Simple Christmas Project for the Kids

Those sound like cute ideas. I bet even my 20 month old daughter could help do something like that. She loves to draw and color. I bet she would get a kick out of painting too. My 8 year old would probably like it too. I might have to do that with them when it gets a little closer to Christmas. Thanks for the idea.

My mom did the salt dough thing too when my sister and I were kids. We still have some of the ornaments. Considering how "durable" they are, that's pretty darn good.

i am a huge crafter and when my daughters were younger, we did a lot of stuff like that every year, then we would paint them. you can also make picture frames (whether bought or cut outs and put magnets on the back). one year, at my church we made christmas trees out of inverted pine cones - largish ones...there are lot of great ideas if you just look.

this sounds so neat I don't have kids, but I've considered doing some polymer clay ornaments - but salt clay/paper clay would be cheaper and not have to be cooked.

These are sooo cute. Unfortunately my salt dough ornaments only lasted about 20 years before the humidity got to them but they were my prize ornaments.

Hello thebohemianheart aslanlight is true to her word and sent me the link to this discussion. That is a really great idea and as there is a new craft shop opened in my town I will go in and ask the lady who owns it about paper clay and what paints are the best to use. My kids will love doing this. I am not very good at making things with clay but if it is just rolling it out like pastry and using pastry cutters then that won't be a problem! Thanks for the great tip!

That is a cute idea. My little granddaughter would love to do them. I let her help with crafts...in fact she has alot of her own tools etc in my studio. We love crafting together...Her mommy also likes to join us so the three of us have tons of fun!

I do have a few holiday craft ideas that my sons and I do together. The first one we'll be working on is with polymer clay. My 11 yo son rolls out the clay and then he will help his 5 yo brother cookie cut the clay into circles, christmas tree shapes and stars. I bake the clay and when it is ready they'll paint it using acryllic paint. They are also going to decoupage pictures of their cousins onto the circles, which will be painted to look like ornaments for a Christmas tree. Each Aunt and Uncle will receive an ornament from my boys and their grandparents will receive a string of ornaments with a granchild on each ball (these ornaments will be strung tighly with ribbon...which I'll have to do myself) My hubby is already sitting with the boys and they have begun to select the images from pictures we've uploaded on our computer. Once the boys have selected all the images, he will crop and shrink to size needed and print. I'll add a gloss glaze, with my 11yo helping and that's it. A Christmas ornament, that may end up being a keepsake and passed down through the families and my boys will be doing the bulk of the work (of course to get the boys in the mood, I'll make Christmas cookies for the occassion )

This sounds like a really fun thing to do with my kids. They LOVE to paint and playdough is their favorite thing. I know their grandparents (and their Mommy) would be so proud to hang their efforts on the Christmas tree. I let them help with some of my crafts, but for the most part I give them some supplies of their own to play with and let them go to it.

My son and I did the salt dough ornaments one year and he gave them as gifts to his grandparents. We also did the wooden clothes pin reindeer ornaments. THOSE are fun to make. I still have some of those that we hang on the tree each year. You glue two of them together with the pins pointing down - that becomes the four legs and the body. Then on one end you glue a third one with the pins pointing up - that becomes the head and the antlers. You glue on eyes you can get at craft stores, tie ribbons around the necks, and glue on pom poms for tails too. Oh, and don't forget the tiny red pom pom for Rudolph's nose.