Spoonful of Imagination

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Handprint Santa

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I love hand print art and capturing the cuteness of my kids’ hands being so little.  You might remember seeing my Thanksgiving turkey or how we stamped ornaments with their hands.  Today, I am showing you our handprint Santa Claus.

In the light of events from last Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary, these simple Santa Claus handprints have moved me more than just seeing a cute craft.  I can’t stop looking at these handprints and thinking how blessed I am.  I continue to pray for these families and that this event in our country’s history will mark us and change us past the initial shocks so we are forever changed.

Here is how we made our handprint Santas:

I helped my kids stamp their hands with white paint onto some brown craft paper.  I then let the boys cut out their handprints while I cut all the pieces of the hats and faces.   I then let them assemble their Santa as a puzzle.  I drew Reagan’s Santa’s mouth to show the boys how a mouth looks when it is talking, and they did the same to their Santa’s.

We then glued our Santas to a pretty piece of scrapbook paper and added some merry “Ho, Ho, Ho’s.”  This is a simple and easy craft that has all the kids’ favorites:  Paint, cutting, gluing, and acting out “ho, ho, ho.”

Thank you so much for checking out our handprint Santas!  I hope you are having a good week and not stressing out too much!  I know my to-do list is still a mile long, but I am choosing to sing Joy to the World and not letting the stress carry my emotions and thoughts all day everyday.

How are you doing this Holiday season??

 

 

 

 

Linked up at:  Miss Information

DIY Rope Balls

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Today, I have an easy DIY rope ball craft for you.  I created these pretty rope balls from Dollar Tree supplies  At the end of this post, I will show you a simple change you can do to make the same type of ball have another use.

These balls were inspired from my Savannah girl’s weekend.  Do you remember seeing this picture from my trip?

While we were out shopping, I fell in love with these rustic rope balls.  They were about $8.00 a piece and I knew I could make them cheaper.  I finally attempted to make them, and I love my product.  Here is how you can do it too.

I went to my Dollar Tree and bought yellow boot laces, two packs of clothes line rope, and a package of styrofoam balls.  I ended up also getting a package of styrofoam balls from Hobby Lobby to have a slightly larger size.  Note:  I love the clothes line rope!  It is perfect Christmas colors to help decorate my house for Christmas.  Plus, there was so much of it for only costing $1.00 each!  Score!

I started by hot gluing the edge of my rope onto a styrofoam ball.  My technique was to add a strip of glue and then lay the rope on top about two inches at a time, going down one side of the ball.  I simply wrapped my ball with glue and rope going around and around to create the look of swirls.

Once my “swirls ” of glue and rope were getting smaller as I was getting near to closing the side off, I simply cut the string, added a big glob of glue, and tried to stick the edge of my rope into the glob of glue (in order to cover up any styrofoam from showing).

After you have one side complete, add a little glue at the top and start wrapping down the ball again (until the ball is totally covered up).  I made a lot of these, but I still had a ton of rope left over!

I think they came out so cute, and yet were so easy to make!  They cost so much less than their store look a likes.

My kids are enjoying throwing them all over the house.  It is nice to have a Christmas decor item that is not “breakable” or off-limits.  They can throw these and they wont break or get damaged.  Unless they throw them at something that might break 🙂.  I love red and green and can see myself keeping them out all year-long and not limiting them to just Christmas.

Although they are a rustic/child safe decor item, you can dress them up and display them in a fancier planter for a more elegant look.

My son Caleb told me this planter looked dirty as I put it in my shopping cart this week.  Oh don’t you love a child’s practical thinking!?  It does look dirty, but I love it!  I think these rope balls would even look good in a glass vase like I did with my red ornaments on my Christmas mantle.

Since I had so much left over rope, I decided to get some more styrofoam balls and twist this idea into something that would make great Christmas gifts!  I made some rope ornaments!  My sister Joni, came over and we sat, talked, watched White Christmas, glued rope ornaments, and almost peed in our pants from laughing so hard.  It was a fun night!

The only difference really from just making the rope balls is adding a piece of string, rope, or ribbon first, so there is a way for your ornament to hang on the tree.  We started by cutting a small piece of rope and gluing both of the ends onto the ball.

We then did the gluing technique to add two strips of rope around the ball.  After we had our rope surrounded by the clothes line rope, we simply went down wrapping one side just like we did the ball.  From there, you complete the ornament just like you did the ball.

