Christmas Owl Sign

I love Christmas! So naturally, making Christmas crafts is one of my favorite things to do. The kids and I have been doing lots of little crafts here and there. (Follow me on Instagram to see what we've been working on! You can check out my posts here.)

I saw this craft on my Pinterest strolls in October and loved it so much that I was inspired to make an owl themed Christmas sign.

Supplies needed:

• wooden plaque/sign (I bought mine at the dollar store)
• an old book to cut up
• patterned paper
• other various paper scraps (red, black, white, orange, yellow)
• sparkle paint
• ribbon
• mod podge

I love these wooden signs from the dollar store- I've made a few different ones in the past, but this one is my favorite. I started by painting the edge of the sign white. I debated leaving it unpainted but thought this would give it a more finished look.

Then I placed a piece of white computer paper on top of my plaque and used a crayon to etch out the shape of the sign. I cut out the sign shape and then traced it on to the patterned paper, and then cut that shape out. If you were going for a more rustic look you could probably cut a rough shape out, mod podge it down and then use sand paper to finish the edges. (Here's a picture from another sign that I was working on.)

After I cut out the paper I mod podged it to the sign. Squeeze out all the air bubbles. I mod podged the accent piece of stripped paper on at this time too.

Then I created an owl pattern and traced cut the owls out from pages of an old book. I cut out the circles for the eyes, using my hole puncher to cut out the smallest circle. Then I cut a small triangle out of orange paper for the beak of the owls. I glued the eyes together and then glued the eyes and beaks to the owl cut outs. I used my cricut to cut out a little Santa hat for one of the owls. I also cut out a little star banner.

Then I glued the owls in place (using Mod Podge). I added on the accents, hat and stars, and then painted over everything with a nice layer of Mod Podge.  To finish my sign I added a cute little gingerbread ribbon so that I could hang it up.

Is everyone else in full on Christmas mode yet? I'm almost done my Christmas shopping, just have to pick up a few stocking stuffers for the kids!

footprint Santa & Rudolph

I love Christmas crafting. Surprise! This is one of my favorite crafts because one footprint is Claire's and one is Simon's. I love that the project incorporated both of them on the same paper.

To make the Santa, I paint the heel of Claire's foot cream colour and the rest of her foot red. Then I painted Simon's foot brown and stamped it next to Claire's footprint. Note: When you're doing this try to make sure you line up the toes of the footprints, otherwise you'll end up making stairs for Santa and the reindeer to walk up :) After I stamp their feet on the paper I have a face cloth right next to me to wipe the paint off of their feet. I always use Crayola paints and it wipes right off. We usually head up for a bath shortly after these projects so that I don't have to worry about getting all of the paint out in between their toes.

Once the paint was dry I started to create the reindeer. I used a brown Crayola marker to draw antlers, ears, arms, and a tail. I used a red marker to draw boots and a smile and a blue one to dry a hat. I added some googly eyes and a sequin for the nose, it is supposed to be Rudolph after all. Then I cut up some patterned paper so that Rudolph could carry some presents. Now while I think that the reindeer looks wonderful, Claire (she's 5) feels like he's not authentic. "Mommy, Rudolph doesn't wear boots or a hat and he DOESN'T carry presents. That's Santa's job." So maybe consult your little ones as to whether Rudolph wears boots and a hat :)

For Santa, I used a black marker to drawn Santa's boots, belt and nose. I used a red marker to draw Santa's hat, smile and arm. I drew his mitten and toy bag with green markers. I glued a sequin on Santa's belt and added some googly eyes. Then I ripped apart a cotton ball to make Santa's beard, the fur on the top of the hat and the ball on the end of the hat.

reindeer sandwiches 4 ways

 I, much like both of my kids, am so excited for Christmas. I've started packing Christmas lunches already (you know, since we celebrate Thanksgiving in October). Last week was my first week making Christmas lunches, and I decided to start with Reindeer ones :)

 For my first one, I used a gingerbread cookie cutter and turned it upside down to make a reindeer. (Thanks for the idea, Martha!) I melted a few chocolate chips and piped the antlers right onto the sandwich. Then I
made my usual marshmallow cut in half with a chocolate chip for the eyes and a red smartie for the nose. I also packed some gingerbread muffins a clementine, and an applesauce (not pictured, obviously.)

 I used the same techniques on this one, I just used a star cookie cutter. I also included a clementine (my kids can't get enough of these), some red and green grapes and some red jello that I made right in the container.

 This one was so simple, it might be my favorite one! I used a large circle cookie cutter to cut out the sandwich. I used pretzel letter E's for the antlers. I cut up some strawberries and sent Claire with another clementine and an applesauce.

 I love this reindeer pick. It was from a pack of cupcakes that I picked up last Christmas season.

 I used a heart cookie cutter and turned it upside down as well. I packed some red and green goldfish crackers, some grapes and a few marshmallows for a treat (it was Friday after all!)

Reindeer sandwich

My kids loved this lunch! Leave it to Martha to think that you could turn a gingerbread man cookie cutter upside down and make it look like a reindeer. Take a few extra minutes to make this lunch, and really get your kids excited for Christmas.

To make:

Melt a few tablespoons of chocolate chips in the microwave, on 20 second intervals, until the whole dish of chocolate is melted. Pour the chocolate into a small plastic bag, and cut the corner of the bag. On a piece of wax paper, pipe some small antlers. Place the wax paper in the freezer while you make the rest of the sandwich.

I made a ham sandwich for Claire. To make the eyes, I cut a mini marshmallow in half, and stuck a mini chocolate chip on each marshmallow. I placed a red smartie on the tip of the sandwich for the nose. Take the wax paper out of the freezer, and carefully peel off the antlers, and place on the sandwich.

That's it! I hope that your kids enjoy it as much as mine did.

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op & Tatertots and Jello  & Rust & Sunshine

cork stamped ornaments

I love these cork print ornaments that Claire and I made. They are not made using traditional Christmas colours, but obviously you could make these with whatever colours you prefer. They require a little planning, but don't take very much time to make.

Required supplies:
cardstock (I used 4x4 paper)
paint (various shades)
paper scraps for flag/pennant thing
sewing machine (OR staple a length of bakers twine or ribbon to the ornament)
scissors
black pen/marker
wine cork

To start, I cut my cardstock into 4x4 squares. Rather than let Claire go all willy nilly stamping the cork all over the page, I made a few very tiny, very light dots with a pencil where I wanted her to stamp the ornaments. She had fun choosing what colours went where.

When the paint was dry, I sewed a line from the top of the ornament to the top of the page. You could just cut a piece of twine or ribbon and staple it on the page. Draw little hooks on the top of the ornaments.

Use two paper scraps to create the flag/pennant at the top of the page. I used a couple of Christmas rub ons that I had. You could just write Christmas words, but I don't always love my handwriting.

I chose just to make these as decorations, but you could use a larger piece of paper, and make it into a card, or conversely, using a smaller bit of paper and make gift tags.

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op & Tatertots and Jello

sprinkle pudding cups

 I love this idea of lining a milk cup with sprinkles. It has been beautifully photographed here. As one of the kids Advent activities, we had a little Christmas tea party yesterday. I had a lot of Christmas sprinkles kicking around, and these cups only took a few extra minutes to make. They were definitely worth making, the kids LOVED them.

To make the glasses, grab whatever chocolate you've on hand. I used chocolate chips the first time I made them, and bittersweet chocolate the second time. Melt it in a double boiler, or in the microwave on intervals. Dip the glass in the chocolate, and then in a bowl of sprinkles. They will set quickly.

My sister (is law) brought over some of the whipped shortbreads that we love so much here. I made Christmas Rice Krispie squares, and homemade chocolate pudding. I used this recipe, but I found it a bit too chocolatey. Never thought that I'd say that! It would be just as nice with
whatever store bought pudding you like. Whenever we have tea parties here, I fill the tea pot with chocolate milk, and the creamer with milk. The kids love stirring the two together.

