Day 26 at Beccy's Place - W is for Wreath

  I'm playing along with the

Ninth Annual Month Of Holiday Cards

at

Beccy's Place

I'm not colouring at the moment but I am working on Christmas craft projects for creative little hands around our neighbourhood ... the endless months of Covid-19 lockdowns has brought our community much closer and I look forward to sharing more crafty adventures with them over the coming weekends and school holidays now that restrictions have eased.

Beccy's prompt for Day 26 is the letter "W"

(Beccy's post with "W" inspiration words and sparkling

Wink Of Stella ornaments cards to inspire are HERE)

My "W" kids Christmas activity kit is for a wreath ...

... a rustic mini wooden peg wreath ornament.

This fun peg wreath ornament started with a heavy cardstock ring.  I layered a 3" and 2" circle together to cut my wreath rings from textured cardstock.  I cut bundles of these, so have lots of bases for kits and lots of 2" green circles to use for an activity another day.

I glued two rings together to make the wreath base sturdier.

I gathered my stash of mini pegs together, they look so cute.

I decided to go for a rustic look and used the plain, unpainted wood pegs and started pegging ... and pegging ... and pegging ... 35 pegs later the wreath ring was surrounded by pegs.

 I finished off the wreath by making a bow from tinsel trim and a loop for hanging from string with a gold metallic thread and gluing them in place.

   

I'm thrilled with how this wreath turned out and know that little fingers will have lots of fun adding pretty colours and sparkle to theirs.  I really like the rustic look and think I might try to "peel" the tinsel bow off and replace it with some burlap string to make it even more rustic.

*** INGREDIENTS ***

mini wooden pegs 

heavy cardstock

ribbon-string-twine-cord - for bow hanging loop

paints - optional for colouring the pegs or wreath base

glitter - glitter glue - to decorate the pegs

*** REFERENCE ***

This project was inspired by the "Mini Clothespin Christmas Wreath Ornament For Kids" post on "The Resourceful Mama" blog HERE.

Day 21 at Beccy's Place - S is for Springs . . .

. . . transformed into Shiny Silver Spring Stars!

I'm playing along with the

Ninth Annual Month Of Holiday Cards

at

Beccy's Place

I'm not colouring at the moment but I am working on Christmas craft projects for creative little hands around our neighbourhood ... the endless months of Covid-19 lockdowns has brought our community much closer and I look forward to sharing more crafty adventures with them over the coming weekends and school holidays now that restrictions have eased.

Beccy's prompt for Day 21 is the letter "S"

(Beccy's post with "S" inspiration words and

adorable sheep card to inspire is HERE)

My "S" project is a Shiny Silver Spring Star ornament.

My "S" project comes from the leftovers from making kid's activity kits.

The leftovers are springs ... the springs that hold wooden pegs (clothespins) together.  After madly twisting pegs apart in readiness to use the wooden pieces for kid's craft activities, I tossed all the springs into a bag, not knowing what I would do with them but hey, I'm a crafter and we all know that all sorts of bits and pieces come in handy ... one day.  Well that day is today.  In my wanderings around cyberland, I found a tutorial for star ornaments (see link below).

It takes ten of these peg springs to make each ornament.  Gently pull the ends apart of the first spring and slide one end into the coiled end of the second spring, then tuck the other side of the end into the other side of the coiled end ... hope that makes sense ... sometimes you have to jiggle the ends a bit to fit neatly into the coil.  Take another spring and attach, continuing until all ten springs make a wonky chain.  Join the ends to close the loop, making a wonky circle.  Adjust the springs to form a star shape (mountain-valley-mountain-valley style) and put a drop of superglue into each coil.  Finish off the ornament by tying a ribbon through one of the star points to make a loop for hanging.

   

I confess, I love this ornament ... think I might have to find some more wooden peg craft activities so that I have more "leftovers" to make some more star ornaments, along with a rustic tree to hang them on.  I think the older, stronger, little hands will enjoy pulling pegs apart and make some of these too.

*** INGREDIENTS ***

metal springs - 10 per star

* the metal springs released when wooden pegs (clothespins) are pulled apart *

super glue

ribbon-twine-string-cord - to hang the star ornament

*** REFERENCE ***

This project was inspired by the "Clothespin Spring Star”

video tutorial by “Easy Kids Crafts” HERE.

Day 4 at Beccy's Place - D is for Deer

  I'm playing along with the

Ninth Annual Month Of Holiday Cards

at

Beccy's Place

I'm not colouring at the moment but I am working on Christmas craft projects for creative little hands around our neighbourhood ... the endless months of Covid-19 lockdowns has brought our community much closer and I look forward to sharing more crafty adventures with them over the coming weekends and school holidays now that restrictions have eased.

Beccy's prompt for Day 4 is the letter "D"

(Beccy's post with "D" inspiration words and

grumpy goose card to inspire is HERE)

My "D" kids Christmas activity kit is for a

Dear little Deer ornament,

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.    

