Handmade Holiday Gift Idea

Do you ever have a craft idea and when it all comes together you are just giddy? Well, this plastic cloche ornament was one of those moments for me. I was searching and searching to find some tiny glass bell jars or cloches to make ornaments. Of course I am a little on the cheap side and didn’t want to pay very much, plus I wanted my kids to be able to use them to make ornaments and not feel like they cost to much to let them glue Legos or pipe cleaners inside. Then I was wandering the aisles of Dollar Tree and duh, it hit me.

I spied some plastic wine glasses with removable bottoms and presto this fantastic ornament idea was born. I am certain I am not the first crafter to have this idea and I am not sure why I never thought of it before. But if you are as excited as I am, then run, don’t walk to Dollar Tree and pick up a 6 pack of these plastic wine glasses and some of the plastic snowflakes I glued to the bottom.

(The Santa ornament above has the removable wine glass base glued onto the bottom of the ornament. Genius! You can use all the pieces! That makes it stand up on it own. Don’t add the ornament hanger and you can just display it on a mantle.)

I do want to warn that E•6000 glue is smelly and you will need to help your child with the gluing part. I let my kids pick out all the pieces and show me how they wanted them assembled, then I glued for them. Only my eight year old was able to do it herself.

Supplies:

• Plastic Wine Glasses (mine are from Dollar Tree in the party supply section)
• Plastic Snowflakes or (use the removable bottom from the wine glasses)
• E•6000 Glue
• Ribbon
• Scissors
• Assorted items to put inside (birds, Santa, bottle brush trees)

How To:

1. 

   Using either a plastic snowflake for the ornament base or the removable bottom from the wine glass, glue down the pieces you are using to form a scene inside your ornament.

2. If you are using the base of the glass, you can either put it right side up or upside down. Either way will work.

3. 

   Complete gluing on all items that will sit inside the ornament. Let dry.

4. 

   Place glue around edge of glass and stick down to base of ornament.

5. 

   Add glue to the stem of glass and tie ribbon around glue to create an ornament hanger. Let dry. Then tie ribbon into a loop.

    

6. Glue on additional embellishments to the outside of ornament. I got my rhinestone mesh to create the pretty blue bling around the bottom of my bird ornament from HERE.

The post Handmade Holidays | Plastic Wine Glass Ornament 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.

My 7 year old son made these drinking glasses to give as gifts to his siblings for Christmas. This is a really great kid craft! This year we are working on a new tradition. I am helping each child make a handmade gift for everyone in our family. Making special gifts makes my kids feel so excited and proud and since he loves to draw this was a natural fit. So you’ve seen what he made, don’t spill the beans to the rest of the family! Want to help your child make glasses like these? Read on to find out how simple they were to make!

I wanted to tell you a little more about my son’s choices of drawings. He drew a bunny for his older sister who loves bunnies, ninja’s for his brother, a crown for his little sister, a deer for Dad and an Astronaut for himself. There was one more glass for me, but he wrapped it so I couldn’t see it! I am so excited for him to give these to everyone! Plus now we will know whose cup is whose and I won’t have to keep washing them because we don’t know who drank out of what cup!

Supplies:

• Glass Markers – found at Michaels or Jo-Anns
• Glasses
• Drawings of what you want to draw
• Tape

How To:

1. Wash and dry glass.

2. 

   Measure your glass and cut a piece of paper so it will fit inside your glass. Use that paper to draw your picture on. Slide paper with picture into glass and use a piece of tape to secure picture temporarily to glass.

3. 

   The easiest way we found to draw on the glass is to lay it on a paper towel in your lap. Once glass is lying flat, draw your picture by following the lines of your paper sketch you see through the glass.

4. Let dry according to marker instructions. Hand wash.

The post Handmade Holidays | Painted Drinking Glasses 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!

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

{Handmade Holiday Idea}

This year we are making some Snowman Poop to give out as a joke to Uncles and Grandpas. I am sure they will think this is a fun gift from my kids. Don’t you know a silly Uncle or co-worker who deserves some Snowman Poop? My kids usually eat as many marshmallows as they dump in the bag. I love this project because it creates very little mess.

Advent Activity | Snowman Poop

Ingredients:

• Snowman Poop Label (In my SHOP)
• Sandwich or Zip Top Bag
• Mini-Marshmallows
• Stapler

1. Purchase and print the Snowman Poop Label from my SHOP.

2. Cut out the label and fold it in half.

3. Fill your baggie with mini-marshmallows. Seal the bag closed.

4. Place label over top of baggie and staple it onto the bag.

5. Give as gifts to Uncles and co-workers.

*Find the Snowman Poop Label in my SHOP titled Kids Advent Activities Printables. You get three activities in one download!

The back of the Snowman Poop label reads:

You’ve been naughty
That’s the scoop
So all you get is
Snowman poop!

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