Christmas Crafts!

I like doing crafts with Grace and Olivia. And there are so many fun things to make around Christmas time!

They both love making things too.

We made salt dough ornaments and gave them to family members to hang on their trees.

First we made the salt dough. We mixed 1 cup salt, 2 cups flour, and 1 cup water together in a bowl. Then we rolled it out on a floured surface. Next was the fun part! We took our Christmas cookie cutters and cut out all sorts of shapes. There were Christmas trees, stockings, candy canes, gingerbread men, and even a reindeer. A straw works well for punching a hole in the top so you can put ribbon on them so they can hang on the tree. We put them all on a pan (it took several pans because we made a lot) and baked them in the oven (250* for about 25 min) until they were dry.

After they were cool Grace and Olivia got to paint them. I even got out the glitter for them to put on them after they painted (just sprinkle it on the wet paint). Grace made a LOT!

And Olivia took her time and made sure to put all the different colors on each of her ornaments.

After they dried we sprayed them with a clear spray paint to help keep the glitter from falling off. I am not sure how well that worked because by the time I was done tying ribbon on I was covered in glitter!

That wasn't all the crafts we did either! We made Christmas trees out of popsicle sticks. I cut green popsicle sticks to different lengths and then let the girls glue them to a brown popsicle stick. Then they glued on little sequins and other shiny little confetti pieces. Anything with glue is always fun for Grace!

And we can't forget about the reason for Christmas! We made a manger scene with baby Jesus. We glued two brown popsicle sticks (I painted them with brown paint since the package I bought was red, yellow, and green sticks) to construction paper. Then we glued little pieces of yellow construction paper for the hay, tan construction paper circle with the face Grace drew for the head, and purple construction paper cut out to be a blanket. And we glued a big yellow star (cut from construction paper) at the top.

One morning I ran a few errands and since Dustin was off he stayed home with the girls to finish our sugar cookies. We made icing and they got to decorate them! 

And after they were finished with the cookies they decided to make a craft. He told me they had gone to the office to color while he cleaned up the icing and cookie mess. Later I found out they had been making me a gigantic Christmas card!

This is the picture he sent me while I was gone. They had to have a bath!

Grace thought it would be fun to paint her sister with her makeup and - lip gloss, nail polish, and glitter paint. I don't think Olivia minded one bit. BUt even after a bath there was still evidence of glitter and lip gloss in her hair!