Some last minute Christmas Crafts for kids

Found some last minutes crafts for kids to make. There are two different versions of craft stick trees.  It depends on the age of the child on which one they can make.

Snowflake place mats

Materials:  blue construction paper, white paper 8 ½ x 14 inches (one sheet for every place mat you wish to make), white paper (more sheets to make snowflakes) , silver glitter, glue , clear Contact paper (to cover the place mats with, enough to cover back and front of all place mats), scissors, and glue stick (double check that they are non-toxic)

Directions:

To make this craft begin by setting out newspaper to protect the surface that you are working on. Then take out the 8 ½ x 14 inch white sheets of paper. These will be the bottoms of your placemats that you will work on. Make sure that you have enough of these sheets for the number of snowflake placemats that you would like to make.

Then take your sheet of blue paper and glue stick it down to the 8 ½ x 14 inch sheet of white paper. Leave a space of white on each side of the placemat, so the blue paper is in the middle.

Now it is time to make snowflakes. Take a piece of white paper (typical size of 8 ½ x 11 inches) and fold it in 4 pieces. Then cut it into 4 pieces. You will use this to make 4 snowflakes. Take one of the pieces of paper you have made and then fold it in half, and then fold it again into half and then fold it again in half. Now make triangular cuts into the paper, make circular cuts, whatever you please. These interesting cuts you make will create pretty snowflakes. Do this with all 4 pieces of paper and it is ideal to do something different with each snowflake design (because remember – no actual snowflake is like another!).

Pom-Pom Snow People

Materials: Different color pom-poms, bamboo skewer, Styrofoam ball, felt hat, pipe cleaner

Directions:

Craft these fuzzy snow people from pom-poms for a cute table display. Stick a bamboo skewer through two pom-poms and a Styrofoam ball for a head, and then top off with a felt hat and a pipe cleaner wrapped as a scarf.

Version one:

Craft Stick Christmas Tree Ornament

Materials:  1 jumbo craft stick, 5 regular craft stick, Green and brown craft paint, 12” yarn or ribbon, 1 gold glittery chenille stem, ½ silver glittery chenille stem, 25-30 colored sequins, Paintbrush, Scissors, White craft glue

Directions:

Cut one of the regular craft sticks in half. Put aside. Cut half an inch off of each end of two of the regular craft sticks, discard cut ends.  Paint the jumbo craft stick brown.  Paint the uncut craft sticks (2), the half craft stick pieces (2), and the trimmed craft sticks (2) the color green. Allow all craft sticks to dry.

Glue the green craft sticks horizontally onto the brown craft stick (trunk), starting with the longest sticks at the bottom and working your way upward. Try to space them out evenly. Allow the glue to dry.

Bend silver chenille stem into the shape of a star. Trim excess if needed.  Cut the gold chenille stem into four pieces, each one smaller than the other (4.5”, 3.5”, 2.5”, 1.5”).  Curve each of the gold chenille stems and glue them onto the tree as garland. Start at the bottom, gluing the longest piece in place. Next, move up and glue the second longest piece, and so on.

Glue the silver chenille star to the top of the tree.  Use the white craft glue bottle tip to dot on glue in various spots on the green craft sticks. Place sequins onto the glue dots and set aside to dry.

Turn the ornament over and glue a looped piece of yarn onto the back for the hanger.

Tips:

• About 10 minutes into drying time, carefully lift the craft sticks off the paper if they have become stuck. Put back down to complete drying.
• Save wooden sticks from your kids’ desserts to use for craft projects.
• If you are having trouble handling sequins, use a pair of eyebrow tweezers.

Version two:

Craft Stick Christmas Tree Ornament 

Materials: Popsicle sticks, green acrylic paint and brown acrylic paint, ribbon, glue, and decorations, rhinestones and a star

Directions:

Keep two crafts whole. Break/cut the others to form the tree limbs. Paint one of the whole sticks brown (for the tree trunk) and all the rest green (for the tree limbs). Glue sticks together attached the limbs to the trunks and the ribbon for hanging the ornament. Then let the kids get to work gluing decorations onto their tree! Once dry, hang the tree on THE TREE.

Share your ideas on this or anything here on the blog either here or e-mail me at stipple@verizon.net.  I look forward to hearing from you!