Ice Cream Ornaments

These are some ice cream cone ornaments we made the other day. I copied this idea from my favorite kindergarten teacher who does this with her class every year. We just glued silver balls in ice ream cones and glued sprinkles on top. The kids especially loved eating the sprinkles that didn't stick!

reindeer

My three year old and I made reindeer out of clothespins!

Christmas present for the parents!

Woo Hoo! I finally had the kids make a Christmas present for their parents! I ended up buying the same frame I used for a Father's Day gift with a different family. I got a pack of wooden stars, the wooden family cutout, and of course paint. I let my three and almost two year old paint the whole frame burgundy, and of course I smoothed out the edges, painted the spots they missed, and basically did the whole thing over again when they weren't looking. :) Then I let my three year old have a go at the stars and the family cutout which again I fixed up later. When all the pieces were dry, we simply glued it all together and added pictures. I think it's really cute. Sorry about the crappy cell phone pic.

Rainbow Bells, Rainbow Bells!

I had the kids make some bells out of craft foam, star confetti and puff balls. It was one of those random crafts my three year old helped me come up with by digging through the craft box and pulling out whatever looked like fun! My almost two year old was very good at sticking on the stars, even if half of them ended up on the floor!

Christmas is coming!

This is a Christmas Tree that my three year old friend made out of popsicle sticks. We glued it onto paper so she would be able to hang it on her bulletin board.

Ice Skate Ornament

These are some little ice skates that my three year old helped me make out of felt and paper clips!

Gift Wrapping

Here is a pic of some of my fancy gift wrapping. I'm trying to make every package beautiful!

wreaths

The other day, the kids made wreaths by crumpling up pieces of tissue paper and gluing them to construction paper cut outs. This was a great craft for my almost 2 year old who is great at crumpling paper and squirting glue! He actually made his with very little help.

Merry Christmas

These are the hand print Santas the kids and I made the other day. I started by tracing and cutting out their hands on cream colored construction paper. Then I had them paint the fingers white. Next they painted the bottom of the palm and the thumb red. Then they added google eyes, and a cotton ball and pipe cleaner to the hat. Finally I glued them on to green and red construction paper. These turned out super cute!

Ho Ho Ho

We made this super easy Santa hat the other day out of red foam and cotton balls.

Popsicle Stick Ornament

This is an angel ornament that my three year old made. We glued two Popsicle sticks together for the body, and used construction paper folded like a fan for the wings. The hair is string and the halo is a pipe cleaner. I got the idea from a similar ornament I made when I was a girl scout.

Candy Canes

Well, this isn't the most creative craft ever, but my three year old wanted to make Christmas ornaments and I had to think on the spot. I cut out candy cane shapes from construction paper and then cut up some red pipe cleaners. She glued the pipe cleaners on to make stripes, and stuck her candy canes up on the tree.

Frosty the Snowman

This is a snowman that my three year old made. She wanted to do a craft and helped me gather all the materials to make a snowman. She used a baby food container lid to stamp the white circles. We didn't have any black construction paper, so she asked me to cut out a pink one. Then she decided to paint it black, since Frosty is a boy.

Merry X-mas

The other day we used cookie cutters to stamp Christmas shapes. This is one craft my almost 2 year old really enjoyed! He had paint everywhere. I swear, I found red and green in his diaper!

M&M Tree

The other day my three year old "really really really really really really really" wanted some m&ms. I thought I'd at least make an activity out of it, so you know, when her parents ask what we did today, I wouldn't have to say "sat around and ate m&ms." She glued the m&ms to my crooked Christmas tree cut out with one hand, while jamming hand fulls of chocolaty goodness into her mouth with the other. My almost two year old guy was firmly against doing the craft, but was not against eating glue covered candy right off of his sister's tree!

Rudolf Gift Bags

These are some gift bags that we made with paper lunch bags. I traced and cut out the little nipper's hands and taped them to the back of the closed bags. We drew some eyes and mouths, and glued on red pom poms for noses. Cute and practically free!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Chrstmas Tree

My favorite three year old made this hand print Christmas tree. It was super easy, and would make a nice Christmas present for grandparents. The hardest part was cutting out all the hands. She was able to glue it together and dab on the ornaments all by herself. Her picture is in the center of the star, which is why you are seeing a big white box. I wish we had bigger construction paper.....or she had smaller hands.

Christmas!

I love Christmas! It's my favorite holiday and my favorite time of the year. Unfortunately the Christmas season is so short, when it's over I wish I had had time to do more with the kids. I have a whole bunch of crafts I want to get to, and this was our first one. We made wreaths by cutting out the center of paper plates and painting the plates green. Then the kids made berries with their finger prints, and finally glued on a pretty bow.

Oh Christmas Tree

This is a Christmas tree I made with my favorite twins last year. I rolled up a piece of green construction paper into a funnel and had the little guys glue construction paper circles (ornaments) all over it. I made the angel afterword because the tree was looking naked with nothing on top. She looks all fancy, but she's really just a smaller construction paper funnel with some little paper body parts.

Salt Dough

I love working with salt dough. You can do so much with it, the possibilities are endless. It's easy and inexpensive to make. You probably have the ingredients sitting in your cupboards right now. I like putting food coloring right in the dough. Once baked, the colors come out bright and beautiful. You can also paint it, cover it in glitter, or just leave it as is. This is the kind of baking I excel at. The finished product is supposed to be hard as a rock and tasteless! Here is the recipe I use, although if you search google you'll find a bunch of different variations.

Ingredients
2 cups white flour
1 cup table salt
1 cup water
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl until they form a smooth dough. You can try to mix it with a spoon, but it wont's work. Get your hands in there and get dirty! If the dough seems too runny, gradually add a little more flour. If it's too flaky, gradually add some water. Once you get the dough to a workable consistency, you can either kneed in food coloring or leave it as it. Now you are ready to let your imagination go wild! Sprinkle some flour on your work surface and your cookie sheets to prevent sticking. If you plan to make ornaments, remember to punch a hole in the top with a straw! You can either let them air dry (takes wayyy too long for me) or bake them at 200 degrees until hard. After they are hard, you can paint them, cover them in glitter, or even write on them with sharpies. I like to paint on a coat of Elmer's glue to give them a nice inexpensive shine.

These are some salt dough valentines we made by adding food coloring right to the dough. We used cookie cutters to make the hearts, and sculpted the eyes and mouths by hand. We attached ribbons and wrote a message on the back with a sharpie.

Little hands hard at work!

A glitter covered ornament on the tree.

Ready to go in the oven. (These make great Christmas presents from the kids!)