Supplies:

• Hot Glue Gun
• Glue Sticks
• Wooden Clothespin
• Pipe Cleaners
• Craft Paint
• Small drum ornament (from craft store)
• Scissors

These little guys are a lot of fun to make! Kids will love these too. Beware of the hot glue gun!  Use your imagination to decorate them. The sky’s the limit!

A few simple supplies and you’re on your way!

Paint the body of the clothespin one solid color but leave the tip unpainted.

Paint the bottom a different color than the top.

Paint a contrasting design on the jacket.

Glue the pom pom on the head with glue gun. First cut out a small opening in the pom pom with scissors so it rests properly on the head. Also cut out some arms out of pipe cleaners.

Hot glue arms on body.

Hot glue drum on body and lay flat until it dries.

Voila! You can line these up or hang them from the tree or even attach them to your gifts!

Wooden ornaments you can buy in the craft stores make perfect gift tags, and they are fun to paint while watching Christmas movies on TV.

All you’ll need:

• Unfinished wooden ornaments
• Acrylic craft paint
• Small paint brushes
• Water
• Paper towels

Simply paint the ornaments as you wish, let them dry, use a Sharpie to write the name of the giftees on them and tape them to the front of Christmas packages. Be sure to rinse off your brush well and tap it dry on paper towels, every time you want to use a new color. You can get creative and use metallic paints, glitter or whatever else works for you. What is great about these is that the ornaments will be used for years to come, and the recipients will think about you every time they put your hand-painted ornament on their Christmas trees.

Here’s our GIGANTIC spider made from garbage bags and newspaper!

I made a bookmark for my daughter’s friend, Simone’s birthday. She works in a biology lab in college and catalogues beetles, so used a beetle theme.

Materials:

• 2 1/2 inch X 9 inch piece of thick watercolor paper
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Black Sharpie Pen
• Glue Stick
• Watercolor paints
• Stickers of insects of your choice or photo cutouts from a magazine or calendar
• Decorative paper or calendar page for backside of bookmark
• Beading wire
• Beads of your choice (I used seed beads and one turquoise bead, one special glass bead at the top)
• Crimping Beads
• Crimper
• Laminator (I went to Fed Ex Copy Center for this)
• Hole Punch

How to make your bookmark:

• Draw a 1/2 inch border around the front of the bookmark with a pencil
• Paint the person’s name inside the bookmark. I chose to divide the space evenly by six for the number of letters in the name.
• Paint the background with watercolor paints.
• Draw letters of the name with pencil and color them with the Sharpie pen. I copied a font I found on line.
• Cut out the insect shapes or use stickers and glue down along the border.
• Cut out coordinating decorative sheet the size of the bookmark and glue to back.
• Take your bookmark to a laminator.
• Laminate and trim.
• Use hole punch to punch hole at the top.
• Seal bead wire with a crimp bead and add beads of your choice.
• Loop top of string through punch hole and seal with a crimping bead.

1. Parent Magazine article: 10 Ways to Tame Your Kid’s Tantrums
2. CNN: How to Talk to Your Kids About Bin Laden’s Death
3. My Summer Camps: Summer Camp Guide 2011
4. NY Times: Screening: An Autism Questionnaire at Checkup Time
5. She Knows Parenting: Mother’s Day Crafts

No More Tantrums!

http://webclipart.about.com

If you love puppets, you’ll love this book too! 10-Minute Puppets by Noel MacNeal. Read my review on LA Parent Mag’s website.

Make a Valentine Cake! This one is Red Velvet.

Hot glue on some foam shapes to a heart-shaped wreath.

Make faux flower vases out of an oatmeal can or olive oil tin. Use doilies, tissue paper, lace and cutouts from old greeting cards.

My daughter, Rachel is not home from college yet for Christmas break, but her pal, Molly Rubin stopped by to make Christmas earrings with me. Molly is a college art student, and a pleasure to craft with! We cut green corrugated cardboard, I found in my stash, into different sized rounds and stacked them with beads. It was so simple, and I’ve been getting a lot of compliments when I wear them.

This is a blast to make. You are limited only by your imagination! You can make a bunch for gifts too.

Materials

• 8 oz. plastic white cup
• 2 inch wood turning knob head
• White craft paint and paint brush
• Large square of white felt for covering cup
• other felt in colors of your choice (I used scraps of wool felt but you can use craft felt too)
• Large craft pom pom in color of your choice for top of hat
• 2 small black pom poms for eyes
• Small Merry Christmas or Season’s Greetings sign (find in mini ornament section of craft store)
• One red and white pipe cleaner
• 2 small buttons in your color of choice
• 1 orange crayon with flat button still in tact
• Tacky craft glue
• Needle and thread

Directions

Take a white plastic drinking cup

Turn it upside down. Wrap it with white felt, glue into place and cut and glue a round to cover the bottom.

Paint wood knob head white. You will need 2 or 3 coats.

Cut a strip of felt about 2 inches wide and 8 inches long for hat. Start rolling it to fit around the wood head.

Bunch up top of roll and sew together with a few stitches to make top of hat.

Trim off excess felt and glue seam down

Place wire holder from sign over top of upside down cup.

Glue head on to top of cup. Placement of head keeps sign holder in place.

Cut 2 small mittens out of felt and glue onto sides of cup.

Glue hat onto head.

Cut thin strip of contrasting felt for hat rim, length of the base of the hat.

Glue trim on hat and glue pom pom on top of hat.

Cut a 1/2 inch wide by 1 foot long scarf out of felt. Cut fringe on ends.

Secure scarf into place by tying a small strip of felt to the neck of the scarf.

Carve a carrot shaped nose out of the bottom section of the crayon and glue flat end into place on head.

Glue tiny black pom pom eyes onto face.

Cut the pipe cleaner the length of the base of the cup and glue into place. You made need to use a clip to hold the ends of the pipe cleaner in place while it dries.

Enjoy Your Snowman!