For our advent activity today, we're going to write and post our letters to Santa. The anticipation is starting to build...

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op & Tatertots and Jello 

cute penguin craft

What a cute penguin craft to brighten up these dark winter days! I am so proud of Claire, because she cut all of the penguin pieces all by herself. This was just the second time that I traced shapes on paper and asked her to cut them out.

What you need:
black paper
white paper
orange paper (scrap)
patterned paper (with a small pattern)
12x12 background piece of paper (your colour choice)
decorative ribbon
black marker
scissors
glue
template

Start by printing off the template. Cut the pieces out of the template and trace them on the paper. The main body and wings need to be traced on black paper (I used a white colouring pencil which worked well.) Then penguin tummy and eyes need to be traced on white paper. I used an embossed piece of white paper for the tummy. I like the extra piece of texture that it adds to the penguin. Trace the beak on orange paper. I forgot to include the template that we used for the earmuffs, so just make sure the circles that you use are bigger than the penguin's eyes.

Have your child cut out all of the shapes. Once cut, you can start to assemble your penguin on the paper. We started with the main body, followed by the penguin tummy, eyes, beak (fold in half) and earmuffs. I cut a scrap of ribbon for the long bit of the scarf, and then two small pieces for the tails of the scarf. Once Claire glued the scarf on the penguin, she glued the wings on, so that they covered up the cut edges of the ribbon. Lastly, she drew (traced) a line to connect the ear muffs, and dots for the eyes.

Click here for the link to the template.

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op & Tatertots and Jello

handprint wreath

I still love doing handprint crafts, but now that Simon's 2 1/2, they're increasingly harder to do with him. He's a very independent two year old, who always knows just what to do, even without instruction. Read- he doesn't want any help. From anyone. Ever. I was so happy when he let me help him place his hand on the paper, not 1, not 2, but seven times! He did a great job using his thumb to make a few red berries the next day (once all the green paint was dry. I did not want to risk messing up all of those beautiful handprints.)

I knew that I wanted to add a bow to the wreath to finish it off. I tried drawing one myself, but that was a huge fail. I thought that a ribbon bow would look too small on such a large wreath (and I didn't want to buy ribbon just for this project.) Imagine my delight when I saw that Ellinee had pinned a link to their paper bows. I love the red chevron ones that they have posted, but my printer is running low on ink, so I printed the template and then cut out the bow using some patterned paper that I had on hand. The 3D bow was the perfect finishing touch for this handprint wreath.

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op & Tatertots and Jello

Christmas wreath craft

I think that this is my favorite Christmas craft yet. It was so simple to make too. My own Christmas cards that I'm making this weekend will be a spin off of this craft.

To start, I mixed a few different shades of paint together. I mixed green with white, green with yellow, and then just used plain green. Unfortunately, the contrast didn't show up as much as I'd hoped on the finished product. Claire stamped the rim of a small glass in the paint and then stamped it on the paper. Three times, once in each different shade of green. When the green paint was dry, Claire used a q-tip that she dipped in red paint to make the berries on the wreath. I tied a small bow with a bit of red ribbon that I found in my stash. To finish the card off, I used a stamp and gold ink pad to stamp the words love hope peace joy.

Are you making your own Christmas cards this year? I will have the kids make a few to send to their friends who don't live near us anymore.

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op & Tatertots and Jello

Rudolph sandwich

I love making these cute lunches for my kids. They don't even think twice about eating them. They hardly take any extra time to make, this one took just over 5 minuets. That's it!

What you'll need:
bread (I used whole wheat and white bread)
1 mini marshmallow
2 mini chocolate chips
1 red smartie/m&m
heart cookie cutter (could use a large circle one)
small circle cookie cutter

We always have a million loaves of bread here, so I used a whole wheat bread for the big part of the sandwich, and white bread for the nose. Use what you have on hand. As you can see from the picture above, I used two slices of whole wheat bread and made a (peanut butter and jam) sandwich, and just one piece of bread folded over to make another peanut butter and jam sandwich.

