fiance, student, homeschool retiree, preschool teacher wannabe, Senior Living Coordinator, writer of many things unsaid, blogger, lover of the creative, most cheerful depressed person, devourer of books, crafty wanna be, amateur tech support, internet junkie, facebook stalker, tweeter of tweets, Pagan, friend, sister, daughter, aunt, karaoke super-star
...The Muffin Man!?
We are busy making our yearly ornament for friends and family. And when I say 'we' I mean the kids make one each and I have made about 40.
This year we picked
these half eaten gingerbread men. They are surprisingly easy to make and each one ends up being truly unique. (Some look more tortured than others)
We usually make one new ornament every year. We make it in bulk and then pass them out as gifts to friends, neighbors, and family.
This year we picked this little craft from
Family Fun called Nutty Elves.
photo from Family Fun.com
They were pretty easy to make with the bigger boys (10 and 13). The little boys (7 and 5) had trouble because of the small size of the peanuts, but they made about 5 each. Oliver (5) loved gluing on the noses. You could easily do these assembly line fashion as a family, giving each person a part based on their abilities.
Tips:
- Pre-make hats and shoes.
- Cut arms and legs ahead of time with wire cutters.
- Pose them before you glue them in.
- Use tacky glue and have hot glue gun on hand.
- Hot glue to wrapped candy canes
After we assembled the elves, I hot glued them in fun poses onto wrapped candy canes. We used fishing line for the hanger and I just hot glued it to the candy cane to make it secure.
We think they turned out cute and hope they last a few years. They sure made people smile when they opened them.
For our Homeschool Craft Circle (where we get together with other homeschooling families and do something crafty once a month) we made paper bag puppets and had a little puppet show. It was so much fun. The kids loved designing their own puppets. The bigger kids were great at entertaining us with a real puppet show using Kid Jokes.
So I am so not the craftiest of the crafty...but I was very proud of my newest quicky project. The new framed monogram I made now hangs in the living room on this weird wall near the thermostat.
A cool shaped old frame (99 cents at thrift store)
A little
American Accent Canyon Black spray paint (Love that stuff!)
A darling black letter M from
Craft Warehouse A few nails
A hammer
Oh! And a level-no crooked letter M's in this house
and Wallah!!
Brillant! Right?
