Christmas Crafting with Kids

I had great plans for crafting with my kids this holiday season.  Thanks to Pinterest, I found lots of great ideas that I really wanted to try out.  Fortunately, we have had the time to complete quite a few of the crafts on our plan.  Today I will be sharing pictures of some of the crafts we have completed, including links to the original projects where applicable.

These classic cinnamon-applesauce ornaments make your house smell delightful.  I used the recipe from McCormick.  These are easy and fun to make!

These precious Rudolph ornaments from Better Homes and Gardens were made using popsicle sticks painted brown, wiggly eyes and a red pompom.

This project is similar to one found on parents.com.  I traced a Christmas tree cookie cutter onto green felt then my daughter used tacky glue to attach beads to the ornament.

This project was inspired by a product found on this website.  I adapted it by using salt dough with green food coloring.  I created the hole in the top using a straw.  The discoloration in this picture is simply because the ornament is not completely dry.  Honestly, I have left them out for over a week now, rotating them every so often and they are still not completely dry.  I love the way they have turned out but really wish they would dry faster!

My daughter created these thumbprint Christmas tree cards for her teachers inspired by pictures from this site.

This is a classic hand and foot print Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer craft.  My mom made one of these for us when my daughter was an infant so I created one for my son this year.  These will both hang in our front windows every Christmas.

I created footprint Christmas trees for both my son and daughter inspired by a picture I found here.

This handprint tree art is my personal favorite.  I absolutely love how this project turned out.  This will be our Christmas artwork above our mantle for quite some time now.

What projects have you completed with your child this holiday season?

Pinterest Advent Calendar--25 Days of Christmas

I love using Pinterest to bookmark great ideas that I want to try so I have a huge holiday pinboard.  I was worried that I wouldn't get to all of the great activities that I really wanted to do with my kids this holiday season so I wanted to have something at my fingertips to help.  I'm a planner and I love to have a list--I always get everything done when I have a list to work from so I took this idea and transformed it into a Pinterest list.  I created a seperate pinboard for my 25 Days of Christmas.  My kids and I will be doing one activity, craft project or baking project a day for 25 days.  I have printed this pinboard and put a copy on my refrigerator for easy reference.  I have also listed our 25 activities below.
Day 1--Make handprint Christmas tree painting.
Day 2--Create button wreath ornaments for our tree.
Day 3--Make Christmas tree jewel ornaments.
Day 4--Make cinnamon ornaments for our teachers and our tree.
Day 5--Create holiday jingle bell bracelets.
Day 6--Make Rudolph popsicle stick ornaments.
Day 7--Make footprint Christmas trees.
Day 8--Make thumbprint Christmas trees.
Day 9--Create simple salt dough family Christmas tree ornament.
Day 10--Make cookies to share with friends and neighbors.
Day 11--Make hot glue gun melted snowman ornament.
Day 12--Make snowman ornaments.
Day 13--Make painted handprint ornaments for both kids.
Day 14--Make hot chocolate on a stick to share with teachers and friends.
Day 15--Make salt dough handprint ornaments.
Day 16--Make pinecone Christmas tree table decoration.
Day 17--Make handprint Santa Claus ornaments.
Day 18--Make Rudolph Nutter Butter pops.
Day 19--Create popsicle stick Christmas tree.
Day 20--Make handprint wreath.
Dat 21--Create Santa handprint ornament.
Day 22-Make Christmas tree brownies.
Day 23--Make pompom ornament.
Day 24--Make button candy cane ornament.
Day 25--Make reindeer food for Rudolph and all the other reindeers.

I will be sharing some of the projects with you over the next few weeks.  What activities do you have on your pinboard?

Paint Chip Memory

I've seen tons of ideas in blogland for craft projects using paint chips.  I can't wait to try this word family game using leftover paint chips from previous painting projects.  This game would be great to use in my classroom (and with my daughter as she gets older).  I created this game yesterday because my daughter LOVES memory games and has learned all of her colors.  This is so simple--and I'm sure it's been done before--but I have not seen a paint chip memory game yet.  Here are the easy instructions:

For this game you will need two sets of each color paint chip and cardstock.

Choose several shades from each paint sample and glue to cardstock.  I used spray craft glue but any type of glue will work.  Be sure to cover the entire surface with glue--when you cut it will fall apart if you have not glued all parts.  At this point you could choose to laminate for durability.

 Cut apart each individual paint chip.  I have 42 cards here but I will not be using them all for my daughter.  For young children (3-4 years old) I would recommend no more than 20-25 cards.

To play the game, simply turn over 2 cards at a time.  If they match, the player keeps the cards and gets another turn.  If they do not match, flip them back over and the next player gets a turn.  Continue until all cards have been matched.  For young children, you can place them face up and simply have them match colors and name the colors.

I'm sure you all have other wonderful ideas for what to do with this activity.  What are your suggestions?

Linking up at:

The Idea Room

         

Menu Planning Board, Take 2

Several weeks ago, I posted about my menu planning board.  While I was really happy with the way it turned out and I thought it was very cute, it wasn't working for me.  I'm all about convenience and this wasn't it.  It was taking entirely too long to dig through the envelopes to find each of the meals I had on the plan for the week and write down new meals on new cards. 

Last week, I won My Memories Suite software over on Cupcakes Kisses 'n' Crumbs.  I immediately started working with it and designing layouts.  I have come up with several projects I am planning to create using the software (including some Christmas gifts).  This is my first creation:

How cute is that?  I printed this out on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, cut it down to size and put it in an 8 x 10 frame.  I can now use a dry erase marker (or, as in the case, my daughter's dry erase crayons) to write our menu out each week.

I'm thinking I might paint and distress the frame.  What do you think?

If you'd like a copy of this menu planning sheet you can get it here.  If you share this printable with others, please link back to this post.  I'd love to see how you use it!

I've linked up to:

             

Menu Planning Board

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As you know, I love to menu plan but I have not always done it.  It makes life so much easier, though.  I don't have to call my hubby to ask what he wants for dinner or give in to last minute requests to go out to eat because I don't have anything planned.  I have tried all sorts of menu planning methods--a printable calendar, a menu planning grid and this blog are just some of the tools I have used.  After seeing ideas for menu planning boards here, here and here, I decided to create my own.

For this board, you will need:

• cookie sheet
• spray paint
• cardstock
• scrapbooking paper
• magnet tape
• scrapbooking letter stickers

 Begin by spray painting the cookie sheet.  Print the header and days of the week cards on this site onto cardstock.  Attach magnet tape onto the back of each card.  Create envelopes for your menu items by gluing 2 small squares of colored cardstock together (I used a scrapbooking scrap pack).  Glue a smaller square of your favorite scrapbooking paper to the front of each envelope.  Use scrapbooking letter stickers to label each pocket and then attach magnet tape to the back of the pocket.  Place all of your pieces of the cookie sheet, as seen in the picture above.  Print your menu options on cardstock,  back with magnetic tape and place in the appropriate envelope to use for menu planning.

This took me less that an hour (minus spray paint drying time) to assemble and will make a great addition to our kitchen!

Barrette Holder

My daughter wears hair clips or barrettes almost every day to keep her hair out of her face.  Until recently, my storage solution involved clipping matching barrettes together and dumping them in a bucket with all of her hair bands.  In the morning, we would dump the entire bucket out to search for clips that matched her outfit.  This wasn't working for me, so I searched for a solution.  I found a blog that offered a great solution (unfortunately, I did not add it to my Pinterest and I don't remember the source) and a website that sold barrette holders.  Since I wasn't willing to spend $42 on a barrette holder, here is what I created:

To make this, take the glass out of an 8x10 picture frame (from the Dollar Tree) and glue a piece of felt ($.40 at Walmart) or fabric to the picture frame backing.  Cut 4 pieces of ribbon (I had in my scrapbooking box) and lay them across the felt.  Use tacky glue to attach the ends of the ribbon to the backing on the frame.  Once dry, place the backing in the frame.  You are now ready to add your barrettes and clips.  And all for $1.40!

Get Your Craft On

We've been crafting our little hearts out this week.  Here's what we've been working on:

Watercolor Painting

Cookie Decorating

Color-A-Mug (activity my daughter received at VBS)

Sandpaper Art

Anybody have any great kid's crafts to share?

Repurposing tin cans

I found this great idea on a website several weeks ago and decided to try it out.  The originial design I found used 6 small cans but I used 5 large cans (these were 28 oz. tomato cans) and covered each with scrapbook paper cut to size using spray craft paint.  I then glued the cans together using tacky glue.  While the glue dried, I held the cans in place using clothespins.  Once the glue dries, you are ready to fill with supplies.