Christmas Crafts

I thought I would share a little more in detail about the ornaments the kiddos and I made this year for our family exchange.

First, the glass balls:

This is what the set we painted looked like. You can buy them in all sizes though, from very small to very large.

Here's the kiddos squirting the acrylic paint into the balls. And these next ones are them swirling the paint around.

We left them sitting for several days with the tops off so they could dry completely. If you're doing these as a party activity or something similar you can take/send them home with the tops on and just remove them afterwards to finish letting them dry.

We ran out of red & white paint (or should I say the kiddos got a little squirt-happy on one of the balls?), so we used some random colors of paint that I already had to do the last one. That one is for Mama (me!).

We added some pretty ribbons to the tops and they looked so shiny and festive!

Next are those adorable little houses:

This is what they look like at the store~just simple paper houses. Hobby Lobby has tons of cute paper decorations to be painted!

I used these tempera paints and just mixed them to get different colors. I'm no expert on paints, I just looked for something inexpensive that was for paper products. The houses do require several coats, but this paints dries very fast. By the time you have finish one the other is dry and ready for the next coat. Then when you're finished with all of the painting, just add your *snow* glitter to the tops and bases and glue on a miniature wreath if you like.

These are the two I gave to my mom and sister. I painted a third to go with The Princess' village that I made last year. I'll be getting all of those out this week and will post a picture of them all together.

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Fun With 4th of July Crafts: Part 3

I love my new patriotic front door wreath!! I had fun putting this together, although I must admit this is more of an adult craft than one for kiddos. I was inspired by this article in Family Fun magazine. I didn't have quite everything I needed for this one, but all I had to purchase was a few sheets of scrapbook paper and some double-sided tape. Then all I had to gather up were some scissors, regular Scotch tape, a ruler and some cardboard. First I cut four (5"x 6") pieces of each paper. Then by placing a piece of double-sided tape on one of the short ends of the papers, I rolled them into cones, pressing the seams together well. Then I cut a 10" circle out of cardboard and began to stick the cones on it. I used another piece of double-sided tape to stick the cones on, arranging them in a circular pattern. Next I used regular Scotch tape to attach them on the back to the back of the cardboard. After getting all the cones on, I was ready for my centerpiece. He...

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