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!!!

Froot Loop Christmas Tree

Very simple craft, one that I did when I had no time to do any type of prep, and it was to get D to be quiet for 5 minutes...plus he ate most of the froot loops, so he had a little snack too LOL.

All you need is to cut a Christmas tree shape from a piece of green construction paper, and glue on some froot loops. Its a super cute craft that is sooo easy to do, and D had fun doing it. If you want to spice things up a bit, use sprinkles, marshmallows, glitter, smarties, etc to decorate the tree. :)

Snowman on a Snowy Day!!

I've been in a very glittery mood lately...maybe it's because of the snow and the days turning dark earlier...but that being said...D has been doing a lot of little crafts that include glitter. This craft was super easy and I think it turned out to be super pretty!!

All I did was cut out 3 circles out of white paper and had D glue them on a black piece of paper (his snowman is bowing LOL). I then covered the circles with glue from a gluestick, and D went crazy shaking the glitter onto the snowman. To make the snowflakes, I dipped a popsicle stick into liquid glue and made "snowflakes" and again, D went crazy shaking the glitter.

For extra embellishments, decorate the snowman with a scarf, top hat, or draw him a face before you put the glitter down. Make more than one snowman, or make a snow dog!! There are so many different things you could do to this craft to make it your own you just need to use your imagination!!

Rudolph and Santa Paper Bag Puppets

Paper bag puppets are super easy to make, and when you're done you can put on puppet shows that will keep kids of all ages entertained for at least a few days!!

All you need are paper lunch bags and a huge imagination and you are well on your way!!

**note**Make sure the lunch bag is upside down so that the flap is on top!!

For Santa, D spread glue on the bottom of the paper bag and pressed some cotton balls to make the beard. I cut a hat shape out of a piece of red construction paper, and he glued down some more cotton balls. I cut out and colored some eyes, and yes, he glued those down too.

For Rudolph, I traced D's hands (and part of his wrist!) on a piece of brown paper to make antlers, and D glued them to the back of the paper bag so they stuck out a little. I used the foam Q to cut out eyes and colored in pupils, and a red circle for Rudolph's nose. To add a little more "pizzazz" D sprinkled red glitter on to the nose.

Once the glue dries, put on a show!! Super fun for both parents and kids :)

Christmas Wreath!

This Christmas wreath was something I had been wanting to do for quite a while now, and it was super easy and it looks AWESOME!!

I painted D's hands with green paint, and made 12 green handprints on white paper. After the paint dried, I cut out his handprints, and he glued them onto a cardboard wreath (I cut out a wreath shape from a cardboard box and painted it green). Once the handprints were glued, I dipped D's thumb in red paint to make the berries. When the red paint dried, I put a little bit of glue on each "berry" and D sprinkled red glitter on it.

This wreath ended up super cute and is now hanging on our front door. The only downside is that our floor gets sprinkled with glitter everytime the door opens, but it's a small price to pay LOL :)