Christmas tree ornaments from kids' art

These original little ornaments keep your child's art to decorate your Christmas tree for years to come.

Choose a Christmas picture your child has drawn. Here I choose a snowman.

Decide on a background. If you can see from the picture, I put purple, pink, and light green background. I glued the snowman first to purple paper, and then cut around the snowman leaving about an eighth inch frame. I did the same with the pink and green paper.

Cover with clear contact paper. I cut the clear contact paper twice as big as the snowman. Then I creased the contact paper so that when I removed the backing, I could place my snowman on the crease, and smooth the contact paper up from the crease and over the snowman until completely sealed on all sides.

Trim the edges of the clear contact paper.

Punch a hole in the top, and thread with a loop of yarn, so the ornament can hang on a Christmas tree branch.

Tissue box ornaments

There may be some ornament making materials just waiting to be taken out to the recycle bin. Those holiday tissue boxes sometimes have decorations the right size for tree ornaments. The pretty picture just needs to be cut out, a hole punched, and a piece of yarn strung through the hole for a simple tree ornament.

 Backing can be glued on or not.

This snowman was cut out of the Holiday Prints from Safeway® Softly® Gallery® facial tissue. 

Christmas presents

I read this article How to Give the best Christmas Present to Your Child by TracySmith159 over at eHow and got all excited. It is so true! My daughter has her own standard of mommy time. It's difficult to qualify for it in that just going somewhere with her is not part of her definition.

Yet what she wants is so simple and doesn't cost a cent. Just a few moments of my time to do what she wants totally focused on her. That may include taking a walk around the block together near Christmas to admire our neighbors Christmas decorations.

Time with our children is so cheap and yet so valuable. Just like the crafts we make with them.

Paper bell Christmas tree ornament

Inspiration for this bell came from the snowflake snowman ornament. After cutting out the snowflake design, one happened to look like a bell. If you look at the last picture of the snowman, he is holding this bell.

It's a simple little craft that can be colored any color, but looks nice on the tree.

Draw a bell, and color any color you'd like. Cut it out and put a hole in the top for a loop of yarn to hang it from the tree.

Snowflake snowman ornament

Cornucopia paper craft

This cornucopia is made from circles cut from two different colored paper. I was still recycling paper fans, and that's why there's creases in my circles, but the creases are not needed.

I drew circles small to large by hand on orange and yellow paper. Orange and brown paper would be nice colors too.

I made my circles by hand, but using a compass would make it easier to draw circles the next one bigger than the last. An adult may have to use the compass since it has a sharp end to hold it in place while the circle is made.

That's why I tried drawing the circles by hand. Children could easily draw them. 

Put the compass first on the orange paper and next on the brown paper opening the compass just a bit over and over until you've got about  8 to 12 circles. Since I guesstimated with mine, my colors are not perfectly alternating. A compass would help to alternate colors and give your cornucopia a nice contrast.

Cut out the circles, and spread them in a line smallest to the largest.

Place the circles on a paper in a cornucopia shape. When you are happy about how your cornucopia looks, glue each circle on.

Draw a pumpkin on orange paper, a few gourds on yellow paper, and some large grapes on some green paper. Color the stems brown, and cut out. Arrange the pumpkin, gourds, and grapes on the largest circle of the cornucopia, and glue them on when you are happy with the arrangement.

Paper plate turkey

A turkey plate for kid's goodies. The kid's can make their own too.

Just use a paper plate. Cut about six strips of paper one inch wide from orange or yellow paper or any color the kids would like for a tail.

I like recycling crafts. That's why there are little creases in my strips. I cut up old paper fans to use for the tail.

Make a loop with the first strip, and tape the ends together. Then tape the strip to the back of the plate. Do the same with all the strips overlapping them a little to make a turkey tail.

Next draw a head and neck and feet on the colored paper of choice, and cut them out. Tape these to the plate underneath, and you've got a turkey paper plate ready for thanksgiving goodies.