christmas crafts that toddler can make as gifts

[marchmom19]

any tips on nice simple crafts that toddler can make?

I have made christmas cards before with her hand prints, or potatoe prints or from sample of her art work throughout the year

I have made baked dough ornaments which she helped to make and painted. but too heavy to mail oversea to my family members at home

I need some simple tip she is now almost three and loves to do lots of crafts...cutting, pasting, painting.

thanks for tips in advance

[Elismama]

We are making gifts for our family and friends. Here are some of the things we are doing

-tin ornaments- I collected some aluminum pie plates from the recycling center. I cut them into star and moon shapes. Using a small nail Eli made holes in them and "scratched" designs on them. Then I threaded a ribbon into a slightly larger hole. We hung some in windows but they will also work on trees or as gift tags. Reminds me of those colonial ornaments made of metal with nail holes- only you don't need a hammer.

-granola- we have made a sample batch. Eli mixes the nuts and oats and wheat germ, etc. Then I bake it and he adds the dried fruit.

-cards- we did simple abstract painted cards as Eli is not quite 2.5- easier for me to just let him go with the paints. Some are beautiful, others- well.... his grandma will appreciate them!

- we are going to make cinnamon/apple sauce ornaments at a playgroup. They are light weight but fragile and smell so good. I will post the recipe after we do it.

have fun,
jeanie

[leafylady]

I just saw a good idea in a ladies mag at my grandparent's house. I'm so sorry that I can't remember the name of the mag. It may have been Good Housekeeping, but I'm not sure.

Anyway-----. They were simple ornaments made out of felt and decorated with felt bits and buttons, glued on. I adapted the idea by preparing felt stockings ahead of time. I just glued it all together, no sewing. Then today, I let almost 3 yr old ds cut out felt bits (not enough scissor control for shapes yet). We then glued buttons and felt bits on the felt stockings. He picked out the buttons or felt bits and told me where he wanted to put them. I put a drop of tacky glue down and he then placed his bit or button on the spot. I figure that I'll stick candy or gift certificates in the stockings and use them as part of the gifts given out by our family.
As I recall from the article, other ideas were to prepare green felt Xmas tree shapes ahead of time and let the tot add buttons or bits as tree decorations. Another idea was to wrap a 6"diameter wreath form in white felt ahead of time and then let the tot glue on the buttons or bits to the wreath.
You could cut out snazzy shapes for your tot ahead of time, but my guy loves using the scissors, so I let him do it. I just happen to have a few tins full of buttons in the basement. You could also use beads or whatever you have on hand.

[marchmom19]

i think I came up with a gift idea that can be used long term and not just ornaments for christmas time.

My dd been painting a storm this week. Will have her cut the papers (using the paper cutter which she loves to do and its safe for her with my supervision). We will make bookmarks for all our family and friends. Will be light and cheap to mail oversea to our relatives back at home.

Then everyone can sample a bit of her artwork and have an useful gift they can use all year round.

Will try to find some sayings and quotes to put on the back of the bookmarks.

BTW I love the other ideas. Esp the felt one. Going to make a homemade advent calender with 24 pockets and she has to take things out of each pocket to decorate the felt board scene. Such as chrsitmas tree or manger theme...can be different theme each year.

Have fun making your crafts everyone.

stephanie

[Ragana]

We just did the cinnamon ornaments and my 3 yr. old liked it. We plan to maybe give some to her pre-school teachers. My only advice would be to make them in a place you can air out. The cinnamon smell was very intense, almost too intense, while baking. We used skewers and chopsticks to decorate the shapes - you have to press pretty hard to make the design stay.

If your kids are old enough to have friends, or have fairly young relatives, homemade play dough might make a good present.

[leafylady]

The felt ideas are in Good Housekeeping, December 2002, P. 145 "Crafty Kids".
I picked up the mag yesterday for Xmas cookie recipes. You'll be able to find it at the library too.

By the way, cut out and decorated Xmas cookies are a great fun craft to do with a toddler if you don't mind the mess.

[glad2bemama]

A huge hit with my kids last year at ages 2 and 4 was paper bag gingerbread ornaments--

Gingerbread paper bag ornaments--

first trace a cookie cutter ornament onto paper bag 2x

next, cut out shapes

decorate front of man with pens in white and black and red ( for cheeks and mouth )

take cotton balls and dip into cinnamon scented spice mix

glue outside of front and back and leave space at top for cotton and loop of string

cut out small colorful scarf from scrap fabric

glue onto gingerbread man as scarf

tuck in string to use as way to hang ornament

glue top together

Voila! Fun inexpensive gingerbread ornament that the everyone loves to make and enjoy! They also work great as gift tags!

[MamaOui]

..................

[lorrielink]

these are the things im doing with my 3 and a half year old son this year,

1. made salt dough ornaments, if you need the recipe let me know.

2. made melted candy ornaments in cookie cutters, only do this if you have tons of pateince!

3. take chenille pipe cleaners and an assortment of beads that will fit on them. let the child put string the beads on however she wants and show her how to wrap the ends together or let her wind it however she wants and finish cutting or wrapping it yourself, extemly light-weight and can be completely done by your child. :tip: buy your pipe cleaners at the dollor store not the craft store.

4. found cheap xmas cards at the thrift store, they said babys first christmas around the card and were blank inside, we got out the paints and glitter and we painted the cards with dark blues and purple untill the words were coverd then sprinkeld glitter all over the paint to let it bond. you cant even see the origonal design on the cards and was way cheaper then buying from a store. im playing around with the idea of having him print him hand on the inside of them.

5. next week were taking popcorn, raisans, licorice, and cranberries and going to thread them through to make garland.
i wont let him use the needle so im going to have him just pull the items to the end of the string and let him eat as much as he want, will let you know how that works out

thats it for now but ive got a few more up my sleave, love these ideas so far, especiall the premade felt things and letting him glue things on. if i have time for that i think ill put a little stuffing into them to make them more dimentional.
can i use my hot glue gun for the decorations?

[gilnikche]

Check out this thread for more ideas:

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...threadid=32473

[tara]

I just read this in <gasp!> Martha Stewart's kid's magazine (I didn't buy it - someone gave it to me. I swear!

You take pipe cleaners and make snowflakes out of them (take like 5 of them and twist together in the middle. Then, you can take smaller bits and twist them onto the long ones to make fancier flakes). I haven't done this with a toddler, but it seems like they could do that??

Then, you make a borax solution by boiling water and adding borax and some food coloring - Ms. Martha used blue. Then, you put the solution in jars and suspend the snowflakes in them by tying on string and hanging by a pencil on the top of the jar. Am I making any sense??

Anyway, overnight crystals form on the pipe cleaners. They look like rock candy crystals. And they are really pretty. And you have lovely snowflake ornaments!