christmas crafts

Last week we took a break from "regular" school work and I planned a couple very simple crafts for each day (Monday - Wednesday). It was so much fun and so relaxing. We turned on Christmas music and crafted away! I tried very hard to give minimal directions and not stress about each item being "perfect".

Here is a run down of each craft and where I got the idea (I can DO crafts...if I can borrow someone else's idea at least as a spring board.....) :)

1. Snowball Wreath found here.

I modified it and used a foam wreath (found at any craft store), double sided tape (makes it extra toddler-friendly!), several sizes of cotton balls (at the Dollar Tree...cheaper than pompoms!), and red bows (stuck on with double sided tape...and also from the DT!) I covered the wreath in strips of the double sided tape the night before. Then the next morning, all the kids had to do was stick the cotton balls on and add the ribbon! All three loved this...and I made an "example" one...and loved it too! :)

2. Snowflake button ornaments found here.

So simple...and so cute! Popsicle sticks (I think I got these at DT too but I already had them on hand so I don't quite remember.), buttons (a big tub of them from a craft store), craft glue (elmer's would work, but would take a lot longer to dry), and thread. The only trick on these is to be sure that you put one button on the end high up enough so that you can put the thread through to be hung when it's dry (see the close-up pic).

3. Snowmen

Ok, this was a spur of the moment craft. We had a bunch of cotton balls left over so I slapped down a strip of double sided tape (love that stuff! lol), they added a few cotton balls and voila! snowmen! Oh yeah, we added some googly eyes too. (Also had those on hand...but pretty sure I've seen them at DT too.)

4. Felt Birds also found here.

The hardest part about these was tracing and cutting them out the night before. And it wasn't that hard. :) I cut the birds and the wings and let the kids choose how to combine them. Then they chose sequins for each bird and we glued them on (definitely need craft glue here...I even splurged for felt glue...tried both kinds of glue...and the felt glue definitely worked much better...gee, who would have thought??) :} Then I put a strip of glue on a wooden clothespin (Pack of like 20 from...you guessed it! Dollar Tree!! Love that store...) and they stuck the bird onto it. They can easily be clipped to a Christmas tree...but since ours is kind of full...Mommy had the great idea to clip them to the top and bottom of the lamp that sits on our school table - and I think it looks pretty cute! :) Oh yeah, we also added googly eyes to these. The ones the girls made have eyes with eyelashes on them (I think I found these at Hobby Lobby for 50% off a while back...). My baby informed me that his were boy birds and did not need eyelashes. :)

5. Snowflake Quesadillas found here.

THIS was one of those "Oh for pete's sake - why didn't I think of that?!" ideas! The girls remembered making paper snowflakes last year and thought it was rather funny to be making them from FOOD! :) I helped fold them into the right shape - and helped my baby do the cutting. (Ahem. Once again... DT to the rescue! They have the best little-kid scissors I have found yet! I can't explain them...I will have to just take a picture and post it.) The only reason I helped him was that the tortilla was kind of thick once it was folded. Martha Stewart used flour and spinach tortillas so the contrast is better...I just used flour tortillas...and the cheese helps the pattern to be visible. I added refried beans and sour cream (tinted pink...we like to color our food crazy colors sometimes! and why not? It makes it extra fun - and when you have plain white sour cream staring at you...it's just begging to be turned a crazy color! :)

5. Birthday cake for Jesus

I found this (obvious) idea last year, but too late to do it, so I have saved it all year. Now I don't remember where I saw the idea. Anyways, I'm sure lots of people do this. I simply bought a small cake from the grocery store and a tiny tube of red icing for the words and one little pack of those sugar decorations. We already had M&Ms at the house. I was going to let the kids write the words, but that icing is just so hard to write with, even in the little tube! so I held their hand and we did it together. Then they stuck on the decorations and we added candles. After lunch, we lit the candles and they sang Happy Birthday and blew them out. They loved it and I was happy to focus on the reason we celebrate CHRISTmas.

6. This is not a craft, but was the final thing on our to-do list last week. We had a popcorn party! Every day in school, they get a chance to earn a bead to put in our "popcorn party jar". It might be for using their manners without being reminded, being especially kind or helpful to a sibling, sitting quietly during Bible, accomplishing something difficult - willingly and with a joyful heart, etc. I don't always give beads for the same thing or every time. Just when I can see their hearts being genuine. We are often quick to correct and discipline, but I want my kids to know that I see when they are doing their best too. I told them that when they earned 100 beads together, we would have a popcorn party - with a movie and everything (a rare occurrence when Kiki is around). The week before they reached our goal and I promised that we would have our party just before Christmas. I even splurged on the newest Veggie tales for the occasion. (It is the story of St. Nicholas.) They happily settled on the couch with their popcorn bowls while I made lunch (one bag of popcorn split three ways still leaves you hungry for real food...) and my heart melted when I looked over and saw my baby with his hand resting on his sister's head! So sweet! :)

So that was our Christmas Craft Week! We didn't even get to do all the crafts I had planned! I was going to try to do some this week too, but I think I will save them for later. One will come in especially handy in the middle of February when we are sick of winter and wondering if the warm spring weather will ever come! :}

More Christmas recaps to follow...