A kid friendly Christmas tree garland

                                  

We kinda just skipped Thanksgiving this year (but in our defense, we don't really decorate for that holiday anyways because we don't host it at our house). I'm just too excited for Christmas. Little Miss is finally old enough to really understand believe and participate. However, I'm also terrified of Little Mr. destroying the Christmas tree and opening all the presents early, but well get through that.

I want to keep the kids involved in everything I do Christmas wise (I mean come on, they even went Santa present shopping with me, they thought the toys were for their cousins). We made a traditional paper circle garland last year to hang in our entryway. This year I wanted to do something a little more creative and festive. 

This Christmas tree garland is perfect for the 3-5 age range. Little Mr. tried to help make the garland but mostly he just wanted to eat the supplies (sequins are pretty tempting, like glittery rice).  All the supplies you need are:

Whatever is in your craft area. Seriously we even used pieces of yarn. Construction paper worked best for Little Miss. 

Cut your construction paper in half before you start. Then decorate. I tried to show her how it becomes a tree so it should have ornaments on it and the such, but she didn't care. She went to town with the glitter glue and sequins. I also let her use my rubber glue and glitter, until she dumped the whole thing in her lap.

                                  

                                   

I decorated half and she did the rest. We stayed content for almost an hour (not the little one, he gave up That's pretty good for a three year old. She was really excited to use "mommys special glue" and put it on everything. We ran out of Elmer's and had to use my craft glue. If that's what it takes to get her to actually finish a craft, so be it. 

We used a lot of glue so we let ours dry overnight. I cut out the star toppers and let her glue them on the top once the trees were formed (just fold together into an almost triangle- which you can see took  me a few tries till I got it right). String em together and Tada! Christmas garland. 

                                   

We had a blast picking out our favorites. We all agreed it was the one that was completely covered in sequins (which I'm still sweeping up). This very cheap craft (I actually had everything on hand) is fun and easy to do. You could even write notes to Santa on each tree!! 

Wha fun craft are you planning on doing with your kids for the holiday season?

~Enjoy

xo Stacie

Project: Kid Friendly Pine Cone Garland

Keeping in the fall decor spirit, today we created a pinecone garland.  What better way to show off Fall than more FREE decor?? If you missed my last post on Fall decor for less than $5 you can check it out here.  Making a pine cone garland is pretty simple, just tie some pine cones on a string and ta-da, you're done!! BUT, if you want to jazz up your pine cones, just ask your kids to help.  That's right, hand your kid a paint brush and a pine cone and let 'em git at it (sorry, my southern redneck was showing there a bit).

A sober adult could knock this project out of the ballpark in about 10 mins (30 if you want to wait for the paint to dry).  So if you want a craft project to last double time, just ask your kids to help.  I'm kidding, I actually really enjoy doing crafty things with Little Miss.  And I can't wait for Little Mister to stop eating the art supplies so he can join us in the fun (I'm not exaggerating either, he's just at that age still where colorful things taste the best).

Supplies needed for this quick but fun project:

Pine cones (as many as you want, we actually painted too many)
craft paint (we used acrylic)
poly brushes worked the best but any paint brush will do
twine
painters tape for the littles to stay in the lines
we glitterfied some pine cones so we used rubber glue and glitter!

Seriously, just tape off some pine cones (if you want them all to look similar, if not, let em loose), and hand them a paint brush.  We took turns at my house, she had one color and I had the other.  If I didn't have a slight case of OCD, I would have left her cones alone, but instead I went back over them for an even amount of color (trust me, otherwise some pine cones would only have one little leaf[?] colored, so I did you a favor).

We let them dry for the rest of the day (mainly because she forgot about them and Little Mister woke up), so I hung them up after everyone went to bed.  That's also my excuse for the poor quality of pictures.

This little craft was fun and FREE and you can't beat that with a ten inch stick.

Enjoy~
xo Stacie