# Need craft ideas please!!



## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

My daughter's 3-1/2 and we're looking at what we can have her help us with for Christmas gifts for her to give family members. We'd like to keep expenses at a minimum yet give her the sense of GIVING instead of getting for Christmas. Arts and crafts came to mind instantly.

I remember as a child making some sort of Christmas ornaments out of Elmers and a LOT of cinnamon, cutting them out and drying them. Darned if I can find anything like that for a recipe as I'm sure there was something other than those two ingredients!!

Also thought of collecting and drying pods and having her paint and add glitter to them as ornaments.

Help.... I'd like to get more ideas so that I can start collecting the parts and pieces!!


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## ronron (Feb 4, 2009)

Plaster of paris hand prints she can poke gemstones into them and paint. make sure you scratch her name and the date onto them.


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## Cheryl in SD (Apr 22, 2005)

Any of those would be delightful. We had the kids trace their hands & one foot onto construction paper (white for the foot, yellow for the hands). They assembled them into angels. I would use craft foam if we did it again.

Another fun project would be to make a pinecone angel ornament. 

Our kids also made holiday signs for their grandparents.

Another fun project was "Christmas in a Jar". We took pint size jars, filled them with red beads, mini pinecones, miniture wrapped gifts, jingle bells (anything cheap & festive). Then topped with a votive cup and candle. A bit of ribbon around the top and it was done. They were beautiful.

If you can sew or find pieces of felt yardage, how about stamping the hand print/foot print angels, or make reindeer, on christmas colored felt or other material to make either a tree skirt or table runner.


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## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

Thanks for the ideas. Keep them comming!!! I'm starting to put together a list of things to go hunting for and then that will be an activity in itself!!


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

Stamping potato prints or sponge prints (cut them out to the shape you want) on paper bags to make wrapping paper.

Rubber stamping christmas cards.

make bird feeders out of pinecones or tp rolls, peanut butter, and bird seed. 

Use a plastic (practice) needle to string popcorn. 

A simple Video of her dressed for christmas singing christmas carols would mean a great deal to the grandparents or any far away relatives. 

Nuts glued to cardboard to make a wreath. (Nuts in the shell - believe it or not, it is actually sort of pretty.) 

Cindyc.


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## jamala (May 4, 2007)

Applesauce, cinnamon and elmers glue.
I use I cup applesauce, 1/2 cup glue and enough cin. to make a dough, roll and cut bake on 300 until dry, remember to poke a hole in the top with a straw before baking so you can hang them.


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## DownHome (Jan 20, 2006)

Wonderful thread. We do this every year too. This year we are doing Shrinky Dinks. Remeber those? They just made their first ones with Grandma #1 and everyone had a blast and grandma got to take home her new ornament. This weekend we are making them with Grandma #2 and aunt. Fun idea


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## halfpint (Jan 24, 2005)

Below are some of the websites I check out for crafts. Most may be too hard for a child that young, but you might find a few. 

When my daughter was that age, she mixed up some things in Epsom salt to make bath salts (I did most of the measuring, she poured and mixed), and then she put them into jars and applied the labels that I had made up on the computer.

http://www.craftbits.com/kids-crafts#Christmas Crafts
http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/index.htm
http://www.familycorner.com/dir/Kitchen_and_Home/Crafts/Gifts_and_Accessories/
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas/index.shtml

I've found grandparents love pictures of the children. Most years we put them in frames, often decorated, assembled or made by the children. One year my daughter mounted a picture of her playing her harp on a piece of wood, and covered it with clear spray lacquer.

Dawn


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## TurnerHill (Jun 8, 2009)

Our kids have made orange clove pomanders.

Take an orange, stick it with (lots) of cloves, roll in cinnamon, dry.

Lasts for years, and the kids have fun sticking the oranges.

Whole cloves are not especially cheap, however.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

DS did these when he was three for Christmas gifts. We also did some that were in teh clear plastic refrigerator magnet picture frames. I got a bag of them for a couple of bucks at the Dollar Store..

I thought of this..
-coffee filters
-spray bottle of water
-food coloring
-hair dryer

Spray the filter to make it lie flat. Put it on a plate!!!
Dampen areas of the filter adn then drop the food coloring on to the filter.
See where and how the color spreads and then drop more. You can use the hair dryer to dry parts of the filter to overlay colors etc...
I think they are lovely and the colors don't fade. In fact, I was thinking about doing some more.. I only have one. My mom got one that looked like a bright red flower in a sea of green like leaves. It is on her desk at work and she has a smaller one on her fridge.

WOW!! I need to dust that corner! It is on a high shelf in a dark corner by the woodstove. I just can't see teh cobwebs until I put a flash on them. Please forgive me!!! I am ashamed!!


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## Bfly Farmer (Aug 8, 2006)

Here are a few that stick out from when I was a kid.

1. "Stain Glass" Glue Ornaments - Place a Christmas cookie cutter down onto wax paper and press down lightly. It needs to be a cookie cutter that is simply a "frame" not one of the solid plastic ones. Pour just enough white glue into the cookie cutter to cover the wax paper bottom. Place a drop or two of food coloring into the glue. Using a toothpick, swirl the coloring around the make a pattern. Place aside to dry for 24-48 hours. After it is completely dry, ribbons can be used to trim the outside edge of the cookie cutter. My mom still has these hanging on her tree even after 30 years.

2. Salt dough ornaments - Make up some flour and salt (heavy on the salt) dough, cut with cookie cutters, bake, and paint/markers. They can then be sprayed with a clear coat to preserve better.

3. Hard Candy Wreaths - Place a sheet of wax paper on a baking sheet. On this form small wreaths of Christmas hard candies. You can sometimes find ones with pictures in the middle. Heat them in the oven until they start to melt together. Pull out of oven and cool.

We have also formed other shapes with the candies - trees, bells, stars.


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## NEfarmgirl (Jan 27, 2009)

We made stepping stones one year and let our son press those colored glass marble like things for flower arrangments into it. We bought the plastic trays used under flower pots to keep moisture off surfaces for the molds (they are anywhere from .25 cents to just over a dollar at Walmart in the garden area) Bought a bag of cement ($2.50 on sale) and the little marble things ($3.00 a bag). DS made and arrangment on a peice of cardboard and we mixed the cement poured it in the mold and when the cement set a little let him push the marbles in. After they sat and dried we popped them out and used them for a small path and decoration in the yard. We ended up with 3 to 4 stepping stones for about $8. and we had some of the marbles left to do more.


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