whatever

christmas craft #3

ok....

this craft is a bit more time consuming
BUT
all three kids said "that is AWESOME!" when i showed them. 
sean said "it's so creative!"  
:)

i saw one at the hallmark store that was similar but clearly mass produced & i thought "i bet i could make that"
so we did! 

you will need clear ornaments, foam balls that are smaller than the glass ornament, fake snow and scrap fabric. 
i found those all at hobby lobby. 

i did this step apart from when the kids were working.
i carved a hole in the foam that was exactly the size of the top of the ornament where it hangs from.
i used a screwdriver....? it was what i found in my drawer.
the foam is really soft and easy to work with.

it will look like that.


take the silver ornament hanger off the ornament.
make a cone with paper and fill your ornament with fake snow....as much or as little as you want.
this stuff goes everywhere so the cone was the least messy way we found to work.


add hot glue to the top of the ornament... around the top ring.


then you IMMEDIATELY push the foam ball that was hollowed out onto the ornament.
it should be tight... i had to help annie.

we made hats by cutting a circle of black paper for the brim and rolled paper to fit inside the silver ornament hanger.
and hot glued it all together.
there is a close up picture of the hats below.


cut a strip of fabric or felt for a scarf about 12" long.


tie it around the head in a knot.


we cut some "fringe" on the ends.


the faces are painted onto the head before the hats are glued on.
and buttons on their tummies.


and we added a little scrap of fabric or felt for the hat.
(p.s. mine is the one with the really wide set eyes...i like my snowmen that way.  :)


sean


for this hat we hot glued felt around the head and tied the top together.
then snipped the end into fringe.


annie


we watched frosty the snowman tonight on tv.
man....frosty returns was on afterwards....ummm....yuck.
how did that movie become a "classic?"
seriously.

we watched "it's a Wonderful Life" last night.
i cried from the start.
love that movie.
but i fell asleep at the last 10 minutes.
like...i was out cold...missed the best part.

 

DID YOU WATCH MY CRAZY VLOG???

the sound was nuts wasn't it?

DID YOU DONATE TO CHARITY: WATER??  

do it.

come on....join us!

it's $10 to change lives!

CHANGE LIVES!!!!

it's real.

BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD.

you make a difference.

your heart is big.

you matter.

HELP OTHERS.

:)


don't forget to enter my giveaway (and the others) if you donated!

 

 

christmas craft #1

today's craft is a christmas wreath made out of paper.

we started with a paper plate and cut out the center.
then painted it green with acrylic craft paint.



while it dried we cut  holly leaf shapes out of green paper.
we used heavier scrapbook paper (since i don't scrapbook anymore...)

i drew a leaf and we traced it on the paper a bunch of times.

i helped them along by stacking four leaf sized pieces of paper and cutting them all at the same time.
repeating that process a few times made it go a little quicker.
we used between 30 and 40 leaves on our plate.

we folded them down the center for some depth.

 
we used a hot glue gun to attach the holly leaves.
you could use school glue but it would take longer and may not hold as well.



we glued some with the fold pointed up and some with fold angling down.
nestling the leaves into each other, overlapping each other until the entire green circle is covered.

using a circle punch we made red circles for holly berries.
you could, of course, just cut out some small circles with scissors...but punches are so fun!

we hot glued those in clumps of two or three on the leaves.
talby added glitter to those.



to make the bow we took a strip of red paper.... about 10" x 2" and folded it into the loop shapes.
we hot glued that in the center so it would stay.
then took a smaller 2" x 4" strip of red paper and wraped it over the front of the loops for the center of the bow.
we cut two strips for the ribbon that hangs down and glued it to the back of the bow.
ANd hot glued the bow to the holly leaves.


 

 
i used a small piece of yarn and hot glued it in a loop to the back for hanging.


 
isn't it cute?!!

we were inspired by this one from the Paper Source.
we had all the supplies so instead of spending $19.50 on it...we made it for free!

we sent it in the mail to my great aunt who is 101 years old for some christmas cheer.
and a pair of Santa Claus socks.

