ornaments Archives - Kids Ain't Cheap

Children love to create gifts that they can give to loved ones. This is their heartfelt way of showing those who love them most that they love them back. We must keep in mind that not all crafts our kids create will look perfect but that is what makes them so beautiful!

Here are some fun and creative crafts that will be simple to make and your friends and family will be delighted to receive. I also believe that these crafts are so simple that even an uncrafty mom such as myself, can happily join in the fun.

Handprint Wreath

This is a craft that each of the boys made as at preschool last year and I absolutely cherish it! It can be a little messy but if you are organized about it this (like their fabulous teachers are) it shouldn’t be too difficult to do with preschool age children or older. Of course, you can do this with toddlers if they will cooperate but my experience in getting the boys to make hand prints when they were that age was not great.

What you need:

Fabric — A light colored one like the one pictured above will work best.
Thin dowel
Green and red paint
Sponge paint brush and disposable container
Large bow Stamp
Ribbon

You can make these as small or as large as you would like. It’s totally up to you. So cut the fabric if you need to then either sew – or my favorite is to use fabric tape – to make an opening that the small dowel can slide through.
Put some green paint into a container then take the sponge brush and paint your child’s hand with it.
Instruct your child to spread out their fingers then push their hand gently onto the cloth. Have them lift their hand straight up. You may have to help them with one hand while holding the cloth with the other.
Paint their cute little hand again and repeat Step #3 several times. You’ll want to turn the cloth so you can make a circle of green hand prints. You can overlap a little and remember — it doesn’t have to be perfect!
Let that dry. Then either you or your child can dip your finger in red paint and make round red berries.
Take the bow stamp and dip it into the paint and stamp the top of the wreath with the bow.
After it dries slide the cloth onto the dowel.
Cut a long piece of ribbon and tie it to each end ot the dowel, so this beautiful piece of art can be display each year!

Painted Ornaments

This is a SUPER simple craft. The only thing you’ll have to do it clean up a little. The kiddos do all the hard work and they love every minute of it!

What you’ll need:

Paintable ornaments that can be found at any craft store. (They are very reasonably priced especially if you catch them on sale and don’t forget to check your Sunday paper for good coupons!)
Paint and paint brush– watercolors wouldn’t be great to use but the thicker paints work.
Newspaper

Spread out newspaper all over your child’s work space.
Open the paints, get a small cup of water, a paper towel and let the kids have at it. You may of offer instruction if you wish or you can have a sample painted so they have an idea of that colors they can use.
Not crazy about letting your kids have paint? Markers will work really well too and are less messy. I chose paints though because my boys just get so excited when they can use them.

Bead Wreath

Do you remember making these as a kid? You might even have some of your old ones on your tree or at your parent’s house. This is very simple and not messy at all — unless of course someone spills beads all over the floor 🙂

What you’ll need:

Beads (or buttons if you prefer)– any color you like will work just fine.
floral wire 16-20mm
Ribbon
Wire cutters

Bend the end of the wire.
String the beads onto the floral wire.
After the wreath is the desired size bend the end of the wire into the other end — cut if needed.
Tie a bow on top of wreath to cover wire and attach string or yarn to the top so it can hang on a tree.

The boys and I also shaped these to look like candy canes and hung them on the tree. So cute!!!

For more Christmas crafts check out my post from last year Super Simple Christmas Crafts for Kids.

Do you make holiday crafts with your kids? Any other craft ideas to share?

Brian

Brian is the founder of Kids Ain’t Cheap and is now sharing his journey through parenthood.

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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: