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.

Holiday Greeting Cards for Preschoolers

Most of the kids in US have their winter break going on now. Usually the last day at school before the winter break is the day they have a little holiday celebration. That was on Friday Dec 16 at my daughter's preschool. Thursday night she decided she wants to give handmade holiday greeting cards to all her friends. Frankly I was little tired and was kind of reluctant. It was a very busy day and I had an order to complete which I had to ship early morning. But I didn't have the heart to curb her enthusiasm.
So we decided to keep it simple and quick so that we can make 15 cards and where she has to do at least 75% of the work.

This is how we made it.

Supplies you will need:
- Red Card stock Letter size
- Paper trimmer preferable
- Score board (optional but recommended)
- Bone folder
- Ruler
- Edge punch (optional)
- Scissors
- Silver stamp Pad
- Markers : Silver or any color that is visible on Red card stock.
- Peel and stick Felt : Green and brown
- Rhinestones red or any your like

Step wise instructions
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1. Cut the card stock in desired size. We made 3 fold card so I cut the letter size paper in 3.5" width from the 8.5" side of the paper. So you will get 3 cards from one paper. Refer the picture.

2. Take one of the card piece and on scoring board score at 3.5" and 7" from the left edge of the paper.

3. Use edge punch to punch the edge of the third part of the card. Refer picture.

4. Draw a triangle on the back side of green the peel and stick felt. Draw a little rectangle on the back of brown peel and stick felt. Cut them using scissors. Kids can cut this using safety scissors or parents can help.

5. Let the kids stick the felt pieces and rhinestone as shown in pictures.
6. Ink the punched edge with silver stamp pad. Just run the stamp pad on the edge. This is an optional step.
7. Use the silver marker to write Happy Holidays inside the card.
8. Let your preschooler write their names if they have learnt it, my daughter did. If not them parents can help but let them tell the alphabets of their names. Most of the kids know them by now.

The cards are ready to be given. As they are 3 folds you don't need envelope if you want to keep them cute and casual. We just tied all of them together by a golden ribbon. Her friends loved it.


Happy Holidays!!

Tips:
1. Plan in advance, my daughter was a little tired after writing her name 10 times.
2. Handmade cards are best for preschoolers, they learn making them and have lots of fun too.
3. If you do not have scoring board simple use bone folder with metal ruler. That should do the trick.
4. If you do not have edge punch you can use decorative scissors too or just leave it as straight edge.

Wooden Bead Necklace Preschool Craft

It gives me immense pride to share this craft with you all. This is my daughter's first attempt at bead craft. Both of us are so proud of this project.

I was just waiting for her to turn 3 year old so desperately that she gets to use things which are labelled as small parts, only for 3 year old and above. She was ready before that but still I was waiting.

This is one of the simplest crafts if you look at it. But, definitely a feel good craft for a preschooler. They do get sense of achievement after completing this.
I could see it is a little challenging for them.
It is very good for honing their fine motor skills.Also, they get to learn and experience patterns.
It can be tiring too, so its ok for parents to help in between just to help them to complete the project. To be honest, at the end of it my daughter was all worked up and the tiny fingers wanted rest, but the little heart wanted to wear that necklace as soon as possible. So I pitched in.


She got this cute box she got the other day from Joann, its a $1 box which comes with 4 crayons on top to color this little ballerina.
Once the necklace was completed she wore it. But she had a box ready to keep it safe.
I think it is great craft for kids.


Useful Tips:

1. Wooden beads were bought from Dollar Tree. Not all of them are perfect. Parents might want to sort the good ones and give to kids to avoid frustration.
2. For cording the beads your best bet is thin elastic as shown in the picture. I tried jewellery color cords as well as hemp meant for jewellery making, beading and crafting, but they are not great for little hands. The tip does not remain stiff for long. Craft needles meant for kids are too thick for this project.
3. The beads I bought had one sample elastic. More can be bought from sewing supply store. Walmart, Michaels and Joann have them.
4. For quicker projects you might want to make a bracelet.
5. For preschooler boys, you might want to get square beads in blue, black, red, orange or brown.You can also select a different box.