Skip to main content

Christmas Crafts

My girls just LOVE crafts. They get so excited when a new crafting kit comes in the mail or when we are home all weekend so that they can craft. Recently, our town's bookstore (Inklings and More) came under new ownership, and they have created an entire back room just for crafting supplies. đź’• This may not seem like a big deal, but anyone who lives in a small town knows that conveniences like that don't come along all of the time. Sadly, they hadn't quite stocked their shelves in time for our crafts, and I had already ordered from
Amazon, but we will definitely hit them up for our next crafting adventures. This year, we set up 4 different crafts to complete over Christmas. The first one is our yearly homemade Christmas gift, but I can't give details (or show pictures) of that one until after Christmas.

Gift Tags

This one is pretty simple, but I thought about adding personal touches to the gifts we got people this year. Usually, I buy those little sticker to and from tags, so this was the perfect way to add that homemade touch.

For supplies, all I needed was some cardstock and markers. I cut out the tag shapes and wrote the to and from, while the girls decorated the back side. They enjoyed talking about what they were giving each person and put a lot of thought into what to draw on each person's tag.

Wooden Peg People Nativity Scenes

I have a really beautiful Willow Tree nativity scene that I adore. Each year, the girls ask if they can play with, and I sadly have to tell them no. That (and this pin I found) inspired our next craft. What I loved most about this was that I had very little set-up since I bought the peg people online. All I had to do was get out paints and paint brushes, paper towels, markers and playdoh for hair. As the girls were painting their people, they decided that baby Jesus needed a manger. After some quick thinking, I cut out pieces from an egg carton and filled them with straw. After just about an hour of work, the girls have their own little nativity scenes to play with.

Bah very focused

Boo setting her pieces out to dry

Finished product for Boo

Gingerbread Houses

This is a fairly traditional Christmas craft that is usually inspired by a week of Gingerbread Focus at preschool. Rather than buy a kit, we use graham crackers to create our houses. We also use left-over Halloween candy as decorations. The frosting recipe I use is simple: whites of 1 large egg and 2 cups of powdered sugar mixed until combined and then add drops of water to reach desired consistency. The egg white makes it stick like glue which is perfect for my less-than-patient builders. Despite a mishap of pressing too hard and destroying one house, the process was quite enjoyable. However, the girls were very unhappy when they woke up the next morning to see their ornery brother had stolen some candy decorations. Overall, though, this is a tradition we will definitely keep!

Putting on a door knob

Adding frosting

The broken house :(

Wild little brother

Bah and her finished product (notice her peg people too)

Boo and her finished product


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

February Festivities

This is the first weekend in a while where we haven’t really had anything going on, so the kids and I went crazy with the crafts and activities! Valentine Boxes First, we made the girls’ valentines boxes. Bah wanted a Valentine Monster, and Boo (of course) wanted a pig. I saved her pig from last year for almost the entire year but a little before Christmas she wanted to play with it and Bubs destroyed it. So we made a new one. They turned out pretty cute, and I love that as the girls are getting older they are able to help more. Valentine Gift -Denim Pouch After that, we decided to get some sewing in by making pouches as Valentines for our cousins and friends. We cut pieces of old denim and sewed them to create pouches. Then, the kids cut shapes and letters out of felt to personalize them. This project was much faster than I expected, so we even had time to make bath bombs. Valentine Gift - Bath Bombs My kiddos all love bath bombs or bath fizzies, and they were excited ...
1 comment
Read more

Backyard Fun

We spend a lot of time on the farm over the summer since neither the kids or I have school. However, June is packed with swimming lessons, baseball games, and the summer reading program, which means we spend more time at home than at the farm. Even though we keep a fairly busy schedule in June, we still have downtime that I like to fill with fun backyard activities. Hopefully, you will be able to try some of them too. Fairy Garden This is our third year planting a fairy garden. The first year PICTURE it was a small, container garden, but last year we expanded so that there would be more room for plants and accessories. The girls enjoy taking care of it and playing in it, but last year Bubs especially enjoyed sitting in it and destroying it. I don’t think he will be as concerned with it this year, so we should be able to expand. Our area is just blocked off with leftover pavers from the patio. We have built up our accessories from my mom, grandma, and great aunt. Last year, w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Backyard Fun Part 2

I can't believe summer is quickly winding down. Here are some of the fun things we did in July. Kool-aid Dyed Hair This was a “girls only” activity because Bubs’ hair is too short. So he was a helper and liked playing with the gloves. After looking at a few recipes and strategies online, I came up with this technique. Supplies (per person/color): 3 packets of Kool-aid (the kind without the added sugar) 1 cup boiling water 2 tablespoons conditioner Old towel(s) Saran wrap Hair clips Gloves Hair dryer Steps: Isolate the hair that you plan to color. The girls wanted to just dye the bottom tips of their hair, so no isolation was needed. Put on gloves Mix the Kool-aid packets into the water Add the conditioner Make a garbage bag dress (which the girls thought was funny). If dipping, sit back in a chair allowing the ends of your hair to rest in the mixture for 5 minutes. If saturating, begin applying the mixture to the entire strand of hair...
Post a Comment
Read more