Shapes Painting :)

For this craft, I searched my house for little plastic toys that were different shapes (circle, triangle, square, star) and gave the kids a pie plate which I had poured green and white paint in it (I found that using an old pie plate is easier than using a paper plate because I just need to wash it out when the kids were done instead of throwing it away and using a new paper plate everytime). The kids took the shapes and dipped them in the paint to make shapes on a piece of construction paper...eventually D stuck his hands in the paint and made a big mess, but he still had fun doing it!! This was pretty easy to do and the kids really enjoyed it so I am going to do this craft pretty often with the kids. It's also a good way to teach children about shapes and colors as well :).

Tree on a Snowy Day!!

I found this craft online and thought it was super cute!! Basically all you do is take a plain white piece of paper and cut a wavy line horizontally through the paper. Glue it onto a vertical piece of light blue construction paper, and cut off the excess white paper. Take your child's hand and paint it brown, but also paint a little down the wrist to make the trunk. Let them make the print wherever they want on the paper. Once the print dries, I gave D a small paintbrush and a small cup of white paint so he could paint snow falling from the sky. He had so much fun painting, and as usual ended up painting himself more than the paper!!!

Handprint Cactus!

I came up with this craft while I was watching Mister Maker, and he had made a cactus by tracing a mitten shape with his hand. I decided that instead of tracing a mitten shape, I was going to use handprints to be the cactus.

I took a sheet of yellow construction paper and had the kids spread glue on, and used a mixture of light brown sugar and cinnamon to make the sand. Once the glue dried, I painted each hand green and the kids made handprints to be the cacti. It's a cute craft that is super easy to make :)

To add extra detail, take a thin black marker to draw on the spikes on the cactus, or you could use a bit of dark green paint and a bit of light green paint for the handprint...it depends how elaborate you want to go :)

Painting with Food Coloring

This was a last minute craft I thought of to keep D and my daycare kid, L, quiet and not fighting!! All I did was gave each child a coffee filter, and a few cups of water dyed different colors with food coloring. The coffee filters ended up being only lightly colored, but it was still pretty and the kids enjoyed the craft. :)

Gingerbread Houses!

There are TONS of different ways to make a gingerbread house! Here are 3 easy ways that I have used.

About 3 years ago, my oldest nephew, R, who was 5 at the time asked if I would help him to make a "holiday house." I had never made one before, but I would (and still will) do anything for him so I said sure. We bought a bunch of candies, some flat shortbread cookies, and vanilla frosting. My neice, K, who was 2 at the time came along too. It was a lot of fun...basically they spread the frosting onto a piece of cardboard covered with aluminum foil, and decorated with with the cookies and candy. I just let them go crazy with it. I took pictures of them and my favorite one is them standing in front of their house looking super proud of what they made.

This year I did it the "lazy" way, and I went to the store and bought a gingerbread village kit, where you can make 5 mini houses. I have my sisters 4 kids, and my kid, so it was perfect for us! It wasn't very expensive and it came with everything I needed, the mix for the frosting, the candies, and the gingerbread shapes ready to be put together. My nephew R was very creative and actually turned the pieces of his house into a gingerbread man! The babies, D and T, didn't really do much except eat their houses LOL.

Finally, D went to a gingerbread making workshop with a bunch of other kids, and how it was set up was that each kid got a small milk or cream carton, about 6 graham crackers, frosting which was made with icing sugar and water until the was thick and sticky, and a plate full of candies. The kids used the frosting to "glue" the crackers and candy on to the carton to make their houses. D wasn't too interested in building a house; he glued two crackers down, then ate the candy, then ran off to play LOL.

Cinnamon Dough Ornaments!!

I came across this recipe when I was looking for ornament crafts for toddlers. I had made salt dough ornaments with my neices and nephews a few years back, and they are awesome!! The only issue I had with salt dough is that I had to knead it with my hands, and it dried my skin out sooooo bad!! The cinnamon dough, however, looked easy to make and it says they smelled awesome, so I tried it out.

Here is the website I found the recipe on:

http://crafts.kaboose.com/cinnamon-dough-ornaments.html

I made 2 batches and ended up with 15 big gingerbread men, and 17 small gingerbread men. My neices, nephews, and D got together at my mom's house and decorated the ornaments. It was fun, but I am pretty much all out of glitter glue!!

Its important to remember that it takes about 2-3 days for the dough to air-dry completely *DO NOT BAKE*, and while they are drying make sure you flip the ornaments a few times a day. The ornaments will also shrink a bit as they dry. However, your house will smell yummy...but do not eat the dough. That would be gross.

Rudolph Antlers!

This is such a cute and easy craft, I don't know why I didn't do it earlier!! I made the band a bit to big for D's head, but he enjoyed wearing them, then taking them off and ripping them, but at least I was able to get a good picture first!!

I traced his hands on a piece of brown construction paper, and made sure to trace a bit down his wrist as well. To make the band big enough to fit his head, I had to glue 2 pieces of construction paper together, then wrap it around his head, cut it to fit, and then glue it into a circle. I didn't have enough brown paper to make the band, so i used white. If I had thought about it at the time, I would have had D decorate the band with glitter just to give it a more festive feel, but oh well it still ended up cute!! I glued the antlers on the inside of the band, and let them dry. Afterwards, I colored D's nose with a red washable marker, and put the antlers on his head and started taking pics. Soooo cute!!!