Snowflake Christmas Cards

Snowflakes seem to be our thing this year thanks to our Hobbycraft snowflake cutter.  It came in handy again today as we had a couple of Christmas cards still to make.

I had some leftover coffee filter paper art (click here to find out how to dye coffee filter paper) from a craft that Wugs and Dooey did a few weeks ago and (as these cards were rushed) I cut out the snowflakes myself.  I folded over an A4 sheet of card and on one side stuck the snowflakes to it. Then I drew the window frame on black card, cut it out using a knife and stuck in over the snowflakes.  As the Christmas cards were for cat lovers, I had the idea to add a silhouette of a cat sitting in the windowsill.

What we used:
Coffee filter paper
Washable felt-tip pens
Squirty bottle of water
Snowflake cutter
Coloured A4 card
Metallic pen
Glue

Cheap Colourful Snowflakes

One of our favourite ways of producing colour in our crafts involves squirting water onto felt tip pen markings and watching the colours separate and dry on coffee filter paper.  Here are a few links showing crafts we have made using this method:
Butterfly coffee filter paper art
Coffee filter paper hand wreath

I wanted to see whether it would be possible to do the same using wet wipes to produce snowflakes (I initially experimented with coffee filter paper, but it is the wrong shape and too small to be able to fold multiple times to create a snowflake).  Snowflakes require a square sheet of paper and thankfully I was able to find a packet of wet wipes that are already cut to a square shape:

I started by drying out a few of the wet wipes by placing them on the radiator for a few hours and then treating them like coffee filter paper.  Wugs and Dooey drew markings on the wipes using felt tip pens and Do-A-Dot stampers.  One they had finished, they sprayed the wipes using a squirty bottle of water.

Dooey in this picture is drenched in water from the squirty bottle because he thought it was hilarious to squirt himself instead of the wipe (something that my mum also found hilarious and so let him do it!)

Once the boys had finished, we left the wipes to dry.

Once they had dried,  I followed this video on you tube to make the snowflakes.

It was a bit of an experiment and I lost some of the wipes in the process.  I had hoped to create really intricate designs with the wipes, but they are quite thick so a simple design works better or perhaps using an iron to flatten the wipe on each fold when making the snowflake would have worked well.

What we used:
Pampers sensitive wet wipes
Felt tip pens
Do-A-Dot stampers
Squirty bottle of water

Angel Craft

"See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven." (Matthew 18:10)

Today's activity was all about angels and the protection they offer us.  Angel crafts are also popular at this time of year as we remember the angel Gabriel who prophesied the birth of Jesus.  

For this craft, I painted two paper plates (one gold and one silver).  I used the underneath (paper side) of the plate as I found the paint dried better on this side (than the plastic side).   Then I asked the boys to decorate each plate.  They used glitter glue, stars and sequins.  

Once the plates were dry, I drew a line to separate one half of the plate from the other.  On the part of the plate that had the least decoration, I drew a pair of wings.  The other half I cut out and fixed the two edges with a staple to form the angel's body.  I cut out the wings and drew a face and long neck for the angel.  I secured the face to the body by sticking the neck inside the hole in the top of the angel's body and gluing it on the inside.    

I gave the angels' wings to the boys and they decorated them with small feathers.  I glued the wings to the back of the angel's body.  I had some glitter pipe cleaners in my craft cupboard so I asked the boys to choose their colours.  Wugs chose two colours, so we twisted the pipe cleaners together to form a halo around the angel's head. 

What we used:

Paper plates

Gold and silver paint

Glitter glue

Sequins

Stickers

Black pen

Scissors

Glue

Feathers

Stapler

Glitter pipe cleaners

There you go - a colourful angel craft to hang on the Christmas tree!

Simple and Cheap Christmas Tree Sponge Cards

This week we have been working on finishing our Christmas cards and to my delight I found that Sainsbury's had made the job easier with their festive sponges (50p for a packet of 3).  

I diluted some green paint with water, mixed it up and then asked Wugs to dip the sponge into the paint, making sure the paint had fully covered the sponge.  I laid out some A5 sheets of white paper and he pressed the sponge on to each one.  We left the Christmas trees to dry and then both Wugs and Dooey decorated them with glitter, stickers, felt-tip pens and markers.  Then I mounted them on to card.

What we used:

Sainsbury's festive sponge/scourers

Green paint (diluted with a couple of tablespoons of water)

Paper

Card

Here are the links to other Christmas cards we have made:

Snowflake cards

Hand and Finger Print Christmas Cards

Advent Calendar 2014 Activity - Day 12: God Is With Us When We Are Sick

Sadly today's planned activity didn't materialise because Dooey kept me awake since 2.30 this morning, so the boys experienced a couple of hours without their mum as she was resting in bed! Hopefully there will be time to catch up on this activity later in the month.

Asking and Receiving

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." 
(Matthew 7:7)

For today's advent calendar activity we focused on the promise that Jesus gives to those that seek God: that He will be found.  The word that sticks out for me in this verse is the word "door".  Every day I seem to have a door shut in my face by one or more of my children - not in the stroppy teenager sense, but in the playful 'peekaboo' sense.  It's a game that Wugs and Dooey play among themselves as well, so I thought they would enjoy playing with a door - knocking on it, hiding behind it or opening it to surprise somebody.

Last month when we were unpacking, I held on to some moving boxes anticipating that they would come in handy for a craft or activity.  I used a long, thin box to make the play door and painted the front and top in dark brown paint.  As the box itself would be flimsy if just left standing alone, I wedged it in between two cabinets, which I pulled out from the wall to create a hidden space behind the door.  The idea was for the play door itself to be bland, but when opened it would lead to a multi-sensory experience of sparkly tinsel, mood lights, draping gold voiles, stars and images of the nativity.

What we used:

Cardboard box, long and thin

Dark brown paint

Cotton reels (for door knobs)

Tinsel

LED mood lights

Gold voile

Star decoration

Images of the nativity

The boys loved the door more than I expected.  Unfortunately they yanked on it so hard that the door knobs fell off, but the door was easy to open without this feature. We've decided to keep it assembled so they can continue to enjoy over the next few days.

Free Elsa - Locks and Keys Activity

My son is currently obsessed with locks and keys.  In this activity I wanted to combine his fascination with unlocking things with his interest in Frozen.  

I searched the internet for images of Princess Elsa and printed one off, laminating it to make sure the image didn't tear easily.  I used an A4 sheet of cardboard (the backing to an A4 paper pad) and placed the image of Elsa in the middle and made a total of 10 holes in the cardboard or on the edge of Elsa's picture by using either a hole punch (if it would reach) or a metal skewer.  I cut off 5 pieces of jewellery chain and fed one end of each chain through one of the holes and around the back of the card, before pulling each chain through the second hole.  I gathered both ends of each chain and locked them with a padlock.  Once I positioned Elsa correctly, I unlocked all of her chains and created the background.

What we used:

A4 sheet of cardboard

Image of Princess Elsa

Laminator 

5 Locks and keys

Black marker pen

I introduced the game to Wugs this morning, showing him how the keys fit into the locks and how the lock releases the chains.  He matched up the red key with the red lock and the pink key with the pink lock and even managed to undo the red lock, which wasn't all that easy (some of the locks were pretty fiddly).  Where the keys and their matching locks were of different colours, he wasn't able to match them, so the game might take a few weeks or months for him to master.  It certainly helped him stay focused and work on fine motor skills such as precision, as well as matching and problem-solving (including the patience that goes with that).