Chenille Stem Star Ornament

Like last year, this year also our Christmas tree was up on Dec 1st. The decoration is in progress. With a new baby at home I hardly get time to make ornaments. But my 4 yr preschooler is ensuring we are doing some or the other Christmas related craft almost every 2 days. I am not getting enough time to post all of them but I will definitely try to share these ideas as and when time permits. In my daughter's preschool class they asked every child - Who do you want to gift on Christmas and what?My daughter,who is usually Daddy's girl and a big sister to her little brother, replied 2 star ornaments for my Mom. Lucky me!! And who else will she ask how to make them? So here I am helping my kiddo to make 2 star ornaments to be gifted to me.

Jokes apart I really admire her eagerness to learn and create when it comes to crafts. She is a different kid when she is doing crafts.

Supplies you will need:
-Chenille stem or pipe cleaner- red (or color of your choice)
-Pencil -Golden wire or bow ribbon
-Star shape cookie cutter
-Fish line or mono filament
-Safety scissors
Instructions :
Step 1 Make a loop with pipe cleaner using pencil as shown.  
Step 2 Continue wrapping the pipe cleaner around the cookie cutter to get the star shape. Secure the end and cut-off any extra pipe cleaner.
Step 3 Wrap the golden ribbon or wire around the star shape so it looks filled and beautiful.  
Step 4 Hang the ornament with mono filament or fish line. You can use ribbon also if you prefer that.  
Note :  My daughter made this ornament herself with very little help. Some kids might need some more hand holding depending on how much practice they have for crafting. Some kids might find the ends of pipe cleaner a little sharp, parents please supervise little kids for this craft.

Spooky Spider for Halloween

Halloween is coming and kids love to scare their friends with spooky stuff during Halloween. Here is a quick and fun craft idea for kids to make during Halloween.

To make this spooky spider you need following supplies :
- Black yarn
- Black chenille stems or pipe cleaners
- Wiggle eyes
- Glue and Scissors
- A piece of cardboard
- Clear plastic string ( If you want to suspend the spider)


Keep aside a 6-7 inch yarn piece. Wrap rest of the yarn around the cardboard piece. Remove the wrapped yarn and using the yarn piece you kept aside, tie a know at center of the spool. Place the chenille stems across the spool as shown in the picture and tie more knots to secure the chenille sticks. Click on the image to view a larger picture. Using scissors slit the opposite ends of the spool to get a pom pom. Kids may need help in this step. You may leave the pom pom as is or even out the look using scissors.

Bend the chenille stems to make the legs of the spider. Glue on the wiggle eyes. The spooky spider is ready to scare!

If you want to suspend the spider insert a clear plastic string( available in beading section in any craft store) using a needle from bottom of the spider. This way you can make a couple of spiders and use them as window decoration during Halloween.