Framed Ornaments Craft

When it came time to think of a holiday gift the kids could make for their parents, I remembered what they made last year.

I loved them! (You can read about them here.) I wanted to do something similar, but a little different. And I was looking around the room and saw our stained glass ornaments hanging from yarn in the windows.

Perfect! So this year we made ornaments.

Actually, I let the kids decide if they wanted to make trees or ornaments. This project takes several steps. I put the frames together for them ahead of time. I used jumbo craft sticks and glue dots. The kids decorated them with sequins. Then I cut squares from white card stock to fit the frame. The kids used blue watercolor to paint the square.

They also painted a strip of card stock with watered-down glue, added tissue paper squares, painted over them with the glue again and added a touch of glitter.

When they were dry, I flipped them over and drew on two triangles or three circles, depending on what the child wanted to make. Those who chose trees cut the triangles out themselves. I cut out the circles for those who wanted ornaments because the kids have a hard time cutting circles. For the ones that were making trees, I added some snow to the bottom of the blue watercolored square with extra white card stock. I just trimmed it to fit.

Then I glued on tiny trunks made from brown construction paper and the kids glued the trees to the square.

For the ornament craft, I left the whole background blue and the kids glued the circles on. They glued one on each side and one in the middle and put them at different heights. I set the frame on top of the square so they wouldn't put the circles too far over on the sides, but it wasn't glued on yet.

I used a clear ruler so I could see the exact middle of each circle and drew a line from the top of the circle up to the top of the frame. After having each child practice making a bow (an oval on one side of the line and an oval on the other side of the line), they made their bows on their craft. I glued the square to the frame using glue dots.

This year I added magnets on the back instead of ribbon for hanging. Still love how they turned out and I'm sure the parents will as well!

And speaking of gifts, my daughter has two college students who help out in her room at day care. I didn't want to forget about them this holiday season, but I also don't have a lot of money to spend. I love all the "mistletoe" gifts I've been seeing online so I decided to do that for them. I found a nail file, some foot scrub, nail polish and fuzzy slipper socks. I put them together in a little bucket that I found at Walgreens and added a tag from The Classy It Girl.

They turned out pretty cute!