This peas in a pod ornament is a fun afternoon craft. This project is just right for the younger set and perfect to gift to an Aunt or Uncle. It’s simple and doesn’t take many supplies, plus it is cute enough to hang on the tree. I often see necklaces that feature peas in a pod that use the number of peas for how many children you have. I thought it would be fun to make ornaments like that too. So let’s get started!

Supplies:

• Green Pom Pom Balls
• Milkweed Pod
• Ribbon
• Craft Glue

How To:

1. Glue appropriate number of Pom Pom Balls inside milkweed pod. If you just picked the pods you may need to let them dry out for a day or so.
2. Loop and knot ribbon. Glue knot of ribbon to top of milkweed pod.
3. Wrap in cute packaging and give to your favorite person!

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Happy Holidays to you and your family!

The post Handmade Holiday | Peas in a Pod Ornament appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

It’s Foam for the Holidays Friday again! This project doesn’t actually use foam… but, do you love giving wine as a house warming gift or to the hostess of a holiday party? You can stitch up this burlap wine gift bag in no time and get that bottle of wine all decorated for gift giving!

You can also find more project ideas using FloraCraft® products at MakeItFunCrafts and at the CraftsandCoffee blog!

Supplies:

• Burlap Garland Design It:® Simple Style® By FloraCraft®
• Embroidery Floss
• Sewing Needle
• Ribbon
• Candy Cane or other decoration
• Scissors

How To:

1. Wrap the burlap garland up around the bag and cut off the needed length to cover  your bottle.

2. 

   Fold burlap piece in half. Tie a knot in the floss and start stitching down one side.

3. 

   Continue stitching down the first long side. Then stitch across the center of the bottom and the up the other long side. Knot thread and trim.

4. Slide wine bottle into bag and tie ribbon around top. Add a candy cane or other holiday decoration to the ribbon.

The post Handmade Holidays | Foam for the Holidays Burlap Wine Gift Bag appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Are you in the holiday spirit yet? We had a great time decorating the tree over the weekend. Everyone is old enough now that they can help hang the ornaments. It’s a special and magical year for us and I love that all of my kids are so into the Christmas spirit. This week I helped my 4 year old make his handmade gift. He stamped these spice bags to give as gifts to his brother and sisters. This is really easy to do, but will keep a 4 year old busy for a chunk of time.

My son was so excited to finish stamping the bags and then fill them with CANDY! I bought some Brach’s classic candy mix, somehow it just tastes like Christmas and Grandma’s house!

Supplies:

• Spice Bags
• Stamping Ink Pads
• Stamps
• Candy

How To:

1. Lay bag flat.
2. Choose stamp and ink it up.
3. Stamp onto bag. Continue to add stamps to build a cute scene!
4. Fill with candy or treats.

The post Handmade Holidays | Stamped Spice Bags with Candy appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Look at this beautiful Candy Shop! My good friend Rebecca Bischoff (check out her website) was nice enough to create this Free Printable for me to post on my website. This sweet little candy shop prints out all on one page and you can color it and cut it out to create the Candy Shop you see above.

 How To | Cut and Color 3D Candy Shop

Supplies:

• Paper and Printer
• Crayons or Markers
• Pom-pom Balls
• Small Bottle Brush Tree
• Small Bottle Brush Wreath
• Tiny Candy Canes
• Assorted Embellishments
• Glue
• Paint Brush
• Scissors
• White Glitter
• Gold Glitter
• Cardboard
• Cut and Color 3D Candy Shop

How To:

1. Print out the Cut and Color 3D Candy Shop and color it in.
2. Cut out the candy shop and assemble it using glue or tape.
3. Cut out a large circle from cardboard (make sure it is larger than the house) to form the ground/base. I used a scalloped edge scissors around the edge of my circle.
4. Adhere the assembled candy shop to the cardboard circle near the back.
5. Use a paint brush to paint glue onto the top of the cardboard circle and around the bottom of the house. Sprinkle glitter on top of the glue and shake off extra glitter into the trash can. We also added touches of white glitter to the roof and then gold glitter onto the word Candy.
6. Add extra embellishments, like pom-pom balls and bottle brush trees to your Candy Shop and to the ground in front of the Candy Shop.
7. Add an electric tea light inside and watch it glow at night!

Thank you Rebecca for creating this fun candy shop for us to craft!

Free Download

Click Here – Cut and Color 3D Candy Shop

The post Advent Activity | Cut and Color Candy Shop appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Ohh, Christmas is so close! Are you looking for an easy gift for the kids to make Grandma? These paper maché bulbs covered in tissue paper squares and a handmade drawing would work!

