Ornament Crafts with the Kids
We aren’t quite on top of things enough to have our tree up yet, but we do have the Christmas music playing in the house. We’ve also made some time for ornament crafting with the kids.
Baldman took some of our cookie cutters (these can be found for a dollar or less) and traced them onto chipboard (thin pieces of thin cardboard) for our templates. I freehanded the stocking (you’re amazed at my artistic abilities, aren’t you? ;) ). We then used the templates to trace the shapes onto construction paper. I found lots of glitter, stickers, cotton balls (for the stocking tops), and pompons at the dollar store to use as decorations for the ornaments. We used glue to trace shapes and words for which to adhere the glitter. I’d recommend having some newspaper or another large piece of paper for the crafting surface. That way, you can let the kids go to town with the glitter and then just shake off the excess and funnel the leftovers back into the glitter container. Glitter glue would also be a less messy alternative. (Less messy? What’s the fun in that?!?)
The baby was even able to participate. We let him scribble on constuction paper with crayons, then used the templates to cut out shapes from his scribbled paper, and added glitter and such afterwards. A hole punch and some string, and these family ornaments will be ready to hang on our tree, once we get around to putting it up!
If you want to use the ornaments from year to year, they could easily be covered with some peel and stick laminating sheets (2-3 USD for 2 large sheets at our local Meijer) before you use the hole punch and tie the string.
I hope you have a blast making ornaments, making memories, and establishing new family traditions with your kids and families this holiday season!
Tags: children, childrens-ornament-crafts, childrens-ornaments, Christmas-ornament-crafts, Christmas-ornaments, holiday-ornament-crafts, Holiday-ornaments, kids, kids-ornament-crafts, kids-ornaments, making-childrens-ornaments, making-kids-ornaments, ornament-crafts, parentingRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Arts and Crafts, Toy Creations
10 opinions for Ornament Crafts with the Kids
Hsien-Hsien Lei
Nov 27, 2006 at 3:04 pm
Adorable! Just one question: Is Baldman one word or two?
Kerri Aldrich
Nov 27, 2006 at 3:11 pm
Ummm…depends on the day, or who’s writing it, or some other arbitrary standard. :D
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Dec 4, 2006 at 4:08 am
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Mike
Dec 4, 2006 at 4:07 pm
I think Bald Man is probably normally two words that way there’s at least one 4 letter word in it already. That probably comes in handy pretty frequently.
I love the ornaments.
Here’s a tragic childhood factoid. When I was a kid, the only word that I missed on a Friday spelling test all through grade school was glitter. It was in second grade. I had never seen it before so I had nothing to anchor it in my memory with. The teacher showed it to me after I got the word wrong. We make sure our kids get to play with glitter frequently so that they will be able to spell it when the time comes.
Local Girl
Dec 4, 2006 at 7:43 pm
What a great idea about using the cookie cutters. I like decorating crafts but I can’t even draw a straight line! This will be a big help!
Kerri Aldrich
Dec 4, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Mike: Four letter words? This is a family-friendly site! :D So, instead of your kids getting their names spelled out in glitter on the ornaments, they get the word “glitter” spelled out? That will be THEIR tragic childhood memory. ;)
Local Girl: That Bald Man, he’s pretty clever. I would have tried to freehand the shapes and failed miserably, making them utterly unblogable. But the kids would have liked them still.
Lisa
Dec 4, 2006 at 9:32 pm
Those are some great suggestions. Making Christmas crafts was always one of my favorite things to do as a kid.
Kerri Aldrich
Dec 5, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Lisa: Thanks so much for visiting. :D My kids are loving the Christmas craft time. We’re finding so many fun ideas that we may have to extend some of them as “winter crafts” for after the holidays!
Daddy Forever
Dec 5, 2006 at 9:08 pm
I love the cookie cutter idea. I wonder if I could use the Halloween cutters?
Even better is that the ornaments are made out of paper. My son keeps breaking the ornaments on the tree.
Kerri Aldrich
Dec 5, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Daddy Forever: Yeah, we haven’t put up the tree yet because I’ve not prepared myself for the constant “get your hands off the tree!” that will be my December mantra to the 1 and 3 year old. ;) I think a pumpkin cutter could be made to look like a bulb?
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