Minecraft Crochet Last Minute Gift

If you have a Minecraft game fan in the house then these two adorable Minecraft crochet toys would definitely be a huge hit (for all ages)! 

Both the Creeper and the Ghast stitched up quickly within a couple of hours.  There's still five days left until Chritmas! Head over to Pleasant Plushies one skein at a time and take advantage of her generous free Ghast pattern.



  

 To make the Creeper I combined a few patterns online to crochet a few cotton squares and sewed them all together.  I stuffed the toys with poly fill and weighted them down with a small sack of washable beads.  

Creepin' around the Christmas Tree...

Have a Happy Holiday Everyone !!!.

Coming soon: Mindcraft Snow Golem's!

6 Kid-Friendly Reindeer Ornament {Crafts}

My kids definitely have a Reindeer Theme going on this month! Here are six easy, kid-friendly reindeer crafts all in one spot for easy reference.  

These crafts can be made out of household items and a few dollar store supplies...  

1.

Candy Cane Reindeer

2.

Recycled Bulb Reindeer

3.

Candy Cane Reindeer Foam Craft

4.

Clothespin Reindeer Ornament

5.

Clothespin Reindeer Gift Tag

6.

Coming Soon...Terracotta Reindeer Bells!

Happy Crafting!

What are you planning for holiday crafts? Have you started decorating yet?  Feel free to share your projects and head on over to our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them! 

Candy Cane Reindeer {Craft}

The Christmas tree just wouldn't look right without my kids traditional Candy Cane Reindeer's!

Craft along with pipe cleaners, googly eyes and a pom-pom nose.

Fold pipe cleaner in half and twist both sides together. Shape pipe cleaners into antlers and glue on eyes and nose.

Hang from the tree if the kids haven't eaten them all!

What are you planning for holiday recipes? Have you started decorating yet?  Feel free to share your projects and head on over to our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them!

Reindeer Bulb Ornament {Craft}

My kids came up with a fun way to recycle light bulbs into Christmas ornaments with these super adorable Reindeer Bulbs!

Two Easy Steps

Step 1 The bulbs were first hand painted with gold paint by unscrewing the tops off and swirling it around.

Step 2 Add some fun decorations. We glued googly eyes, pom-pom noses and pipe cleaner antlers. We will finish the girls off with felt ears and ribbon.

This was one of the quickest, least expensive and kid-friendly crafts of the season so far!

Here is a link to another one -- Pine Cone Ornaments {Craft}.

What are you planning for holiday recipes? Have you started decorating yet?  Feel free to share your projects and head on over to our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them! 

  

Pine Cone Ornament {Craft}

If you are looking for a simple, kid-friendly activity to use up the rest of a pine cone collection then this is a great craft!

Materials: Pom-poms, glue and pine cones. 

My kids enjoy finding and cleaning their own pine cones preferably when the deer are out!  

Abbotsford, British Columbia

 We bake the cones in the oven on a pan lined with tinfoil at 200 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.  This glazes the sap so they aren't so sticky. It's important to keep an eye on the stove as the sap could catch on fire. 

Another method for cleaning pine cones is to soak the cones for 20 minutes in soapy water, rinse them and dry.  Finding a space to spread them out is a challenge for us as we usually have a few projects on the go in every room of the house from handmade soap to pinata's drying.

Dab some glue on a pom-pom and decorate.  My kids think the cones look good enough to eat!  We plan to add ribbon loops and hang them on the Christmas tree.

The Wool Acorn Shop

For a different look The Wool Acorn Shop offers kits ready to go with all the materials needed to make these lovely wool pine cones.

What are you planning for holiday recipes? Have you started decorating yet?  Feel free to share your projects and head on over to our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them! 

Chalkboard Paint Christmas Ornament {Craft}

Chalkboard Paint Christmas Ornaments {Craft}

Over the past few months, we've covered story stones, rocks, wooden blocks and elves with chalkboard paint so I'm surprised we didn't think of this one sooner....

Chalkboard Paint Personalized Christmas Balls!

Craft along with us!

Materials: chalkboard spray paint, skewers, Christmas balls, rubber gloves, garbage bag or newspaper.

Steps:

1. Gently remove the metal clips off the top of the balls. 

2. Place a ball upside down on a wooden skewer. We dug the skewer straight up into the ground after poking them through a garbage bag.

If outside isn't an option the tin can method in step 4 works but will leave a small drip mark or bubble on the underside of the ball.

3. Spray paint the ball above a cardboard box, newspaper or a garbage bag. 

4. Let dry for a bit on the sticks either in the ground or in a weighted down tin can. We gave them an hour but it was cold outside. 

5. Put the metal clips back on the top of the balls and decorate with ribbon.

6. It's chalk time -- we personalized a few with names and wrote inspirational words on the rest. Some ideas include "JOY", "BELIEVE", "PEACE".

