Ukrainian Christmas Spider Legend
Have you heard of the story of the Christmas Spider? If not, head this blog post – Ukrainian Christmas Traditions – Tinsel and the Christmas Spider.
Christmas Spider Ornaments for Kids
Pipe cleaners are ideal for making webs and spiders. You could use them on their own or with dough to make a more fuller body. Add googly eyes to give your creations a little personality.
Baker Ross do a fab little range of spider crafts. You could use these to make Christmas decorations and hold onto them for Halloween too. Click on images below to head to that kit.
Just a little note to say that I know my daughter loves to create yet I want to be conscious of our environmental impact. I spend a lot of time ‘de-constructing’ creations when their time is up. Things like pipe cleaners and googly eyes keep really well ready to use for new projects.
Christmas Spider Ornaments for Teens and Adults
Wire art is something I’ve always wanted to do. There’s an incredible artist Griggsy who makes wonderful creations.
Recently she made this superb Christmas tree entry based on the Christmas Spider.
Do go and check out more of her stunning work here.
Wire art would be a great activity for older teens and adults to create together. You could also use the resources to make jewellery items too.
Kids Christmas Cards and Wrapping
A lovely keepsake is to have Christmas cards designed by your children. However, I don’t want our daughter Floss having to make umpteen Christmas cards on an elf-style production line.
Floss took inspiration for her design from watching a Draw with Rob video for Father Christmas and added the other parts herself.
We love Draw with Rob and he does great books too including this Christmas title.
Once Floss had drawn her picture (I didn’t actually tell Floss it was going to be our Christmas card) I then scanned in (you could take a photo) and then edited to add a red background colour.
You can then use a professional printing company such as Photobox – I’ve used them before and always been pleased with the results. Or, as we did this year, you can print them out at home onto some thin card.
Wrapping Paper Ideas
This year we’re wrapping three ways. Firstly, we’re wrapping how we’d done on previous years with kraft style brown paper (you can get larger quantities like I do from here) and string. Using the brown paper also means you can use it for gifts all year round. You could paint your own designs or use rubber stamps to embellish your paper too.
Secondly, for family in the house, we use scarves. We don’t worry too much about them being festive and usually use my daughter’s play scarves. We’ve done this since she was born.
It wasn’t until recently I realised there was a name for it – 風呂敷 (furoshiki)!
Finally, we ordered some plain cotton, drawstring bags (they come in varying sizes) . If I had more time again I would probably order a roll of plain cotton to make my own.
We then ordered fabric marker pens and told Floss that she could be as creative as she liked. We didn’t mind if they were Christmas themed or any theme that she liked. For someone arty like Floss she absolutely loved doing this; she called herself a creative elf!
Organising Organisation
I love organising and lists! Do you? I do have an electronic calendar (Google) and I can’t run my life without my Trello boards and my to do list (Google and Trello) but I still like to write down bits and bobs on paper.
I do love Papergang boxes. If you’re a stationery lover you should definitely check them out.
This Papergang box is called On The Go! and I was sooooo excited by that little pencil/ pen strap.
I was even more excited when I realised it didn’t need to go on the cute little magnetic notepad that came with it, but would fit around my A6 size planner too! How perfect to have your pens and pencils snuggly attached to your notepad without a holder in the way when writing. Perfect.
You’re on my wavelength if stationery like this can make our day. The planner is a Papergang one from a previous box. I did switch out the pencil to a Papermate pencil – sorry Papergang but my love affair with Papermate pencils has been years in the making.
Papergang Origami
I loved the instructions to make an origami pencil out of the packaging too. Cool idea. I do enjoy origami. I learnt several different origami structures when I went on holiday to Japan. I’m running an origami workshop in the new year and hoping to teach the group how to make the first thing I learnt – cranes.
You can find instructions on how to make a crane here.
Christingle Candles
Floss made a Christingle in school this week. She was incredibly excited to bring it home and share it with us. I’ve not made these before but remember making pomanders with my Mom as a child. I do love the smell of cloves.
Candle Making Gifts
Candles make beautiful gifts but can also be great as last minute gifts or warming, magical decorations for the home.
Candle Making Ideas
Candles are something that Floss has always enjoyed making. Over the years we’ve created candles for lots of occasions as a family. We love to use them at meal times. NOTE: We have lots of discussions about candle safety and think carefully about where we place them.
You can of course buy candle making kits (Etsy have some delightful ones) or you can buy candle making supplies to make your own. We’ve tried several different ways over the years when Floss has been various ages including:
- Drawing onto candles – you can see examples we did for Summer Solstice here. Perfect for early mark making through to budding artists.
- Beeswax rolled candles – example of ours can be found here. With supervision this can be done with quite young children and is great for fine motor skill development.
- Decorated beeswax candles using Stockmar beeswax – these are what we’re making this year.
- Re-loved candles (pictured below) – well that’s what we call them. Making beautiful candles from old candles and kitchen spices. Find out how we made them in this blog post.
Pebble Painting – Rock Art
I’ve finally written a blog post that I’ve been meaning to write for a while. There have been so many requests for more information on making story stones such as where to get stones from and what I use to decorate them. You can find out all in the blog post – Pebble Painting – ‘Rocking’ Art – How to Make Your Own – Ideas.
For rock painting resources check out the retailers below by clicking on the names:
- Amazon
- Walmart
- Acrylic Paint Pens – Dual Ended (currently on promotion and there’s a coupon available)
Free Watercolour Paint-along Advent Calendar
I’ve been a huge fan of the very lovely Becca who runs Fiddlesticks Education for a long time. She paints beautifully and I’ve purchased lots of resources from her over the years (Etsy shop here). Watching her paint is mesmerising. Paint-along below. Although for advert there are lots of things you may enjoy painting anytime.
Tin Art Ideas – Christmas Tree Topper Ideas
If you’re looking for something a little unique to adorn the top of your Christmas tree then let me introduce you to the tin art angel.
Mom’s been busy again with her tin art and the angel is ready to find themselves a place at the top of the tree. I love the use of the star punch at the bottom.
Well that’s another arts an crafty week from us. If you’d like to see previous creative posts then head here. We’ll see you in a couple of weeks for more creative posts after the festive season.
Warm wishes, Lisa x