Okay – before we go any further – I just have something I need tell you all; I am not a super-duper, craft-tastic, Mom. You might be saying, “Come on Christie, you can do crafts! Anyone can be crafty if they really set their mind to it.” Ha! Not true — and here is a quick example to illustrate my point.
When I was pregnant with our boys, I was on bed rest for 3 months. So, I thought maybe I would try to learn how to crochet. My Mom is great and it, and so was my Grandma — so naturally I had to be great at it too, right? Wrong!
My Mom brought me lots of yarn, a few books on crocheting, and spent some time tutoring me on how to make a baby blanket. You would think that someone with 3 months to spare; someone whose day consisted of watching “Little House on the Prairie,” court room dramas, and eating peanut butter toast, would be able to carve out a few hours each day to really perfect the art of crocheting.
Nope! Not me. I made two blanket-ish looking things, but even the dog was too embarrassed to use them. I can’t say that I blame her.
I’ve tried scrap booking, needle point, and sewing; none of which turned out well.
I’m fine with that. I have other talents. I don’t need to be crafty to be complete; but kids love crafts — so I’ve had to bite the bullet and figure out how to do some of these things.
My point is this, if I tell you I have crafts to share, crafts which are simple and easy; you’d better believe they are. I really dislike doing a search for simple crafts; only to discover I need 20 items, oodles of time (and patience), and there is about a 99% chance our dog will end up with glitter and paint all over her.
So here are 4 crafts for you, which are simple and not too terribly messy. I promise!
Christmas Tree Ornament:
What you need:
- Craft Sticks
- Glue gun
- Green felt or construction paper
- Markers
- pipe cleaner/ribbon/yarn
- foam stickers
Now — you can make this as simple or elaborate as you would like. I have two 3yr olds so we go the simple route.
Directions:
- I let the boys color the crafts sticks with green markers.
- Then I hot glued the sticks together to make a triangle and attached green felt to the back.
- I had some wonderful winter themed foam stickers that a friend gave me and just let the boys put them on as they would like.
- Finally, I glued a pipe cleaner on the back so we could hang the ornament up.
See? Simple! If you have older kids, they can use craft glue and they might like to decorate the tree with buttons, glitter glue, puff paint, uncooked pasta, paints, or whatever else you can think of.
We also did some Snowflake Ornaments which consist of the same materials. These are just craft sticks, hot glue, paint, glitter puff paint, and a pipe cleaner. Here’s a photo:
Salt Dough Ornaments
I loved making these because I love to cook. The boys enjoyed cutting out the shapes and decorating them.
What you need:
- 1 Cup Flour
- 1/2 Cup Salt
- 1/2 cup water
- Cookie cutters
- Paint
- Glitter Spray (optional — but totally cool)
- Black Marker
- Ribbon/yarn/string
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees
- Combine flour, salt and water. Knead and flour dough until it isn’t sticky anymore
- Roll out dough until about 1/4 inch thick
- Cut out shapes with cookie cutters (if you don’t have cookie cutters handy you can cut into squares or triangles and things like that)
- Cook for 2 hours
- Let cool
- Let the kids paint and decorate. We painted one day and the next they decorated with markers
- Give ornaments a little spritz with glitter spray and you are good to go!
Hang them on the tree, tie them on packages, or let the kids wrap them up to give to grandparents.
Foam Sticker Collage
This one is so simple; I’m almost embarrassed to include it — but my kids were quiet for a long time doing this project and they were really proud of their work.
What you need:
- Construction Paper
- Foam Stickers
Directions:
- Get out the paper
- Get out the stickers
- Let the kids go crazy creating!
These are simple and the biggest mess you’ll have to clean up, are the backings from the stickers and whatever stickers fall on the floor. That’s it!
The kids get to have fun and I don’t have to stress about the mess. It’s a win, win for all!
If you have a simple craft idea you’d like to share — please do! I’d love to hear about it.
Are you crafty? What crafts do you enjoy making?