Emily is touching up a few fingerprints in this photo.  

The first round we didn't wear gloves and our hands were absolutely covered in black chalkboard paint.  To get the spray paint off of our skin we used body lotion and a dry paper towel.  Cooking oil mixed with dish soap eventually got the rest of the paint off after a few scrubs as well.

If you aren't too fussy about the metal clip an easier method is too hang the ornaments from a stick or a broom outside and spray paint away. We ended up trying this method for the last few balls and we were thrilled with the results -- no mess or need for gloves even!

Update

My daughter Claire and her dear friend sold out their chalkboard paint creations at our local school craft fair today!  They learned Marketing 101 hands-on and had a blast!

Cheers!

What are you planning for holiday recipes? Have you started decorating yet?  Feel free to share your projects and head on over to our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them! 

Clothespin Reindeer Pin or Magnet {Craft}

Here's another simple kid-friendly reindeer clothespin craft for the holidays!

We plan to craft a few with magnets glued on the back and the rest will have pins.    

Materials:

Clothespins (painted or natural), glue, scissors, magnets or pins, googly eyes, pom-pom's and decorations.

Instructions:

Turn the clothespin upside-down and glue on the eyes, nose, decorations and backing.  It's that simple! 

These cute little clothespin reindeer's would make easy last-minute gift tags! Pin to scrap card stock or write the recipients name vertically on the antlers.

Clothespin Reindeer Craft

What are you planning for holiday crafts? Have you started decorating yet?  Feel free to share your projects and head on over to our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them! 

Candy Cane Reindeer Ornament {Craft}

While baking Upside Down Gingerbread Reindeer Cookies the other day, my children came up with the brilliant idea to extend our activity to a craft... 

It's an Upside Down Gingerbread Candy Cane Reindeer Ornament for the tree. We can add ~To: From: ~ and it's an inexpensive gift tag. 

Materials: candy canes, gingerbread glitter foam, googly eyes, red pom-pom, glue, needle and thread, ribbon (optional).

The steps are simple:

1. Draw and cut a gingerbread man shape on glitter foam or cardboard (pre-cut shapes can be purchased from a craft store) and turn upside down.

2. Cut two slits 1/4 of the way down the foam.

3. Slide the candy canes into the slits and add a dab of glue at the back to secure the canes.

4. Glue on googly eyes, nose and a bow or decoration.

5. Thread a loop for hanging on the Christmas tree or as my oldest daughter pointed out -- simply hang from one of the candy cane ears.

We just love the eyelashes on the googly eyes!

Emily is taking a break and enjoying a left over broken candy cane. Mind you it doesn't look broken!?

What are you planning for holiday recipes? Have you started decorating yet?  Feel free to share your projects and head on over to our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them! 

Reindeer Cookies Craft Fair

My young entrepreneurs want to sell some baked goods for their upcoming school craft fair. 

Cake Central

We found these adorable Upside Down Reindeer Cookies on Cake Central and decided they would be perfect all wrapped up individually and tied with holiday ribbon.

Relish Blog

We are baking with the Disney Gingerbread Cookie Recipe.  Relish Blog decorated these cookies up real fancy and shared a nice one photo tutorial.

These little chubby Reindeer Cookies will work as well but because of all the peanut free rules we are changing the recipe to sugar cookies from scratch (sorry Pillsbury). We will make a batch of peanut butter for home.

Photo Compliments of Levo League.

Tis' the Season...

What are you planning for holiday recipes? Have you started decorating yet?  Feel free to share your projects and head on over to our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them!

Clothespin Reindeer Ornaments

Angry Bird Christmas Ornament {Craft}

We are crafting with Angry Birds today! Here is a really quick and easy after school craft to recycle any odd ornaments.

Materials: Red ornament, googly eyes, yellow and black felt, hot glue and scissors.

Looking forward to turning our green ornaments into King Pig!

Have you started decorating for Christmas yet? Feel free to share your projects and head on over to our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them!

Clothespin Reindeer Craft

Clothespin Reindeer Craft

I love the simplicity and old fashioned feel of clothespin crafts. This particular Clothespin Reindeer craft has been around for as long as I can remember and that's going back at least 30 something years.  

It's an oldie but a goodie!

Materials: Clothespins, pom-poms (red, white or brown) felt, scissors, googly eyes, hot glue, paint, and decorations i.e. bells, lights, bows.  

One Photo Tutorial compliments of Chic Fluff.

My kids decorated the reindeer's antlers with tangled lights which highlighted their crazy googly eyes.  Then they added sequin felt saddles, foam holiday shapes and a bell.

 We left a few natural when we tired of waiting for the paint to dry.

 Next Up

Candy Cane Reindeer Craft

Feel free to share your projects and head on over to our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them!