:)


.......................

did you have a good weekend?

i am happy to report the remainder of my weekend was CLEAN and decent.
i watched 5 basketball games of my kids.
i got to play with babies in the church nursery.
i took annie to pick our some christmas gifts for her to give her siblings.
i finished our indoor decorations.
craig made sunday lunch....Pancakes. 
i made saturday night dinner....Lynette's Noodles with Ham....one of my kids' FAVORITE meals.
i searched our entire town for peppermint ice cream with no luck....bummer.
we watched home alone as a family last night...with a cozy fire in the fireplace....and had milkshakes after.

so even with the crazy friday that i had....it all turned out ok.
i knew you guys would like that story.
who wouldn't?!
it makes you appreciate ANY day that goes by without cleaning poo off of anything.

 

 

christmas craft #5

talby wanted to show me how to make a poinsettia....her teacher taught her.
i took pictures of each step as she taught me.


1.  cut the corners of the red paper about 6 inches toward the center.


2. fold one side of each corner to the center.



 
3. put all the petals together with a brad.


4. cut leaves out of green paper.


5. open the brad and add in the leaves....re-close the brad.

6. TA - DA!!!  beautiful poinsettia in 3D.  

i love it.
think how cool it would be to make a bunch....in pink and white and red!   
so pretty.

christmas craft #4

we used the felt squares from this wreath craft and cut the squares even smaller.
for this craft the squares were about 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch.



we took two squares together and put a pin through them pushing them hard into the styrafoam ball.


at some point before you get too far make a loop with ribbon and push a pin in it....to hang it later.

then fill it in until it's full.


i made the squares really close together and pushed the pins in as far as i could to make it look like flowers.


annie's hands were smaller so she got tired quicker.....i like hers the way it is too.
 
 
talby's was filled in but the pins not pushed in as far as the top one.

i like this version too.

there is no wrong way to make art.

:)

christmas craft #3

this craft idea i got from my neighbor AMY.

i save christmas cards.
and i make my husband bring home his corporate cards he gets at work too....and his co-workers' cards too.
:)

so this year i took my stack and used my OLD creative memories rotary circle cutter and cut them up.

you could use a circle punch from a craft store too.
or cut them by hand.
or use circle dot stickers in the office supply isle instead..... 

i put green paint on a paper plate and they stamped their hand into it.
and made a tree.

three hand prints across the bottom.
then two.
then one.

they added a star out of yellow construction paper.
and GLITTER.

the glitter stuck to the wet paint.


then they covered their tree with ornaments.....christmas card circles.


i let them use the mini hot glue guns to stick the ornaments on.
i just bought enough for everyone to have their own....the are $3 at wal-mart.
we will get LOTS of use out of them....worth it.

annie decided it was for her teacher so she wrote a greeting on it.


sean decided to paint his greeting.







this was minimally messy even with paint and glitter.
all three kids REALLY liked it.
and it was actually done very quickly.

are you having fun crafting at your house?
or do you think i am crazy lady who has way too much time and hot glue on her hands.....

christmas craft #2

this craft was quiet and calm.
when the kids were at school i cut the felt into small squares....about 1 square inch.
i just bought the rainbow of colors and a few extra of red and green.
using a rotary cutter would have been easier....but mine is BURIED under fabric and christmas.

the sheets of felt were 4 for $1.00.
so this craft is really cheap!


i strung large needles (18 Darners is what the package says....) with DMC floss.
i tied a knot at one end.
then we strung the thread with felt squares.




annie kept pulling her string off the needle so this was our solution.
i held the needle and she filled it up.
team work!


talby made several.


when they are about this size we stopped.
when you could bend it into a good sized circle....

then i tied the two ends together....and hot glued it too....

we added ribbon and voila!
a tiny christmas wreath!


or a rainbow wreath.....


or a KU wreath...




if i would change anything about this craft i would make the squares a little smaller.
i did try using wire but it was hard to get through the felt and the needle was not.

they would be really cute in all green and adding red beads or jingle bells too!