They look amazing just plain, or adding a simple string bow is cute too!  I think they make such a cute little addition to any gift and look great on the tree!  They are so simple, yet the rows ans rows of string add a fun texture to a rather normal style of a round ball ornament.

Do you add a personal touch to gifts?  Are you making any gifts this year?

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

 

 

 

 

Linked up to:  Shaken Together, Inspired by Charm, Funky Junk Interiors, Shanty 2 Chic, Miss Information, The Frugal Homemaker, DIY Show Off

8 Easy DIY Kid Ornaments

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Today, I have 8 easy DIY kid ornaments to share! They are all really cheap and would make presents for grandparents or proud aunts and uncles! I bet you already have the supplies in your house to make a few of these with your kids.

1.  Wood Block Ornament

I have gotten some sweet comments on these wood blocks on Facebook, so I thought I would share how to make them.  I started with a small piece of wood.  It’s cut roughly about 2.5″ x 2.5″.  I sanded it down, so the edges and corners were smooth.  I then let my boys paint their ornament any color they wanted.  My sweet girl was only 10 months at the time of this craft, so I painted hers a solid purple.  I sized the pictures down on my computer, so they would print a size that would fit on the ornaments.  I cut them, rounded their edges, glued them on, and gave the whole block a good coat of Mod Podge.  I then screwed a little hook in the top and added ribbon and string, and they were done!  We gave ornaments like these to their grandparents last year for Christmas, and I think they were a hit!  Other ways to use the ornaments are to capture a first year marriage (with wedding pic) or a baby’s first Christmas (with a baby picture).  These are both gifts I have given.  I love to add a personal touch to gifts.  There are so many ways this ornament could be given as a wonderful present!  I can’t wait to make new ones for our tree for this year!

2. Paper Hand-print Ornament with Bells

You might remember from my Thanksgiving Turkey post that I am obsessed with hand prints.  For this ornament, I simply stamped their hand onto a sturdy card stock, cut it out, and glued it to a coordinating color card-stock.  I then punched a hole in the top and added some ribbon and bells.  I love that it’s simple, but it captures the “year” of your little ones size hand.  Make sure to date the back!

3.  Painted Plastic Balls

You can get a big tube of plastic ornaments anywhere.  I had a package of plastic balls that I no longer liked to hang on the tree.  I let my kids paint them, and I all of a sudden liked them again.  🙂  We switched out the hooks for pipe cleaners, and they make great ornaments on my boys’ tree in their room.

4.  Paint Pre-made Wood Ornaments

There are a lot of simple but cute wood ornaments you can find on sale at your craft store.  I love to let my kids paint one every year.  It is fun to see their growth in their painting skills to look back at previous years.  I also like to maximize the use of a tacky, kid ornament going on my tree.  I stamp their hand or glue a picture to the back side of these ornaments, if there is room for it.  It is kind of like having an easy scrapbook to pull out every year by having ornaments that contain their art, picture, or hand prints.  I love it.

5.  Paint Pre-made Pottery Ornaments

Right by the pre-made wood ornaments there are usually unfinished clay/pottery ornaments that you can buy.  I also love to do these every year.  After we paint them and let them dry, we go back and give them a good coat of mod podge and they look just like any DIY pottery ornament that you could paint at an art studio for probably about 1/4 the price.  We did this same technique with our pumpkins this past fall.  In that post, I gave you tips on how to paint with little kids.  Yet, you can see from these pictures even with lots of painting practice, it is still tricky.  I had to stop my four-year-old from eating paint after taking one of these pictures.

6. Popsicle Ornaments

 

I love all the possibilities with popsicle sticks for ornaments.  We have done a Christmas tree and a star so far this year.  I actually love their stars probably more than my star.  I still want to make a popsicle snow flake this Christmas season.  After the glue dried holding the popsicle sticks together, they painted their trees green and their stars yellow.  They then went back and glued buttons on their trees for ornaments and sprinkled glitter on their stars so they would sparkle.  We simply added some pretty rope, and they were done! I then picked a few pictures to cut and paste to the back allowing the popsicle sticks to act as a frame.

7.  Puzzle Piece Ornament

This puzzle piece ornament is another one we did last year.  We got a dollar store puzzle and painted all the pieces red and green.  After they were dried, I let them glue the pieces around a the construction paper “frame” that I had already cut out.  Once that was dry, I glued a picture to the back and hot glued some rope on.  I love the contrast of a black and white photo with the colored puzzle pieces.