These Dear little Deer started as plain wooden pegs (clothespins).  I used a black paint pen and ruler to draw the legs on the top "finger squeeze" end of the peg, in line with the spring.  While the paint was drying I folded a brown pipe cleaner in half then rolled the ends around the pend of the paint pen to make the antlers.  (I used the pen because my fingers are a bit too knobbly, it would be fun for kids to twist them around a finger or two.)  I knotted a loop of twine with a metallic thread then used liquid adhesive to secure the hanging loop and antlers in the "bitey" end of the peg, tucking in the sides so that the pipe cleaner antlers were only visible from the top of the head.  Next came the eyes, of course they had to be googly eyes and tiny red pom poms for the nose.  Lucky last came the scarf.  Instead of a ribbon, I thought it would be easier for little fingers to twist sparkling pipe cleaners to make it more merry.  A pipe cleaner cut in half is the perfect length, with scissors to trim one end to make it look a little more interesting. 

 

   

Which one is your favourite?

... I confess, I love googly eyes, the bigger the better,

they make him look extra cute.

Here they are, laying flat and hanging.

   

I have bags filled with wooden pegs, brown pipe cleaners, tiny red pom poms, coloured and metallic pipe cleaners, glue and assorted ribbons, string and twine ready for a fun workout with my fun new black paint pen.

*** INGREDIENTS ***

wooden pegs

pipe cleaners - brown

mini pom pom - red

googly eyes

1/2 pipe cleaner or fine ribbon - for the scarf

fine cord or twine - for the loop hanger

clear ruler

black paint pen

glue - for antlers & hanger - Helmar 450 Quick Dry

(or tacky glue or a low temperature glue gun)

glue - for googly eyes - Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Adhesive

(or micro glue dots, they're a lot easier and less messy, it's handy to have the eyes already secured on a strip with glue dots so that they just need to be peeled off and stuck in place ... I confess, I have strips of different sized googly eyes ready and waiting for future projects)

*** REFERENCE ***

This project was inspired by the "Clothespin Reindeer Christmas Ornaments"

post on the "One Little Project At A Time" blog HERE

Day 2 at Beccy's Place - B is for Bling

I'm playing along with the

Ninth Annual Month Of Holiday Cards

at

Beccy's Place

I'm not colouring at the moment but I am working on Christmas craft projects for creative little hands around our neighbourhood ... the endless months of Covid-19 lockdowns has brought our community much closer and I look forward to sharing more crafty adventures with them over the coming weekends and school holidays now that restrictions have eased.

Beccy's prompt for Day 2 is the letter "B"

(Beccy's post with "B" inspiration words and

beautiful bauble card to inspire is HERE)

My "B" kids Christmas activity kit is for a Bling Christmas Trees.

EVERYONE loves bling and we have sure have added a lot of sparkle to the world during 2020 and 2021, so I know making these Bling Christmas Trees will be popular ... the big challenge will be encouraging little hands from covering the tree shape completely with sparkle!

To make these trees / tree kits, I cut some heavy cardstock into 4 1/2" x 6" triangles for the tree base.  Paint the tree base green and set aside to dry.  (I left lots of bases unpainted because painting is always a fun activity.)  Place random dots of glue over the painted panel and decorate with assorted gems.  You can use adhesive gems instead if you don't want to have the risk of messy glue spills.

   

Can you see how I left an empty space at the bottom of the tree?  This is where the wooden peg is supposed to be, making the trunk of the tree (see link at end of this post).  When I cut the tree bases, I tested them with a peg trunk, ensuring that the tree would stand up and it seemed OK ... well, once I added the bling, things got a bit wonky and I could not get my tree to stand up.

Plan B was to try two pegs and yes, they worked.

Plan C was to add a brown cardstock "trunk" that would help the bling Christmas Tree stand, so I decided to try another tree and add an easel to the back (like the one I used for my Quilled Christmas Tree HERE).  It worked wonderfully too.

Here is the back view showing how the flat brown panel folds out.  It makes a sturdy 3D tree trunk that  stands the tree up and can easily be folded flat for storage.

 

Here are some of the pieces gathered together to assemble some activity kits.  I have a bag of adhesive gems on hand for when there is no time for waiting for the glue to dry or when it needs to be a mess-free activity.

~~~*~~~*~~~

Here is the cutting pattern I used to manually cut the triangle tree bases from a A4 sheet of heavy cardstock.  Of course the scraps have been put aside to use another day

*** INGREDIENTS ***

heavy cardstock

green paint

assorted gems and glue or adhesive gems

glue - for gems - Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Adhesive

wooden pegs - optional - for the tree trunk

Silhouette Cameo

Silhouette Design Store - Design ID #76159

Easel For Back Of Card by Lori Whitlock

glue - to adhere the trunk / easel in place

Helmar 450 Quick Dry or tacky glue

*** REFERENCE ***

This project was inspired by the "Jeweled Christmas Tree Craft for Kids"

project post on the "Housing A Forest" blog HERE