Easter wreath

This morning, we made Easter wreaths.  This is a super-simple, super cute craft that kids of all ages will enjoy making.

Cut a wreath out of light-wieght cardboard.  A cereal box would work well for this.  I traced a dinner plate for the outer circle, and a kid’s bowl for the inner circle. 

Have your little one crumple 3×3 squares of tissue paper, and glue them all over the wreath.  

We stapled a ribbon bow to the bottom and a ribbon loop to the top for hanging.  

Aren’t they pretty?

Happy Easter!

book-page wreath

This post will be short and sweet.  I have only one photo, and I don’t have my own tutorial, because I made this wreath a couple of years ago, long before I started blogging.

I do however, have the link to Living with Lindsay’s tutorial right here.  It’s the one that I used.

How gorgeous is this wreath?  They’re so fun to make!  I’ve made 4 now, but this one was my biggest and most glorious.  I made it for a friend with a HUGE kitchen and vaulted ceilings, so she was looking for something really big to fill her space.  To make this enormous wreath, I rolled the book pages LONG ways, if you know what I mean – from one SIDE of the page to the other.  To make a smaller, more manageable wreath, and one that would fill a space in a “normal” home, roll/fold your pages starting with the short end (the top or bottom) of the page.

Anyway, if you’re going to try your hand at one, all I’d advise is, have plenty of glue sticks (for your glue gun) handy, because you’ll go through quite a few of them.

Happy crafting!

button wreath

I have a thing for buttons.  You may have noticed.  I love them.  I mean I REALLY love them.  Honestly.  My mom and my friends know that nothing makes me happier than being presented with a little bag or jar of buttons.  As a result, my collection is really growing, so today we found the perfect craft to put some of them to good use.  

These little wreaths are really easy to make, but when you’re working with little ones, they do take a bit of time.  It’s a challenging exercise for little fingers, and some of the 2′s needed a bit of help.  It’s a super activity for fine motor control development though, and the colours, textures, and sounds that buttons make as they clack together always captivate us.  

Sorting the buttons was an activity in itself.  The Hooligans love playing with buttons as much as I do, so we sat for about an hour on the kitchen floor, just sifting through them, sorting, stacking, scooping, pouring.  I had a couple of glass containers, for them to spoon the buttons into while we sorted, and one little guy said he loved the “music” the buttons made when he poured them into the jar.  Sigh…I know what you mean, buddy!

To make your wreath, you’re just going to thread your buttons onto a pipe cleaner.  You might want to make a little loop at one end to prevent little ones from pushing the buttons right off the end of the pipe cleaner.  When you get your wreath to the size that you’re happy with, twist the ends of the pipe cleaner together to secure, and trim off any excess.

You’re going to see a bit of the pipe cleaner where you tied it off, as it makes a bit of a gap between the first and the last buttons.  Just wrap that with a bit of ribbon and tie a decorative bow. 

Then attach a loop, and go and hang it on your tree!

Awww.  Aren’t they the sweetest?

Christmas crafts

Last year, we set out to make a different tree ornament every day in the month leading up to Christmas. By the time the holidays rolled around, the Hooligans had made enough ornaments that parents were joking that their trees were starting to lean over under the weight of them all.  We had a ton of fun making them and they’re all beautiful enough to be displayed with pride.  Sadly, there were pictures that are somehow missing in action, but here are some that will hopefully inspire.

simple enough for even the littlest fingers, thread beads onto a metallic pipe-cleaner, and bend into a Chrstmas tree

Cut 2 mittens from felt. Glue a cotton ball to the cuffs. Decorate with buttons and join mitts with a piece of wool.

Paper Mache Gingerbread houses made from juice/milk cartons and colourful foam bits.

Gingerbread Man - I don't think this needs explaining.

I Spy Ornament: My very favourite! Fill a plastic ornament (I got these at Michael's) with artificial snow and tiny objects (lego, paperclips, beads, buttons), and attach an I Spy List. So pretty and so fun for little ones.

Poinsettias: wrap a toilet roll with red paper and then cut into 5 pieces about 1 inch thick. Flatten them out to get petal shape. Glue tissue paper to tops and let dry. Hot glue petals together and top with a button.together at center. Glue some artificial leaves to the back. We added glitter glue to the petals as well.

Snowman sticks: I had a foam snowman craft kit so we used the hats, noses and scarves from that, and glued them onto popsicle sticks that we'd painted white. Add some eyes and some buttons and you're done.

Candy house: Cut house and roof from cardboard and cover with cardstock. Decorate with colourful buttons, ribbon and foam bits.

Cut cardboard stars and wrap with wool, securing with hot glue.

These were the biggest hit of the season last Christmas. I made a set for each Hooligan. Every set had the same cast of characters (Mary Joseph, Baby Jesus in a manger, Wiseman, Angel and Shepherd), but I used different fabrics for each set so everyone's was unique. Cut toilet roll tubes in varying heights. I covered the face portion with cardstock and the body with scraps of fabric. Decorate with beads, buttons, wool, jewels etc. The manger was a toilet tube cut in half long ways and filled with straw coloured wool. The stable is a shoebox decorated with scrapbook paper. When the kids are finished playing, the characters are kept in the box. These were a ton of fun to make, but stock up on hot glue sticks...I used a LOT!

These were the absolute cutest! Toilet paper tubes covered in quilt batting. Cut hat and scarf from fleece (cinch hat with rubber band and fringe the top). Googly eyes, a felt nose and rosy cheeks.

A few other crafts that we made can be seen here: but I didn’t keep pictures of were:

Star of David: paint 6 popsicle sticks white and glue into a star shape.  Once dry, glue sparkly gems on.

Easy Icicles: Have kids thread beads onto a pipecleaner.  Bend the top end to form a hook or loop.

Button Wreath: Cut a small wreath out of cardboard and have kids paint it red or green.  Glue buttons all around and add a bow.

As I sit here writing this, it’s a warm summer day – kind of hard to get my head around Christmas!