8.  Tomato Sauce Lid Ornaments

We go through a lot of salsa and tomato sauce around here, and I have started saving the jars’ lids.  I knew I would come up with a reason to use them, and I did.  I used the same technique I created for my bottle cap necklaces.  I spray painted the backs white, nailed a hole in the top, added string, cut pictures to fit, glued them in, and mod podged over them.  These are still drying, but I plan on writing a quote my kids have said this Christmas season on the back of their lid. I think it would also be cute to write something they “wished” for this Christmas, so you capture what they were asking from Santa.  Another idea instead of inserting their picture is to allow them to draw a picture of their family and glue that inside.  I might have to spray paint some more lids and create a few more of these. 🙂

As you can imagine, my Christmas tree’s theme is “kid created.” I think someday I will probably have a more fashionably decorated tree, but I will probably have to have another tree with all my kids’ ornaments too!  I’m sure this one will remain my favorite.

What is the theme of your Christmas tree?  Do you make ornaments with your kids?

I’d love to check out your tree.  If you leave your link in the comments, I will be sure to check it out!  Thank you so much for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

 

Linked up at:  Shaken Together, Setting for Four, DIY Showoff, Honey were Home

DIY Wood Star

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I am so excited to show you my Christmas mantle today and how I made the big DIY wood star in the center.  It required some scrap wood, wood glue, clamps, wood stain, and a little wire.  I made it free (since I had all those items) and now have a new focal point on my mantel for this Christmas season.  I love it!

I started with some long pieces of scrap wood.  We cut six pieces each about 30″ long.  Note:  My husband helped me with this project as he does with a lot of projects I dream up.  

It was kind of impossible to get that perfect 60 degree cut where the ends were linked together like a puzzle, so we opted to leave the pointed edge and just lay the lengths of wood on top for an overlap look.

When we were creating the overlap look, we simply used some wood glue to attach the corners and we used a clamp to hold the wood tightly together as the glued dried.  This is a good place to say I made two triangles out of my six pieces of wood, so three pieces of wood each were needed for a triangle.

After the glue had dried on my “triangles,” I stained them.  I painted on a dark mahogany stain onto each triangle and then went back and rubbed it off/in with a soft, old towel.

We then did the glue and clamping step again to attach the two triangles together to form the star.  After that glue had dried, my star was almost finished.  I decided to wrap some wire around the edges to give it another texture and fun touch0.1

I used some garden scissors to cut the wire, and I really like how it added a fun yet subtle addition to my star!  The star is now complete!  I think there are so many ways you can modify this design to create something unique for your house or to give as a gift.  The sizes you can create are endless.  Wood glue is amazing.  You could even spray paint your star instead of staining it.  That would be a quicker step.  I knew I wanted a dark color for my star, so it popped on my gray wall but you could do any color!

I love how my mantel came together.  It is simple yet has a lot of natural, rustic elements that I can not get enough of!

Now to give you a few details about my mantel, so you can create this look too.  My star was inspired by this simple wood sign I made last Christmas.  Love was born in a manger.  I love it and painted it in like two seconds on an old scrap piece of wood.

My vase of red ornaments is actually two pieces of glass.  I have had the big filler vase for a couple of years, but I think I got it for like $5.00 one year at Wal-mart.  The bottom “stand” part is simply a juice cup upside down.  My filler vase is literally just sitting on top to give it some height.  What a cheap way to create a new and versatile look.  Have you ever done this?

My pine cones are from my backyard, and I simply dabbed some white paint on the edges to make them look more Christmas-y.  I got this tip from Erin at DIY On The Cheap.  Thank you my sweet friend!  She has a great tutorial for how to create this look.  Check out her gilded pine cones!

My lanterns are from Ikea.  They were about $4.00 and $7.00 each, and I already had them on hand and actually used them in my fall mantel.  Do you recognize my wood sticks?  They are from my backyard and were used on my thankful tree.  I love how they add some height, yet they are simple and not a harsh eye sore.  I also have a collection of baby food jars that I love to put tea lights. They were perfect to pull out for my mantel so give it some light. They look amazing all lit up, but with three little kids it doesn’t happen till night when they are in bed.  🙂

I had to include one picture with all our bright-colored stockings (two of which are for the dogs)!

Have you decorated for Christmas?  Have you used any natural elements in your mantel this year?  I’d love to see your mantle!  If you have a blog, please leave the link in the comments below, so I can check yours out too.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope you have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

Linked up at: Crafty Scrappy Happy, Serenity Now, Red Head Can Decorate, The Lettered Cottage, Ten June, 52 Mantles, DIY Showoff