A Slice of Life
Mommy Matters - Creative Christmas crafts :)─── 14:00 Mon, 08 Dec 2014
Keep the little ones busy this holiday by encouraging them to get creative. Here are 2 creative Christmas trees you can easily let them make. The idea was found on Alison McDonald's blog - she is a mom who doesn't mind if her house is covered in paint.
Bubble Wrap Christmas Tree
You will need some bubble wrap, paint, painter’s tape, paint brushes , heavy paper or large cardboard (paper grocery bags are perfect), a pencil and scissors.
Start by taping the bubble wrap to the work surface with the painter’s tape.
Next paint the bubble wrap with green. Next add the lights colors. Let kids decide which colors they want, this helps with colour recognition too.
Draw some trees on the paper/cardboard and cut out.
Press the paper into the wrap and peel back carefully.
Press the paper into the wrap and peel back carefully.
Let dry and cut out the tree shape for your toddler.
Recycled Christmas tree
You will need a brown grocery bag (or cardboard), some magazines, scissors, glue and a marker. Start looking through the magazines/newspapers for green things, you want the kids to have a variety of green to choose from, it’s what makes the collage so cool. Cut them out.
To help the little ones rip out pages that have green on them before starting the activity, and they can then cut out the actual picture. Older kids can search for the pages themselves. Toddlers may get frustrated very fast, so do this step for them, or be prepared to do it with them.
Draw or have your child draw the outline of a Christmas tree on the brown paper bag or on cardboard of their choice. Make it nice and big.
Have your child color the tree- skip this step with kids that will be able to cover the whole tree, this fills in the gaps well with the little guys though, and they have fun!
Start gluing the cut out green pieces on the tree. Show little ones that you want the green side facing out. They can also be creative and make Christmas trees in a variety of colours, they don’t necessarily have to be green.
Keep adding glue,and pieces of magazine. Don’t worry if all the corners are not glued down, they will roll up and give the tree some texture.
Draw a star in the corner.Find gold and yellow pictures in your catalog and cut out.
Glue onto the star shape. Let dry. Cut both the tree and the star out . For older kids have them add on ornaments or a Christmas message cut from the magazine’s text.
(Images and text courtesy of Alison McDonald www.notimeforflashcards.com)
