Christmas Countdown: Day 4!

Today started out blissfully with my toddler loudly announcing, "It's morning! The sun is back!" while prying my eyelids open. To make the morning even better, I spilled coffee on myself not once, not twice, but three times and it's rained all day long. Nothing makes for a cheery holiday season like rain!

So, today was the perfect day for some crafting. But first, we took a trip to the library. My toddler very proudly selected his own Christmas themed books and checked them out at the self checkout. Meanwhile, I chased Baby Bee around the room as she seemed to move at lighting speed to get into every thing she could get her pudgy hands on.

I'm pretty sure I heard a collective sigh of relief once we walked towards the exit.

Back at home I decided to do a craft with Toddler Bee while Baby Bee had a nap. Unfortunately, he woke her up in the middle of the craft and she proceeded to chew on paint bottles, glue bottles, glitter bottles, and rip pages out of books (thankfully not library ones!). But, the craft got done and turned out quite nice!

Today's craft is...

Holiday Wreath Sun Catcher!

What You Need:

1. A paper plate

2. Green paint

3. Pieces of tissue paper (I used bits of party streamer I've saved for crafts)

4. Paints and glitter glue in different colours

5. Red craft paper

6. White glue and water
7. A sheet of wax paper 

How to Make it:

1. Cut the centre out of your plate so you are only left with the outer ring. Paint this green.
2. In a bowl, combine some white paint and water. You don't want it too watery.
3. Have your kid(s) rip your tissue paper into small-ish pieces.
4. Now, you can either place the tissue paper pieces on the wax paper and brush the glue mixture over them. Or, you can dip your tissue paper pieces in the glue mixture then press them onto the wax paper. We've tried both methods and I find the latter easier. We sprinkled some loose red glitter over the wax paper while it was still wet.

5. Once your wreath ring is dry you can decorate it with the other paints. I let my toddler decorate with paint and glitter. We also made a red bow at this point and added some glitter (glitter makes everything better!)

6. Once your wax paper sheet is dry you can put glue or double sided tape on the unpainted side of the wreath; then, just press your wreath ring onto the wax paper.
7. Cut off the excess wax paper. And glue or tape your bow into place
8. You can poke a little hole in the top and thread some string through so it can hang in a window.

And there you have it! Not very complicated but definitely cute!

Ta-da! A holiday wreath sun catcher.

Christmas Crafts

Christmas is one of my favourite times of year. I love spending time with my family and all the glitz and flash that comes with Christmas. I also really enjoy Christmas crafts, especially ones I can make with my kids!

Here are some of my favourite ones from this past Christmas season.

Handprint Wreaths:

To make this you just trace and cut out 8-10 handprints. Glue them together in a circle and then let your little ones decorate with paint and glitter glue!

Paper Plate Wreath

To make: Take a white paper plate and cut the middle out of it. Paint it green and then dab on other colours, glitter or even pom-poms! I taped a loop of ribbon to the top of mine and hung it from a door.

Painted Pine Cones

This craft is fun because it gets you outside on the hunt for pine cones and you get to paint! We collected these before the snow fell and dried them in our oven. When pine cones are wet they close up and we wanted them to be open. Then, give you child some paints, brushes and glitter glue and let them decorate! They are nice in vases or on platters with candles.

Hand and Foot Print Reindeer

To make: Trace around the shape of your child's foot (don't trace individual toes) and one or both hands (you need two cut out handprints). Cut out all the pieces and then glue the handprints to the back of the footprint. These are your antlers! Cut out a red circle for a nose and let your child dab some white paint onto the footprint to make eyes!

Flower Pot Reindeer Ornament

To make: Get a mini flower pot (I got mine from the dollar store) and let your child paint two white spots for eyes with a black dot in the middle and a red spot for a nose (we added red glitter glue, too). Use brown pipe cleaners (or white pipe cleaners painted brown like I did!) to make antlers. You may need to use a knife to widen the hole in the bottom of the flower pot. Then, twist the two antlers together at the bottom and thread through the hole in the flower pot. I taped mine down inside. Add some ribbon (I threaded this through the hole and taped it down, too) and TA-DA!

Handprint Christmas Tree

Bubble Painting

I have a ton of small bottles of bubbles left over from our wedding so they were used for this craft. I added a few drops of red and green food colouring to separate bottles of bubbles and mixed it well. Then, you just take a piece of paper and blow the bubbles towards that! You don't want to blow hard enough to pop them over over-shoot the paper, and the longer you leave the bubble to sit on the paper the darker the mark it will leave!

Fridge Snowman

My son really liked this one! I used construction paper to make mittens, three black buttons, a carrot nose and two eyes. The red scarf is made from cardstock and the black circles for the smile are dry erase marker. It added a little cheer to our otherwise boring kitchen and my son loved to see the "man-man" every day.


Seasonal Frame

I have a frame hanging in my living room and every season or holiday I swap out the picture. For Christmas, I took a sheet of scrapbook paper and wrote "Merry Christmas" in glitter glue. Then, I cut out three circles of cardstock and decorated them to look like Christmas ornaments. Then, just draw some string with a marker and you have a pretty little picture!


And, in case you couldn't tell, crafts that involve hand and foot prints are some of my favourites. I keep them every year because it's nice to compare the ones from the current year to the ones from the year before. My daughter wasn't even a month old when we made most of these and it's so nice to see how tiny her little hand and foot was then!