thumbprint snowmen ornaments

 Now here's a craft that only takes about 15 minutes to do! (Minus drying time of course.) I picked up these ornaments at Michael's a little while ago with this craft in mind. I used some heavy vellum paper for this craft. I traced a circle slightly smaller than the ornament on the vellum and then cut out a bunch of circles for the kids to stamp their thumbprints on.

 We made two white circles for the snowmen, and then another colour thumbprint for the snowman's hat. Once the snowmen were dry Claire and I drew on the faces and buttons. (Not pictured here: the snowmen that Claire thought should have scary faces. Where does she get this from?)

I made this a double sided ornament by placing a small piece of double sided tape in between two pieces of vellum. Then just roll up the circle and slide it into the ornament. I am so happy with how these ornaments turned out- what a lovely keepsake ornament to have for years to come! To see similar ornaments that we made last year click here.

Linking up with: 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.

Claire's new cards

I have been working so hard to finish making some presents for Claire for Christmas. Again, this is probably something I should have started in July if I actually wanted to get them all done in time. One of Claires favorite things to do is to seek out my wallet and take out ALL of my cards. Generally I don't mind, that it of course until I go to pay for something and I can't find my debit card. So I decided to make Claire some of her own cards for Christmas. Actually I'm going to fill a purse for her- of things that she might find on my purse- maybe then she'll leave mine alone!

 I started by opening a document in paint and resizing it to my desired size. Then I coloured the background, and added the font. For the pictures (the flowers, stars and cow I used a dingbat font. I love dafont for free fonts & dingbats). For the Curious George card I got the pictures from the George website. I also made the backs of the cards too- complete with the black magnetic stripe! I then printed off the cards, glued the cards together, and laminated them.

 I added the images on the back of the cards so that Claire can practice counting while she's in the shopping cart.

 The cards in her new (Auntie's old) wallet.

 Hopefully Claire will love paying for the groceries with her Moostercard- I sure would love a break on my grocery bill!