Angel Hair Pasta Christmas Tree

What makes this craft a success is using a lot of glue and waiting for it to dry before coloring or painting. I used tacky glue, but the thinner Elmer's glue might work just as well, and it may be easier to dribble on a lot.

I just broke the pasta in half and in half again so that about one quarter portions of dry pasta were for the tree branches. For the bottom, I just broke some of those quarter portions in half again to make one eighth pasta pieces.

For the brown bottom, I used a non-toxic marker to color it after the glue was dry.

For the tree, I used non-toxic poster paint, and applied it with a cotton swab after the glue was dry.

Then I put drops of glue around the tree and sprinkled paper scraps for tree decorations.

It could be decorated with lines of glitter or bead chains. Your children's imaginations can make this tree much more beautiful than this picture.

Here's to the tree of dreams!

Creative Kids

Just because I have an idea for a craft doesn't mean my daughter wants to do it my way. For the Snowing on Frosty the Snowman craft, my idea was to use left over hole punches for the snow, but my daughter didn't want snow at all. Then she decided drawing the snowflakes was better than using my great idea of gluing on paper scraps. Here are a couple of her ideas in the picture that she created after seeing my idea.

That's the way kids crafts are. Unless you want to work on following exact directions with your child, crafts are inspirations for creativity, and that's the way I look at this Children's Cheap Christmas Crafts Blog. If anything inspires you or your children to create a lot out of a little bit, then I feel successful. As you can see the crafts are not perfect, and my daughter doesn't even want to do them the way I do, but she gets inspired to create crafts of her own when we work together.

Happy crafting!

Snowing on Frosty the Snowman

I originally thought this craft could be done using hole punch scraps. Well, I didn't have any hole punch scraps, so I collected scraps from recent crafts, and cut them up a bit. It doesn't take very much. Using scraps from paper snowflakes is an idea too. I did it with all different color paper, but to make it Christmasy it could be done with green or red paper background, and all white snowflakes and snowman.

I don't like to run to the store for one craft, and this blog focuses on using what is already in the house, so I like to throw out ideas that may not always be traditional, but still can be fun and practical. Perhaps these colors are a little closer to Hanukkah colors. Frosty could be made with foil and they decorated with beads, beans or pasta, or small scraps of paper.

For young children, it may be a good idea for an adult or older child to cut out the three balls for the snowman first. After the snowman is glued on, it is easier to color with markers when the glue is dry. But markers will still work before the glue is dry whereas, crayons will be harder to deal with.

Last touch is to drop glue across the sky and sprinkle on scraps for flakes.

Happy Hanukkah!

Christmas Paper Bow

Here's a simple cheap way to decorate the Christmas tree. Make red paper bows. It is just strips of red paper taped in the shape of a bow with a thin strip of paper used to hang the bow on the tree. If you don't have red paper on hand, you could try coloring a white piece of paper red with a crayon as I did here.

Even though it is a simple craft, children may like decorating with the bows after they are finished more than making them. After watching you, though, they may all the sudden create bows of their own for their own purposes:)

Here's a link to more detailed directions I wrote over at eHow if you'd like to view it. I find that when I have a number of pictures to use with directions, eHow's publishing format is easier to use.

How to Make a Bow for a Christmas Tree Decoration

Christmas Collage

Here's a fun way to use Christmas junk mail. Get a piece of green paper and glue it to a background of red paper.

Cut out the pretty Christmas gifts and ads in the weekly flier or Christmas catalog.

Glue the Christmas items to the green paper.

Cover with white glue using a small paint brush and let dry. Here's a craft where Elmer's glue would work better than tacky glue because Elmer's is a little thinner and will spread over the collage easier. Add just a tad of water to make it spread even easier.

Older children can do the craft all by themselves whereas younger children might just like doing the gluing. Whatever they'd like to do.

Alligator Hat or Princess Crown

Here's a little hat or crown made from scraps from cutting out Christmas trees. The trick is cutting out the Christmas trees leaving one continuous scrap of zig zag edged paper. Simply tape the ends together in a size that fits the wear's head, and viola, it becomes an Alligator Hat or a Princess Crown whichever the little wearer prefers:)

Here's the link to the Christmas Tree Hats this hat or crown was made from.
Christmas Tree Hats

Happy crafting!

Christmas Tree Hats

Younger children might enjoy prancing around in these simple Christmas Tree Hats. An adult or older child could draw a Christmas tree on green paper and then help cut it out. Children younger than five may become frustrated with the cutting while children working on their cutting skills may find it a great accomplishment.

Children can decorate the tree with crayons or non-toxic markers.

An adult could cut a strip from another color paper, which could be red or any color available, measure the strip to fit the child's head and tape together.

After the strip is the right size, simply tape on the Christmas trees.

Here's a link to an Alligator Hat or a Princess Crown which could be made with the scraps from the Christmas Tree.
Alligator Hat or Princess Crown