We have a holiday tradition in our house - our annual ornament decorating party. Every year when it comes time to unwrap our packed ornaments and get ready to decorate we always tell stories about when we made our "Superhero" ornaments or all the other ornaments we made together with family and friends.
I like to get together all the kids and lay out a nice spread of options for them to make their own ornaments or decorations to bring home and add to their trees or holiday cheer.
Here are my top five favorites that will be sure to add delight to your crafting projects.
I like to get together all the kids and lay out a nice spread of options for them to make their own ornaments or decorations to bring home and add to their trees or holiday cheer.
Here are my top five favorites that will be sure to add delight to your crafting projects.
Snowy Balloon Ornament
This craft will be sure to delight the little ones - it involves balloons, string, glue and glitter. What more could you ask for. I actually made two of these last night with my 6 and 4 year old boys in a total of about 10 minutes. Super easy, not too much mess if your prep carefully, and super fun results. For simply instructions check out this Martha Stewart page (of course Martha!).
Magazine Christmas Trees
You know all those Christmas catalogs that are starting to come in the mail - well now you can actually turn them into something beautiful for your house. These are super fun and almost cathartic for me at night time. I do all my folding when the kids are asleep and then have them ready for decorating. For safety you might even want to think about doing the spray painting ahead of time so the kids don't get spray paint all over the place. Let them do the glitter and whatever other decorations they'd like to add onto their personal tree. I've provided the kids with foam stickers, buttons, pom-poms, string and whatever else you can think of and their results are really super fun and creative. Here are the simple Martha Stewart instructions.
Melted Crayon Ornament
All those left over crayon parts can become these beautiful kaleidoscope ornaments. This one requires a little more parental supervision since it involves a blow dryer, some glass ornaments and they could heat up for little hands to hold on to. But it's super easy, you can customize your color choices, and it's a fun little science experience to see the crayons melt and colors blend. Here are the instructions from "Meet the Dubiens".
Better Than Salt Dough Cookie Cutter Ornaments
A couple of years ago I tried a salt dough to make some cookie cutter ornaments. It was just okay - the ornaments were bumpy even after rolling and smoothing several times, they did not turn out flat they were also raised or leavened. So i wasn't super impressed. This year I found a new recipe to try out. It only involves:
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 cup baking soda
- 3/4 cup water
- (if you want to make colored dough, add the food coloring to the water before you mix it in.)
- Baking at 175 degrees F for 1 hour
Origami Diamonds
Confession - I love origami. There are so many patterns out for christmas ornaments. This one caught my interest. Imagine all the different sizes and colors and patterns you could make. I'm thinking of making a bunch of these and maybe even stringing them together to make an origami garland. You could use some spray Mod Podge and add some glitter to bling them up too. Here's the tutorial from "Design and Form".
For more fun ideas on other ornaments to consider visit my Pinterest Christmas pins. Hope you enjoy making some of your own ornaments.
For more fun ideas on other ornaments to consider visit my Pinterest Christmas pins. Hope you enjoy making some of your own ornaments.