Homemade Christmas Cards

I usually don’t make cards for people, but a couple days ago, I came up with some ideas and I think they came out pretty good. I made them last night to give to people today. The only problem I’m having with them is they aren’t folding like they did before they were dry, but I think they still can make a nice decoration.

Since an eight by eleven sized sheet of paper wouldn’t be big enough, I taped two pieces of oak tag paper on top of each other to make them thicker. Then I took two more pieces and taped them together the same way. Finally, I taped the two pieces together side by side which made the surface bigger.

The first card has a snowflake, Christmas tree and wreath made of garland. There is puff paint snow all over the card as well. I mixed a half cup of glue, a half cup of shaving cream and a t-spoon of glitter to make the puff paint. It came out well and is still puffy textured, but it’s hard instead of regular puff paints that stay kind of soft.

For the snowflake, I took a cupcake liner and folded it into eights and then cut along the creases. I glued it onto the paper and then glued three cotton balls in the middle to make it more 3d. I added puff paint and glitter on top.



For the Christmas tree, I took part of a toilet paper tube, glued it to the paper and then glued garland over it to cover all the cardboard. Next, I glued cotton balls. The first row has four, then three, then two and then one for the top. For the topper, I added a glittery foam star sticker. For ornaments, I took mini pompoms and glued them to the cotton balls. After the tree was done, I added puff paint and glitter.



For the wreath, it was simple. I took a strip of garland and made a circle which I glued to the paper. For the top of the wreath, I glued some gold ribbon above the garland. I put a little puff paint and glitter over that as well to make it look like it had snowed.






My second card has a present and a Christmas tree on it. For the present, I took a tiny gift box and cut off one of the sides so I still had a square piece of cardboard. I glued the cardboard to the card and then put puff paint over it. Since my gold ribbon wasn’t sticking to the gift box, I added garland. I tried to make two little loops so it looked like a bow was on top of the box, but it got a little scrunched up while I was gluing it. It still looks shiny and kind of pretty.


For this Christmas tree, I did everything almost the same except the tube was a little bigger so I used more garland. I started my tree with five cotton balls on the bottom and worked my way to one at the top. When it came time for the topper, I realized there wasn’t enough room for a foam star so I took a different shiny star and glued it to the top cotton ball. Next, I added a few mini pompoms and shiny circles for ornaments. Finally, I put puff paint and glitter on the tree. I also put puff paint and glitter over the rest of the card to make it look frosted.





I gave one to my boyfriend already and he loved it. We’ll see if my mom will like hers tonight when I visit her and the rest of my family for our Christmas Eve celebration. I think I’ll do this again next year. I had a lot of fun making them.

Making Presents for Play

I saw cute little presents that one of the teachers made today and thought I’d post how to make them. I wasn’t able to take pictures, but I’ll describe them the best I can. It’s not very difficult.

Materials:
Styrofoam blocks or empty boxes,
Different fabric or wrapping paper,
Ribbon and or string.


This person took little blocks of Styrofoam. She cut up the type of foam you can find in the craft section that you can use to hold flowers. They were rectangles and squares about the size of smaller leggos, but you can make them any size you want.
After cutting the shapes you want, cut colored fabric or wrapping paper a little larger than the foam shape. Then wrap it like it’s a present and make sure all corners are tucked in. Next, take two pieces of ribbon or string. Tie one around the gift from bottom to top and then tie another string from one side of the gift to the other. This way, the fabric won’t come apart since the ribbon is on each side. Tie the pieces into a bow on the top of the gift. That’s all you have to do.

Some of the presents had gold wrapping paper and ribbon, others had solid red fabric and others had red and green striped fabric with red yarn. You can use any kind of fabric, felt, wrapping paper, and homemade wrapping paper. You can use basically any material that you can wrap with. For the gift part, I’ve seen people use wooden blocks, different types of foam and of course empty boxes. To add to the gift, you can put different things inside to change the weight and sound if you are using empty boxes. Today, these were in the sensory table with shells, sand and trucks so they seemed out of place, but they’d work well in a holiday themed sensory tub. The only thing that makes sense is that the trucks were delivering the packages. You could use these little gifts for sorting, patterning, counting, or larger gifts for dramatic play. If your kids are old enough, they could even help you make them.

Homemade Mailbox for Post Office Theme

During our post office theme week, I made a large mailbox that we could use for dramatic play. It was big enough for the kids to mail most sizes of paper, magazines and even larger envelopes. The center where I work put it in storage for now so I can’t get a picture of it, but I’ll explain how I made it the best I can. I took a medium to large sized shipping box and taped up all the edges so none of the flaps were open. Then I cut a long slot in the front that was made for the envelopes. In the back, I cut out a square flap door that left a space large enough for the kids to put their hands in the box and pull out whatever was in there. It was big enough for adults to do this too so the opening was pretty large. When closed, the door would almost be flush with the rest of the box. I kept it closed with three strips of Velcro that I found in the craft section. I put the strips right next to each other and added extra tape to the sticky part on the back to reinforce it because I knew it’d be pulled open over and over. I added another small part of a Velcro strip to make a handle that could be pulled.

I completely covered the outside of the box with white shelf paper found in the home section. My idea was to let the kids decorate the mailbox however they wanted plus cover up all the taped areas. I thought it would be fun for the kids to decide how their mailbox looked. It didn’t work out that way because the place where I work chose to use it for the hallway display for the theme. Then they combined post office with Valentines and they taped hearts on to it.

Finally, the next time post office theme came around, the hearts were removed and it was used the way I intended. The class enjoyed pretending to send cards, letters, and magazines and of course bills back and forth.

Home Made Ocean

I used this for a display during ocean week. I can’t remember where the jar came from, but it is plastic and is mostly square as you can see in the picture. I used colored rocks that you find in the craft section for the bottom. I found plastic plants in the aquarium section to represent sea plants. I included some sea shells and different kinds of rubber fish that I found at the dollar store. Then there’s the water which I made blue with food coloring and I added some glitter. The background is a plastic poster with scenery which I also found in the aquarium section. I taped it to the inside of the jar and it stuck pretty well. The children enjoyed it and would stop to look at it every time they passed the display table. Since this was something they couldn’t touch, I also brought in those animals that you put in water and watch them grow. Each morning, we’d look to see how much the snail and starfish grew. The kids learned that things don’t grow immediately. It takes time.