Use the large heart cookie cutter to cut the large sandwich. Use the smaller circle cookie cutter to cut a circle from the small, folded over sandwich. Cut the marshmallow in half, and stick a mini chocolate chip on each sticky part of the marshmallow. Use the leftover crusts to form the antlers. Then it's time to put it all together. Place the heart on the plate, upside down. Add the antlers to the heart. Place the small circle on top of the heart sandwich to make the nose. Add the red smartie on top of the small circle sandwich. Add the eyes above the nose.That's it! It took me longer to write this blog post than to make this adorable lunch.

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op & Tatertots and Jello

Christmas paper tree

 
This was one of the first Christmas crafts that we did this year. I originally saw a similar project done on Meg Duerksen's blog last year. Claire has a small attention span, so we made ours on a smaller scale. For our base, we used a white piece of 6x6 cardstock. I cut a bunch of green paper into strips for Claire. She put them in the order that she wanted to use them, and then, starting at the bottom, she cut each piece smaller than the last one. Then she glued them all onto the cardstock (using a glue stick.) When she was done, she drew a tree trunk on the tree and glued a star at the top. The first of many Christmas projects!

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op & Tatertots and Jello

gingerbread waffles

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas here! The kids and I have been on a Christmas crafting storm around here lately. I have a week full of posts this week, and we're still going strong. 

I saw a recipe for these gingerbread waffles in a magazine for our local grocery store and knew right away that I wanted to make them for breakfast. The night before I was going to make them, I spent thirty minutes or so combing my Pinterest boards and browser history trying to find the recipe. That was before I remembered that I'd read it in a magazine, and not seen the recipe online. Not hard to tell that we're moving to a digital world!

These waffles will make your house smell so good all day long. Claire said the the batter smelled like donuts. How can you go wrong with that?

Gingerbread Waffles

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup butter, melted

In a bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Add in buttermilk, eggs, molasses and butter. Stir everything together, until well combined.

Fill greased waffle iron with 1/2 of batter per waffle. Cook until golden brown. Serve right away with butter and maple syrup.

Note: Since I never actually have buttermilk on hand, I just add white vinegar to my milk and let it sit for 5 minutes before using it. For this recipe, add 1 1/2 tbsp vinegar to the 1 1/2 cups of milk.

I love waffles, but for some reason my kids prefer pancakes. I made pancakes for the kids using this recipe, and waffles for myself. If you're going to make these into pancakes, I would add another little splash of milk to make the batter a little runnier.

Recipe adapted from Sobeys' Inspired Magazine Holiday  2012

Enjoy!

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Tatertots and Jello

winter garland

I didn't realize how long it has been since I last posted. Claire, Simon and I have been so busy making Christmas crafts that I've hardly had any time to post about the crafts that we've been making. The idea behind this one was that you could use simple shapes to create these designs. Turns out they're a little more tedious than I had planned. So this is a craft that you would need to do parts of (like gluing on the hands and feet) and then have your little ones add on some of the other details.




 The penguin. This was one of the easiest ones to make. I used a 3" black circle, 2 1/2" white circle, and a small circle punch to create the hat. I cut out two small black wings, and a small candy cane  for him to hold. To make the feet I used a small circle punch and cut it into quarters. Then we just glued on the eyes, and drew on the face.

The Santa. I used a 3" red circle and a 3" cream coloured circle that was cut in half. I triangle was used for the hat, and a heart punch for Santa's beard. To make the feet I used a small circle punch and cut it into quarters. I cut out his hands, and made a small belt out of black and green paper. Then we just glued on the eyes, and drew on the face.

 The reindeer. I used a 3" brown circle and a 2 1/2" tan coloured circle that was cut in half. I used my snowflake punch to create the antlers. I cut the ears out of the brown paper and a small cream coloured circle for the face. For the collar, I used a red polka dot ribbon. Then we just glued on the eyes, and drew on the face.

