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Bringing Old School Back

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I think one of the downfalls of trying to be a really artsy mama is that sometimes I put too much pressure on myself to always have new, original {or stolen borrowed from Pinterest} ideas for everything we do.
I mean, I’m competing with things like the touch pad Leapster Explorer for Little Crafter’s attention, plus I’m trying to come up with fresh things that will make all of you lovelies in blog land go “oooooooh” and “aaaaah” when you see them, right?
But you know what?  While new ideas are certainly fun, I’ve found the joy in
bringing old school back.
That’s right.  You know what I discovered?  The cute little things you and I enjoyed making in elementary school….get ready for this….are still fun for little kids!
Yes, the world is different now…you and I had cassette players and didn’t know what a computer was back then, while my 3 year old can work the iPod touch.
But stringing beads on a pipecleaner?  STILL FUN!  
Gluing popsicle sticks together and shaking glitter all over them?  STILL FUN!
Here are a few of the simple projects we’ve done recently that require very little money or supplies but can bring lots of joy to those little faces {and yours too!}
BEADED ORNAMENTS
Remember these guys from your Girl Scout days?
All you need are tri beads, a pipecleaner, and some ribbon to make your own.
{Our beads and sparkly pipecleaners were included in the holiday kit we received from Craftprojectideas.com…boy was that a great surprise to get on our doorstep!}
I’m pretty sure no tutorial is necessary here.  Just thread the beads on the pipecleaner and shape however you want them.  A certain someone was very insistent on doing the whole thing all by himself!
POPSICLE STICK SNOWFLAKE
All you need here is four craft sticks, glitter, and glue!  Our sticks and glitter were also part of the Craftprojectideas.com kit, and the sticks were already colored {yay!!}.  If you’re using plain ones, you can bust out some blue kids’ paint to get the same effect.  I really liked the glitter…we got lots of different colors and each one came in its own little tube with a shaker top to minimize the mess {thanks again, CPI!}
Just spread craft glue all over the surface of each stick, sprinkle the glitter on, and let it dry.  Then, glue your sticks in a snowflake design and add a cord or ribbon if you want to hang it.  Easy peasy…and cuuute!
Follows my motto: “Glitter makes everything better!”
PAINTED WOODEN ORNAMENTS
It doesn’t get much easier than this!  Buy some wooden shapes {these trees came 6 to a pack}, break out the acrylic paint and brushes and let them go to town.  Little Crafter’s current favorite colors are blue, red, and purple {for the Ravens, of course}…can you tell?  He had fun using the bottom end of the brush dipped in paint to make “ornaments”.
The day we made these, we were actually babysitting a little girlfriend of his.  She absolutely loved the activity too; here are her trees.  I love, love, love their sweet little serious faces while they worked…
Little Crafter gets so in the zone when he’s painting or doing any kind of project.

Oh, and can you tell we had been playing dress up too?

BEADED PINS
Got a large safety pin and some spare beads laying around the house?  You can make your own holiday pin.  With or without a dangling charm, they’re cute and easy.  Just be careful with little fingers and that sharp point!  Little Crafter did all the beading himself and was just fine with it, but I admit it made me nervous and I was definitely hovering…
FOAM FUN

 

There are so many great foam activity kits out there!  Ornaments, pins, decorations…all kinds!  Don’t hate, embrace them!  I used to feel like they were cheating because I didn’t have to do the thought or prep work for the craft…now I rejoice that I  don’t have to do the thinking or the preparing.  I love having some of these kinds of things on hand at all times so if we have a few minutes I can just pull one out and we can whip up something quick.
The ornaments and pin above were made at a local holiday craft fair…it was so great, they had a room where the kids could go and craft while their moms and dads theoretically went around the fair to shop.  Each craft cost somewhere between $1-3, and there were volunteers to supervise and help.  I chose to stay with Little Crafter, but they encouraged me that next year he could stay on his own.  I just laughed and told them I could never do that.  Why?  When I came back, he’d have made one of everything and they’d tell me I owed them $150.  You can see it, can’t you?
Happy Crafting…old school style!

Comments

  9. Vicky says

    Love these! We got the same box on our doorstep and did the same Popsicle stick snowflake! Great minds think alike. I hot glued it together since I had no patience to wait for the glue to dry. 🙂 Vicky from Mess For Less

    Reply

  12. Victoria says

    These are the cutest little things! 😀 I cannot wait to do these with the kids I’ll be teaching next year. The lolly stick ones are so simple but look great! x

    Reply

  18. Casey says

    I just posted about bead ornaments that I did with my kids, still fun for mom too! I’m going to try your snowflake stick ornament, very cute.
    Casey

    Reply

  19. Jennifer says

    Oh, this is great! I remember making the candy cane in school and it was my favorite. Thank you for doing this post, it inspires me to make some of my own!

    Found you via link party. :o) Happy Holidays!

    Reply

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