December Crafts

December is a busy time for crafts for most of us. Even before I had children I tended to make at least a couple home-made Christmas gifts each year. I love to knit so I have knitted scarves and Christmas ornaments. One year, I saw these really neat yarn ball wreaths in Starbucks and replicated them as gifts. Another year we made home-made Christmas shaped marshmallows and cocoa. I think it's always a lot of fun to make and give home-made gifts.

Now, most of our December crafting is centered around teaching the children that we are in the season of giving and the kids make a special gift for friends and family. If you happen to be a grandparent, aunt or uncle you may not want to read any further or at least know you might see this craft again under your tree.


 Christmas Cards:

Our Christmas crafts would not be complete without a few hand made cards by the girls. And if you've read any of my previous monthly crafts, you know how much we all love simple and fun sticker crafting. Crafts that are age appropriate for a 1 and 3 year old can be kind of challenging  but the girls had fun making these cards. They loved coloring the inside and placing winter stickers all over them! 

Christmas Cards

Autumn also had a new found love obsession with glitter glue so we made a special glitter glue Christmas card too.

Glitter Snowman Card

 It's a little difficult to see in the picture but she there are 3 glitter "sow balls" to make the snowman and then Autumn used her glue stick to put on the pipe cleaner scarf and stick arms as well as the other snowmen accessories.

We also had a few glitter pages left over from our snowflake ornaments (see below) so we cut the papers down and used the glue stick to make glittery fronts for cards.

 

  Ornaments: 

We had fun making ornaments from a craft store kit. The stickers were actually really tough even for me to take off the backing so I had to mostly do that part. But Autumn was able to look at the picture on the box and place each sticker where it went on the ornament - which of course made her so proud to be able to figure this out on her own. Also, she enjoyed being able to put the string through the hole punch. Something we haven't worked on yet is practicing lacing so the ornaments were a nice way to start. This type of craft is always  quick and fun and they turned out so cute!

We had so much fun making our thankful tree last month that I was sad to take down all those thankful leaves. I decided to turn the idea into a Winter Holiday theme and reuse the vase and sticks to hold onto the idea a little longer.

 
Snowflake Ornament Tree:

All you need (for snowflake ornaments):

- white card stock

- crayola washable glitter glue

- scissors

- paint brushes

- cookie cutter (we chose snow flake in 2 sizes)

- hole punch
- silver sting

If you decide to display them in your home (as we are) before passing the snowflake ornaments out on Christmas morning, you will also need the vase and sticks. I swapped out my fall colored green and orange ribbon for Christmas green and red ribbon to tie around the vase. I put Christmas bulbs in the basket next to the tree this time (instead of a mini pumpkin and gourds) and added a few other decorative items to the vase.

Excited little fingers - getting ready to use the glitter glue!

Step 1: The picture is really better than words. Who knew squeezing glitter glue onto a piece of paper could be so much fun?!

 

Step 2: Kids go crazy with glue and paint brushes. After making a few sheets; Autumn and Daddy started getting creative with different color combos.

 

 Our completed pages drying on the table. 

Step 3: We just traced snowflake cookie cutters and then cut them out. 

I am so proud at how good Autumn has gotten at cutting after just a little practice with leaves and snowflakes! I ended up getting her the scissors that are marked for age 4+ (which actually have a blunt edge). The 3+ (her actual age) are just plastic scissors and essentially tear rather than cut. It made it very hard for her to cut and she's doing much better with real scissors.

Step 4: Snowflakes cut out (with a little help from mama for around the edges) and hole punch placed. Silver string tied to each.










Step 5: Autumn lets me know who she would like to give the snowflake ornament to for Christmas and then she hangs it on the tree. It makes a nice decoration for now and as Christmas gets closer we will wrap them up for gifts. And, of course, are going to keep a few for our tree as well. 

 And one last super simple, cheap and fun craft: (but this one was for decoration for the house instead of a gift). We get a live tree each year and my husband had to cut several branches off the bottom to get the trunk to fit in the stand. He told me he was going to save them for me so I could make a decoration for the front door. I told him I had no idea how I would do that but he kept them aside anyway. A few days later he bought a bag of scented pine cones (not even thinking of the craft)  but it gave me an idea. 

All I needed for this craft:

- tree branches (free with our Christmas tree)
- colorful ribbon and red yarn (no cost because I used some I found in the craft box)
- a few of the scented pine cones (maybe $1 worth from $5 bag)
- artificial berries ($1 each)
- hot glue gun and twist tie

Step 1: Take a piece of red yarn and wrap it several times around 3 cut Christmas tree branches to tie them together. 

---I don't have any other pictures of the steps in between for this reason: the combination of Christmas tree sap, a hot glue gun, and a  3 year old who was intently watching did not go well with taking photos.---

Step 2: Take the artificial berry branches and weave them in between the yarn. Take a second piece or red yarn and wrap it around the branches several times to secure the berry sticks. (I didn't need any glue for this part).

Step 3: Use the hot glue gun to glue 3 scented pine cones to the yarn. First, I applied the hot glue directly to the cones and once the cones were on I applied hot glue liberally to the back so they would be more secure. 

Step 4: Wrap the decorative red and gold ribbon around the branches (behind the pine cones) which then cover the red yard.

Step 5: I was at a bit of a loss for ideas as to a way to actually hang this on the door. My husband decided to take a green twist tie and twist it around the branches and make a loop to go over the nail in the door. The twist tie is completely out of view and works surprisingly well. The finished project took about 10 minutes and cost well under $5. 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!