Wednesday, December 14, 2011

What I Love Wednesday {Christmas Crafts}

Pinterest certainly doesn't help with my need to craft away lately. Chase is at the best age for these types of things and most of the time genuinely enjoys it. He isn't much of a colorer, but get out some paint, paintbrushes and glue and he is digging it!

This Wednesday I'm sharing some of the ones I have done so far. Sometimes I wish the Christmas season lasted a bit longer, there's so many I want to do. Gotta save something for next year I suppose...


CRAFT/PROJECT #1: Sock advent Calendar
I saw this adorable advent calendar back in the Fall on Martha Stewart's website and I knew I wanted to recreate it. I got most of the socks at the dollar store with a few old ones of Chase's thrown in. I made the clothespins to hang (more on those later!) and used my Cricut machine to cut out the circles and numbers for the dates. I used a fabric glue to attach the dates to the socks so I can use them for years to come.

I placed family friendly activities in each sock because I wanted to stress the importance of "quality time" together rather than candy and treats.
(Trust me we've been potty training so there are plenty of m&ms to be had around here!)

CRAFT #2: Christmas Clothespins
I'm using these for several different things. To hang my socks for the advent calendar, to hang Christmas cards from baker's twine, and you can also attach magnets and use them on your fridge for lists, notes, or reminders.

You'll need clothespins (dollar store again!), Christmas-colored scrapbook paper (thin works better than cardstock weight) a paintbrush/foam brush and mod-podge. I used my paper trimmer to cut the paper to the size I needed, mod podged it to the clothespin, allowed it to dry, then did a top coat to seal. That's it! And reusable for years to come!

KID CRAFTS:
Pinterest has ideas out the wazoo, here are a couple we've done so far:

Santa's beard advent/Countdown to Christmas

Cut out a Santa shape that you like (I used construction paper) and glue to a larger paper. Print/write the cute saying next to it and add a baggie of 25 cotton balls. I've been using Elmer's craft bond for this project and it's worked well. You can also find printouts for this with spots for the 25 cotton balls labeled with numbers. I wish I could re-use this next year...I'm thinking of cutting the paper where Santa's beard starts when it's done and adding more black paper for next year perhaps.
Chase loves to put on "Santa's bee-ird" each morning!


HANDPRINT CHRISTMAS TREE: 
Well this is my favorite so far, what can I say. I know I'm going to love pulling this one out each year and looking at those sweet little hands. I found the idea here. You'll need a paintbrush, paint and a canvas. I bought a 3 pack at Walmart for next to nothing. Paint hand green, press onto canvas, repeat. Then paint a star on top and a trunk - you can even add ornaments (using thumbprints maybe?). Fun!

P.S. Grandparents got this one at Thanksgiving and loved it!

THUMBPRINT CHRISTMAS LIGHTS:


Another fun one found here. I drew a squiggly line on a large sheet of white paper and then showed Chase what we were doing (see my big ole blue thumb?!). We then painted his thumb different colors wiping with a baby wipe between colors. I then went back and added the tiny black squiggles to each bulb.

I'd love to see the crafts you've done.
Feel free to comment and leave a link to your Christmas craft!

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