads

Reindeer food

Adding to the magic of Christmas, we made reindeer food with oatmeal and glitter. We used Christmas stamps and decorated a white bag and mixed the oatmeal and glitter inside. We will throw it on the front lawn on Christmas eve. Here is a cute little poem for it too...

The Reindeer Food we made today will help Rudolph and the others find their way!

Just sprinkle it on the lawn and throw some in the air,

And Santa's sleigh will soon be there!

The oats are a snack for the reindeer to eat,

And the glitter will guide them right to your street!

Supplies needed:

Oatmeal

glitter

bag

Hand print Santa

We did hand prints again today which is pretty funny, because my 5 year old is VERY ticklish on his hands. I used the paint brush to paint their hands white for Santa's beard. We used acrylic paint because it was the only white paint we had. Then we waited a few minutes for them to dry and added a red felt nose, we used a hole punch for cheeks and a mouthm (they love the hole punch), googley eyes, red felt hat and white pom poms to decorate the hat. Very cute!!

supplies needed:

green, red, pink and black construction paper

red felt

white pom poms

googley eyes

white paint ( I used acrylic)

hole puncher

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.

A Gingerbread Street!

I was bound and determined to make a gingerbread house this year, but it looks like it got a little out of control. I have never made one before from scratch and really wanted to make one (darn you gingerbread house competition on the Food Network!!). I must admit that I was more than a little intimidated, but I can't believe how easy and HOW MUCH FUN it was to put together. I used the directions here and it couldn't have been easier. In the recipe there is enough dough to make at least 2 houses and 8 gingerbread men. While I was putting the houses together, the kids used ice cream cones, royal icing and Mike and Ikes to make trees for our little neighborhood. Then we all decorated the houses. SO MUCH FUN!!! I highly recommend it!

Oh Pasta Tree?

In an effort to do a craft that had nothing to do with the holidays, I brought out the paper, glue and colored pasta so they could make what ever kind of picture they wanted. They were shocked and asked that I make them a Christmas tree to decorate with the pasta. It was pretty funny. Thank goodness Elmer's dries clear. :)

You can use this pasta for lots of things. I colored BOXES and BOXES of pasta a few months ago and we have used it for several things already like making pasta necklaces, bracelets, art etc. To make the colored pasta I tossed about 2 cups of pasta in a ziploc bag and added 4-5 drops of food coloring and 1 Tablespoon of rubbing alcohol and shook it all up until it was the color I wanted it. Then I spread them all out on paper towels on cookie sheets to air dry. I did a ton at once, so that I would have it on hand when we needed it.

Supplies needed:

rubbing alcohol

pasta

food coloting

baggies

construction paper

glue

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

A Classic Reindeer

I can remember doing this craft when I was in school 100 years ago, except that I don't think the googley eye had been invented yet. LOL! No Time For Flashcards took me down memory lane and I had to do it with my kids as well. I think it is so cute because you trace your kids' hands and foot. I love that my daughter's is smaller than my son's.

Supplies needed:

construction paper (brown and black)

googley eyes

red pom poms

glue

Stained glass Christmas tree

I saw this on one of my favorite blogs, Make and Takes who got this idea from Alpha+Mom. They were fun to make and my 2 year old even had a very easy time with it since I put glue around the holes and told her to just cover them up.

Supplies needed:
green and brown construction paper or foam
tissue paper
scissors
glue
yellow pom pom for star

On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer...

We don't think that daddy's office is festive enough. Wouldn't his desk look so much more festive with a stack of really important papers put together with this really cute reindeer clip? We think so ;)

Supplies needed:

small googley eyes

red pom pom

clothes pin

brown pipe cleaners

scissors

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 :)

Jingle Bells part 2

The kids loved making noise with the jingle bell bracelets that I couldn't deny them a necklace that was equally noisy. :)

As I type this, it sounds as if my house has been attacked by little elves. Too funny.