How to make a Christmas Angel

I have another post for the Hive today on how to make this great Angel using Activa's Rigid Wrap.

You can check it out here:

Christmas Angel

Last Friday was our Christmas craft Day at school.  A big thank-you goes out to all Moms, Dads, Grandmas and Grandpas who helped!

I really appreciate it and we could not do it without you.

I'll have another post for you tomorrow.......here is a sneak peek.  That second set of Christmas inchies, finally!






See you then.

"We Three Kings" Christmas Craft

Here is a new Christmas Craft I've put together for our annual craft morning at school.

"We Three Kings"




It's a quick and easy project for one of our 12 craft stations.













MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- 3/4 by 3/4 cedar trim (nail strip)
- sandpaper
- felt
- acrylic paint in flesh tones
- fine sharpies, white gel pen
- tacky glue
- assorted embellishments
- glue gun, optional



PROCEDURE:

I bought my cedar trim at Home Depot.  I purchased a bundle which was about 24 - 4 ft long pieces.  That was plenty for the 150 kids who will be participating and cost me around $1.25 per 4 ft piece.

I then had a volunteer (Mrs. B's husband) cut all the pieces.

For each set you need a 4" piece, a 3" piece, and a 2" inch piece.

Sand the ends slightly.

You then want to paint one end of each piece a different flesh tone.






Let dry.

You want to cut a rectangle of felt for each King.  We are using green, red and blue.

The rectangles should be shorter then each trim piece so the faces will show and long enough to wrap completely around the piece of trim.

Put some tacky glue on one side of the felt.  Lay your trim down in the center and then wrap.

The seam will then be at the back.






Using fine sharpies and white gel pens mark on the faces.  I prefer them with the eyes closed but I'm sure we will get lots of different expressions on Craft Day.  You can color in some hair but it will only really show up on the sides of the heads.

Now add the crowns.  Use what you have.  I'm using some wired mini garland,  gold brocade trim and a gold snowflake that I cut in half.  Glue into place.  (all from the Dollar store)












Add the presents.  The kids are using little presents cut off some garland, a gem embellishment, and some little glittered styrofoam balls.  I found all of these supplies at the Dollar store.

Finally glue all your Three Kings together.  We will be using glue guns on Craft Day (operated by adults).  This just makes it go faster so the kids gave a completed craft to go into their bag.
That's it.













 A quick and easy Christmas craft.

See you next time.

How to Make a Christmas Birdhouse Ornament

So here is a good ornament project.  The inspiration is those old birdhouses that are made out of tin cans.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- paper roll from toilet paper or paper towels

- paint

- glitter glue



- small twig
- tacky glue
- scrap of white posterboard
- white glittery pipe cleaner
- pencil
- scissors
- gold thread or ribbon for hanging
- little piece of garland
- embellishment, I used some red wired berries

PROCEDURE:

Take paper roll and flatten one end.

Now you can just glue it closed but I sewed mine, I like the look and I'm too impatient to wait for the glue to dry!

Determine which side will be the front and fold over the top.  You don't need to glue this place right now.

Using a pencil draw a circle on the front.

Cut this out with scissors.  I poke it with my awl to get it going.

Paint the roll.  You can brush on some glitter glue for some sparkle.

Now glue down that fold using tacky glue.  Use some clothespins to hold in place while drying.

Trace out a circle on your scrap of posterboard that is slightly larger than the paper roll.

Cut out.

Glue on to the bottom of your house.





Let dry a bit.

Poke a hole beneath the cut out circle.

Apply a little glue to the hole and stick in your small twig for a perch.

Poke a hole thru the fold and add a thread or ribbon loop for hanging.

Add some garland and embellishment.

Take a white glittery pipe cleaner, form into a circle big enough to fit on the bottom of your birdhouse and glue into place.

Add some text if you want.  I typed out "Home for the Holidays" on the computer and printed it out.

Attach on house with glue.

That's it.

You can add a bird if you want but I like mine just the way they are.


Hope you give it a try.

How to Make a Christmas "House" shaped Book

I introduced this "House" shaped book project at my last conference.

Here is a Christmas version.

I have been playing around with books alot lately.  Trying to find ways to make them more interesting, ways to make the creation of a book more like an art project.

Here I utilize 2 front and back covers (one for the roof and one for the house).  The neat thing about this "house" book is that it can stand up on it's own, like a house for display.  Very cool!









Inside you can put in as many pages as you want, whatever type of paper you want.  It can be a story, Christmas poetry, photos, whatever you wish.

So let's get started:

MATERIALS REQUIRED 

- cardboard, I used corrugated for the roof, chipboard (cereal box) for the house
- book pages, scrapbooking paper, or colored paper
- glue
- scissors
- paint
- pencil crayons, gel pens, sharpies
- glitter glue
- white paper for pages
- jump rings, 15mm
- hole punch
- Mod podge for sealing, optional


PROCEDURE:

Take your cardboard and cut 2 pieces 4" x 5" and 2 pieces 3.5" x 7".

These will be the front and back covers.

Paint one side of each piece.  Pick contrasting colors for your roof and house.




Let dry.

Take some colored paper, scrapbooking paper or whatever you have and cover the other side of the cardboard.

Place the roof piece on top of the house piece, line up the tops.  Make a little mark with a pencil where the bottom of the roof is on the house piece.  

This will help you put the windows, etc. in the right place.

Start making your door and windows.  I like to have a nice frame around mine.  So it looks like the door frame and the window sills.

I cut out either the window or door and then glue that shape onto the paper I want as the frame.  I then trim with the scissors.
For example here is my black door glued to the white paper I want for the door frame.  I did not show any white at the bottom.

I then glue it to my house.  Using a white gel pen I add a house # and a door knob.

For the windows I sketched out some details in pencil and added color with paint or pencil crayons.

Using a fine sharpie I outline a few details in my windows.

I then add some glitter glue that I brush on.

 As I've said before I always have the kids use a paintbrush to apply glitter otherwise they just put gobs and gobs on!

Do the same for the back cover.

For the roof I cut a few shingles out of colored paper and glued them on.

Because this is a winter scene I also cut out some icicles out of white paper.  You could also use white felt.

I then added some white paint and glitter for an icy snowy roof.

I used my gel pen to draw in some more shingle shapes.

Cut some pages for your book just slightly smaller than your house cover.

Punch 2 holes into your front roof.  I then take a pencil and mark the subsequent pages and punch holes in them as well.  I'm trying to get everything to line up together.

Take 2 jump rings.  These are 15 mm, the largest I could find.  I found these at Wal mart, 90 rings for about $3.00.

The rings are aluminum so they open quite easily.  I start with one hole and then put all the covers and pages on in order.  Close up the ring and then do the other side.

Finally you can add a title to your house if you wish.  You can also apply a sealer like Mod podge to your covers to make them more durable.

That's it.  Now that you know the basic construction for these "house" books I'm sure you can think of other ways to use them.

I'm sure there's someone in your family that would love one!

See you soon.