Friday, December 11, 2015

DIY Christmas Ornament Round-Up for Young Kids

            Hey folks! We went a little overboard on the homemade ornaments, so I'm excited to share with you what we made so you can get some ideas too! I was both a little bummed and happy when we had to throw the majority of our old ornaments away due to a broken snow globe in the same box. Bummed because a lot of them were SUPER old, but happy I had an excuse to make new ones! Let's just say we have more than enough now!


Pour Paint-I can't remember if someone sent this to me on Facebook or if I came across it on Pinterest myself, but regardless, you can click on the title and it will take you to the pin on my Pinterest account. We all love anything to do with paint and I thought these looked neat and would be easy for a 3 year old, and they were. You made need to help them swirl the paint and let it drip out. I made the red, green, and white one and Myka made the colorful one. Hubby made a couple as well, but they didn't turn out how he wanted so he rinsed them out to start over. I think Myka's actually turned out the best!


Assorted Clear Balls-Your imagination is about your only limit when it comes to decorating the clear plastic or glass balls you can find in craft stores or craft sections at stores such as Walmart. Naturally, my 3 year old loves glitter, so we mixed a little water and glue together, poured and swirled it around the inside of the ball like the paint ones above, then added glitter. It turned out ok, but I think I either added too much water or should have used paint and glitter instead of glue and water.

The one on the right was super easy and, bonus, wasn't messy so we were able to do it while sitting on the couch watching a movie together. Myka tore up the green tissue paper and stuffed the bits in while I alternated adding red tinsel. You can obviously let your kids do the tinsel too, but I will admit it was a little tricky for me!


Beads, Beads, Beads!-Myka enjoys beading now, but has a seemingly short attention span for it, so these little candy canes were perfect. I cut a pipe cleaner in half to make two. Put one bead on and fold the end over it. Continue beading and repeat with the other end, attempting to get the pipe cleaner end inside of the second to last bead so they don't start falling off. These are quick and easy and you can bend them in whatever shape you want!


Sparkly Stars-I have a box hoarding problem on the very off chance we get an Etsy store order. Needless to say, I have plenty of cardboard hanging about. I hate the way my hand-drawn stars look, so I printed a template and traced it onto either side of a box. You can either use a sharp knife or scissors (I tried both and preferred the scissors) to cut them out. I used a hole punch for the string hole at the top.

Now for the fun part! Let your kids paint the stars and, making sure to do so before the paint dries, add the glitter. (We use acrylic paint for everything, so you shouldn't have to worry about the paint drying quickly if you're using tempera or some other type of paint.) Again, super easy and I think they're pretty!


Salt Dough-I tried salt dough a few months ago and wasn't crazy about the recipe. It seemed kind of hard to work with, even though I'd heard from everyone that salt dough is usually easy to deal with. I came across the one in the title link recently and decided to give it a try!

As you can see, it makes quite a lot if you decide to be lazy and use cookie cutters like us. All three of us had fun painting them, though, and, if you don't want that many, you can always give some as gifts to family!


Lacing-We actually made this apple several months ago when we were doing apples for “school”, but I thought it would make a cute ornament, so I hung on to it. You could totally make more “seasonally appropriate” shapes, like Christmas trees, snowmen, mittens, etc. Simply cut out 2 of whatever object/shape you want, line them up, use a hole punch (preferably) to punch holes along the edge, let your child “sew” it up (leave a little room to stuff it), and finish it off by sewing a few knots at the end. It sounds more difficult than it is!

            Do you and your kids make homemade ornaments or other holiday decorations?

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