The snowman. I used a 3" white circle and then just embellished it a bit. Green mittens, and a small circle punch and cut it into quarters for the feet. A little hat cut out of black paper, and some green ribbon for the scarf.


Claire had a lot of fun drawing all the faces on the banner. To simplify things, you could probably just draw on the hands, it sure would save a lot of time!


Linking up with: Tip Junkie &  Tatertots and Jello

footprint angels

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas- everywhere we go...

We are getting a huge snow storm today and the kids are so excited! We've already been outside playing once, and I'm sure we'll be back outside this afternoon. It's starting to feel very Christmas-y around here and I love it. We've hung our lights up outside, and we've been hanging up some of the crafts that we've been making up inside.

This craft was quite easy to make.
1. paint the heel of the child's foot a cream colour and the rest of the foot a light pastel colour

2. once that's dry, use the cream paint to paint arms and legs. Use gold paint to paint a circle above the head and also the wings. (Don't worry about being precise painting the wings- you'll draw the details on later.)
3. using a black felt tip pen or marker, draw on the face and shoes. Trace around the body of the angel, adding some details like buttons, and a belt. Outline the wings adding scalloped detail to the bottom parts of the wings. Lastly, outline the halo and connect it to the head.

After Claire had finished stamping her foot a few times, I picked the best purple and blue footprints and took them to Staples and printed out some colour copies of them. Then we came home and added the details on all of the angels.  We like to be able to give the pictures away to her family. We just personalize each picture with a little message and then our family usually hang the pics on their fridge!

What are you making to get ready for the holidays? Link your projects up in the comments so I can check them out!

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Linking up with: Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie &  Tatertots and Jello

thumbprint santa tags

Thanksgiving and Halloween have come and gone here in Canada, and we are getting so excited for Christmas. Claire asks every day if we can get our Christmas tree yet, and she's well on her way to learning her second Christmas carol! We've been busy working on Christmas crafts- this is one of the first ones that we did.

The supplies to make these are pretty basic. 

A few tags cut from cardstock

red and cream paint

red and black pen

googly eyes

sequin for the belt (or you could use a small button)

q-tips (we just pulled the cotton off the ends for the hat and beard. Admittedly, I was looking for our cotton balls, but I couldn't find them so we used the q-tips.)

twine to hang the tags (mine is from The Twinery and I love it!)

Sadly I have no pictures from along the way. Paint + toddlers = work fast before the paint covers everything.

Start with the cream colour paint. Have (or help) the child stamp a thumbprint in the middle of the card. Using the red paint stamp a thumbprint on top and underneath of the cream one.

Set aside and let them dry.

Once the tags are dry, add on all of the finishing touches. Use the red pen to draw the smile, arms and legs. Use the black pen to draw the belt. Glue on the eyes, sequin, and cotton. (Roll the cotton off of the q-tips and form ball the the top of the hat. Roll the cotton between your fingers to stretch out for Santa's beard.)

Embellish with some beautiful twine (or ribbon) for the prettiest Christmas gift tags.

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Has anyone else started their Christmas projects? Link them up in the comments, I'd love to see what you're working on!

Linking up with: Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie &  Tatertots and Jello

snowmen Christmas ornaments

 I loved my snowmen tags that I made, but I knew that they wouldn't last hanging on the tree. As soon as Claire would have seen it she would have snapped it off of the tree and folded it in half. I really wanted to have something that I hold onto for a few years so, when the Christmas decorations went on sale this Boxing day I picked up a pack of silver ornaments so that Claire could make the thumbprint snowmen on the ornaments.

Here's what you need:

ornaments (any colour, blue would be nice)

white and black paint

black and orange markers

1. press on two white thumbprints on the ornament (we let these dry before we moved onto the next step, but if you're doing these with older kids (or a child that will let you help them), it might not be necessary

2. press on a black thumbprint on top of the two white ones (let dry)

3. add any other details with permanent markers (I drew a line for the top hat, and added buttons, eyes, nose, and smiles. On the back of the ornaments I wrote Claire's name and the year.