How To | Tissue Paper Ornament

Supplies:

• Tissue Paper Squares
• Paper Maché Bulb
• White Piece of Paper
• Crayons or Markers
• School Glue
• Paint Brush or Sponge
• Wax Paper
• Plastic Container or Lid
• Scissors

How To:

1. Have your child draw a small picture. (I drew a circle with a pen first, then had my kids draw inside of it. Cut out the artwork.)
2. Use a small paint brush or sponge to paint glue in small patches on the paper maché bulb. Add tissue paper over the glue as you go. Be careful not to get too much glue on the bulb or the tissue paper will rip because it is too soggy. Let the glued tissue paper dry.
3. To get your artwork to lay flat on the round bulb, use a scissors to make a few small cuts inward around the edges. Then paint glue on the back of the artwork piece and then add the artwork to the bulb. Smooth artwork down with fingers, some areas of the art will overlap a bit. Paint a thin layer of glue over the artwork to preserve it. Let dry.
4. Wrap and give as a gift to grandma!

The post Advent Activity | Tissue Paper Ornament appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Have you written your letter to Santa yet? Have you been Naughty or Nice? Young kids will love filling out this letter. It has big lines and spaces for early writers. Ours are going in the mail and heading off to the North Pole tomorrow!

The days are going by so quickly. I still have presents to wrap! How about you guys, are you all caught up? I am looking forward to this weekend, I can’t wait to see my kids faces on Christmas morning!

Free Download: Click Here – Letter To Santa

The post Advent Activity | Letter To Santa appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

I must have jinxed myself by posting that we were doing really good at keeping up with our Advent Activities. Now we have fallen a little bit behind, but no pressure right? We were able to make these cute sock snowmen. My daughter said, “I want to use the biggest googly eyes we have so it looks really cute.” She was right the sock snow-woman looks cute with those big eyes.

How To | Sock Snowman

Supplies:

• White Sock from Each Child
• Googly Eyes
• Pom-Pom Balls
• Embroidery Floss
• Assorted Ribbon
• Assorted Fabric Scraps and Felt
• Scissors
• Glue
• Stuffing

How To:

1. Choose your sock and stuff it 3/4 full using Poly-fil Stuffing.
2. Tuck the end of the sock up inside itself. (See pic below.)
3. Use a piece of embroidery floss and tie it tightly around the stuffed sock to form the head and body shape.
4. Glue on eyes, nose and other trims to make it look like a snowman.
5. (To create the pink hat, we used another sock and slid it over the top of the head and tied the end of the sock in a knot.)
6. Let your kids play with their new buddy or put them on display.

Bottom of Sock Snowman

The post Advent Activity | Sock Snowman appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen… but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny nose… You will want to make your own version of Rudolph using a toilet paper tube and the free download you can find below!

How To | Toilet Paper Tube Reindeer

Supplies:

• Toilet Paper Tube
• Googly Eyes
• Red Pom-Pom Ball
• Dark Brown Construction Paper
• Light Brown Construction Paper
• Pink Construction Paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Black Marker
• Toilet Paper Tube Reindeer Template Download

How To:

1. Download Toilet Paper Tube Reindeer Template. Print it out. (You can choose to color in the shapes on the template or use the shapes to cut out pieces from colored construction paper.) Cut out pieces from construction paper or color all the pieces on the template. Set cut out pieces aside.
2. Trace your child’s hand print onto a piece of paper. Cut it out to use as the antlers.
3. Assembly the ears by gluing the inner ear piece onto the ear. Let dry. Glue assembled ears to toilet paper tube.
4. Next glue on the antlers behind the ears.
5. Glue on googly eyes.
6. Glue pom-pom ball to nose base. Let dry. Glue nose base with pom-pom ball to toilet paper tube.
7. Crease the hooves on the dotted fold-line. Glue hooves to toilet paper tube.
8. Use black marker to add a mouth.

Free Download:

Click Here – Toilet Paper Tube Reindeer Template

The post Advent Activity | TP Tube Reindeer appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

I wanted to show all of you the Snowman Family Frame we made yesterday for our Advent Activity. I love it, it looks so cute on the shelf with all the other Christmas decorations. We have been able to keep on schedule for our Advent Activities this far. How about you guys, are you able to keep on track? Some nights are a bit tricky and we have to do some catch up the next day, but the kids don’t know what day I planned the activity for, so it’s all the same to them!

If you want to create one of these Snowman Family Frames for yourself, or make one to give as a gift, you can find the instructions for it here: ChildMadeTutorials. She does a great job of explaining it and has lots of pictures. Just a hint, I found my frame at Dollar Tree, I can see from the picture she has the same frame. So if you are doing your crafts on the cheap, like I try to do, take a look at Dollar Tree for this frame. It is deep inside, but looks pretty much like a normal frame and is in the same section.

Stay tuned, tomorrow you can see the Toilet Paper Tube Reindeer we are making and it includes a Free Download Template to cut out your own pieces. Also, don’t forget to like us on Facebook!

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