Bedazzled Tree

We made another tree craft today. We actually did it over a few days. This one was a lot of fun to do, and the kids really enjoyed it. We painted a canvas, glued on yarn in the shape of a tree and a star, and then glued on the decorations to fill the tree. Inspired by this post. Funny Coincidence: I did not realize that the background color we painted was basically the same as theirs. I didn't realize it until today when I pulled the link back up to link back to it.

Supply List: Canvas, yarn (we used green for the tree and grey for the star), tacky glue or some other glue, beads/sequins/buttons/etc, paint, paintbrush, scissors (to trim the yarn), and small foam brush (optional - we used it to spread the glue out before adding the beads).

Here is how we broke it down (though you could do this in one day; you just have to allow for drying time):

Day One: We painted the canvas. I mixed green, blue, and white acrylic paint until I had a color we all liked. Set aside to dry.

Day Two: I drew a tree and star on the canvas. Then, I traced the drawings with glue and placed the yarn on the glue lines. Set aside to dry (again). I drew the tree freehand and I used a star-shaped cookie cutter for the star at the top.

Day Three: Glued on our beads, sequins, snowflakes, and stars. We used a variety of pony beads, round beads, and various colored/sized sequins. You could also use buttons, bells, or anything that you can glue on to add dimension.  We also decided to add snowflakes around the tree to make it a more wintry feel.

Google's AutoAwesome magic at it again - making our tree twinkle!

Foam Shapes Activity

I came across this post on the Fun At Home With Kids blog. It was simple enough, and sounded like something my girls would get some enjoyment out of. We did a felt snowman last year, and they did enjoy it when it was first made, but they lost interest quickly afterwards. Since this idea clings to the window I thought that they would get a kick out of it. Boy was I right!

I made the snowman pieces first while A was at school. S had such a fun time placing the pieces - albeit it is more of an abstract snowman (I envision one that just got knocked down by some kids on a sled).

S wanted more pieces. So we decided to make a Santa (it's pretty rough, but it works - and I don't mean S's placement, I mean my shape-cutting ;-)). 

Still, she wanted more. So we made a tree with some decorations. 

It was time to get big sister from school; S was so excited to show A the activity when we got back home! They did all of the shapes again - plus we made a reindeer and a house (the wreath we had from last year, but it was also foam - A wanted a house to put the wreath on) to add to the mix. The girls have played with this on multiple occasions already, as well as used some pieces in the bath!  

Gotta love Google AutoAwesome animation!

I forgot to cut out a beard shape.

Santas and Snowmen

Today the girls and I did two Christmas-themed crafts. Both involved handprints for the creations. I love using footprints or handprints - such a great way to have a reminder of how small those growing hands and feet were!

Supplies needed:
Santa:
* Construction Paper (we used blue for our background, but you could use almost any color - though I would steer away from white, red, black, or pink since those colors will be used to make Santa). We also used pink for the cheeks, but you could use pink puff balls, or paint/draw them in as well. We didn't have pink paint, and I didn't want to take the time to mix red/white to make pink.
* Googley eyes (or you could draw or paint in eyes as well)
* Paint. We used white acrylic paint for the beard, black for the nose, and red/white for the hat.
* Paintbrush
*glue stick (depending on what use for facial features. We used paper for our cheeks so we needed to glue them on)

Snowmen:
* Christmas ball/bauble ornament in pretty much any color except white.
* Sharpie or some other marker in black and orange.
* White paint (we again used white acrylic paint).
*Egg carton for the ornament to sit in to dry (while not necessary, makes it a lot easier)

General Supplies:
*wet paper towels and/or wipes

Some of our supplies.

Handprints made for Santa's beard. 

The girls painting in the details.

Adding in the details

Painting Santa's hat.

Their completed Santa pictures. I will admit I had a hard time letting S just put her cheeks and eyes where she wanted. I think we ended up with a decent compromise. ;-)

For the snowmen, you simply put white paint on your child's hand and then have them hold onto the ornament. Carefully take the ornament away and set in the egg carton to dry. 

Our handprints in the egg carton to dry. 

Our handprints in the egg carton to dry. 

I then used a small orange marker and added a triangle "carrot" nose to each snowman (finger). I used the black marker to draw in eyes, buttons, and mouths.

A's finished snowman family.

S's ornament.

S's snowman family.

I also wrote their names and the month/year on each ornament. 

The Santa was inspired by a post on Pottery Barn Kid's Google+ page.

The Snowmen were inspired by a post on the "Little Bit Funky" blog.