I don’t know about you but I always have the best intentions of creating fun Christmas projects with the children. Then I realize there’s only 2 weeks left before the big day. By then I’m all out of holiday cheer.
So I decided to have a little bit of Christmas fun in July while the children are out of school and we need something to do.
I choose 5 seemingly easy, kid friendly projects. Most were easy. A few were ugly. And one was downright dangerous.
#1 Sock Snowmen – Easy!
This idea was totally swiped from one of the best Kindergarten teachers I know. Along with her trusty assistant, Mrs. Tanner would make these super cute Sock Snowmen with all 24 of her students. Yes – 24!
Gather a few old socks. Stuff the socks with plastic bags.
Tie a string at the top then another one around the middle to create a head.
We used pompoms, felt, and construction paper to decorate our snowmen.
Hope Honey doesn’t realize he’s missing a few socks. We only needed 3. 🙂
#2 Glowing Snowmen – Watch out! Could be ugly!
I thought this would be easy. I mean… they look cute.
I thought the children would be able to complete this without much help. (Little Boy’s first attempt was a WereRabbit face.)
I thought Tootsie could color inside the circles. *snort*
I thought WRONG.
So… I drew all the circles and made the children color inside the lines. Mean mama.
Next we added a strip of black foam and pompoms to make earmuffs.
Tootsie had a grand time filling the jugs with stray pony beads.
Last cut a flap in the back of the jug and add a string of lights. Well, the lights are in the very hot attic so we carefully stuck a small candle inside. Maybe we I will made a few more for the holiday season.
#3 Pony Bead Ornaments – Fun and Easy!
We loved this one! All you need are some metal cookie cutters, plastic pony beads, and an oven.
Fill the cookie cutters with beads. Try to make it only one layer thick.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.
That’s it! Colorful, ornaments for the children’s little Christmas tree.
#4 Melted Snowmen – Danger! Danger!
This popped up on my Pinterest page last week. Looked easy enough. The directions said: Melted Snowman Ornament. Squeeze hot glue onto a foil sheet, decorate it and let it dry.
I should have stopped at hot glue. It took 2-3 mini glue sticks to make a big enough puddle for the children to decorate. Both boys got their fingers burned a little. But we did make a few.
The hot glue dried and I tried to pry the ornaments off the foil.
They wouldn’t budge. I put them in the freezer like the original post suggested. Nope. The tinfoil never would come off.
But they are kinda cute. (Especially the cross-eyed one.) Definitely would not recommend this project for little people.
#5 Scrappy Paper Bowls – Messy!
Okay. This was by far the messiest project.
You’ll need lots of paper circles to make two bowls. Punching out 2 inch circles with a paper puncher kept Little Boy busy for quite a while.
Choose a bowl for your form. The original plan was to line the outside of the bowl. But I thought it would be easier to place the circles on the inside. Wrap your bowl with plastic wrap to prevent the paper from sticking. Trust me. This is a must.
Begin to glue the circles to the inside of the bowl using diluted Modge Podge (just add a little water). The bottom layer needs to go in face down since that will create the outside of your bowl. The second layer has the pattern of the paper showing. Little Boy dipped the paper into the glue mixture then I helped him put them where they needed to go. Those little circles slipped and slid all around.
Next it was Big Boy’s turn. He choose a plastic bowl with a flatter bottom. Instead of applying the circles to the inside of the bowl, we glued them to the outside. A few of the circles had to be torn to form around the flat bottom.
Once they were dry I carefully pealed off the plastic wrap.
They will be pretty during Christmas filled with small, shiny ornaments.
In the end, our bowls are cute but I’m still cleaning glue off the kitchen table.
Like most projects, a few of these were inspired by original posts I discovered through Pinterest. Thank goodness someone out there had idea for all this fun!
Thanks for making it through to the end of this mega Christmas Craft post. 😉
Next week we are taking it easy. No more ugly, dangerous crafts for us!
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