Family of Christmas Angels

Just a quick and easy Christmas craft. I made these for Christmas last year. Our family as angels. :-) Bit of a stretch maybe, but we look angelic. I used the family photo from our Christmas card last year and cut out our faces. Using double sided tape I stuck the heads to some triangles of scrapbook paper and half pieces of paper doily's. And ta-da! I did see this somewhere in blog world though I have no idea where. They are cute aren't they? This would be another good one for the kids to make. Simple fun.

Click the button below to go and see some more Christmas ideas. :-)

Hands and Feet Angels

We made these a couple of years ago. They were a gift for the Grandparents and Great-Grandparents. I think this craft is a great one, especially if you don't live near family. They can see the size of your kids hands and feet. Such a nice idea. Esther and Ellamay decorated these with their favourite (and mine) glitter glue and some adhesive ribbon. We might have to try something like this again this year. Not only are they bigger :-) they are now quite handy on the scissors, so they could cut out their own. 

There is a little poem on the back too. 

This little angel is special you see;

Because she is a part of me.
Her wings are my hands,
Her body my feet,
And on the tree she'll look very sweet.

I kept some that Esther and Ellamay made in their scrapbooks. Oh. I could put more in so we could compare the sizes of their hands and feet couldn't I? I think I have just talked myself into making these again this year with all three kids. :-) Find this craft from here.

Getting no where

I feel like I am getting no where lately. Amelia has been unwell now for over a month and it is very wearing. I hope we are making progress with her. She has been a brave little girl and is still smiling for the most part but it would be nice to get her well completely. I have had to let go a lot of the crafts I had planned for Christmas though I am afraid. If I get to make anything its all about kids craft for pump time. Oh well, at least that is a little bit of creativity to take the edge off.

Kids giving

After we had kids, Christmas became a big gift occasion. Like the kids would get loads of presents. We felt like we (the kids) were getting so much stuff and offering nothing in return. We started making tokens as a way of saying thanks for getting spoilt. When Esther and Ellamay were about 18 months old we had them draw pictures (scribbles) on paper and used it to wrap blocks of chocolate for everyone. It took a few days of drawing to get enough for all the chocolate but we got there. The girls were so excited to give everyone a present in return for theirs. We went with the picture wrapped chocolate until a couple of years ago.

The girls were a bit more advanced in what they could do so we made these reindeer treat cups. The girls were able to paint the cups and although I prepared a lot of it, they had fun putting them together. We made up little cellophane bags of lollies and chocolates and put them inside.

These are the cute choir people we made for family presents last year. You can find this craft here. We used paper cups instead of the cardboard tubes but they turned out just as cute I think. I used cheap red felt for the hats. I still had to help a lot with this one last year but the three girls all enjoyed it - especially the giving part.

I haven't found what to do for this years treats. The girls are now old enough that they are probably wanting to make their own ideas. Eek! Who knows what they might come up with. I will let you know what we end up doing. What ever we decide to do, we will have to get on with it soon! It is almost a month until Christmas. How am I going to get everything done in time?

Which part?

I thought this was hilarious when I first saw this. Had to share it.

Hope to be back this week with some Christmas crafts. Have a good week :-)

Making monkeys

Pump time, craft time again. We made monkeys. I love these! They are so cute. I found the monkey craft on Busy Bees Kids Crafts website. I found quite a few cool things on there that we will have to try.

These photos were taken after Amelia had finished on the pump. We start our crafts while she is one the pump and then in theory they should be about done by the time Amelia is finished. The new drug Amelia is on means she has a new mask to use and it is heavier than the one she used before. I have to help her hold it otherwise she wouldn't keep it on.

This craft kept the girls very entertained. After making their monkeys, they set about customising them. Esther gave hers a mullet, Amelia didn't think hers needed a tail and Ellamay gave her monkey an extra long curly tail. Then there was branch making for the monkeys to hang from and a whole lot of laughing when the monkeys would end up on shoulders and backs.

I would like to do this one again some time. Except with a lot more monkeys. More the merrier.

Tshirt makeover

Here is the tshirt makeover I told you about in my last post. Amelia had worn it once or twice and then this happened. She had been painting, wearing an art smock like a good little girl. She took it off, got all washed up and then came back to check her wet art works. These things happen all the time with kids but I have never done anything about it before. The stained clothing just becomes 'at home' stuff or only gets worn underneath other things. This time I thought I would try fixing it.

Using some old baby clothes, tshirt scraps and another scrap (from Amelia's drawing book) I made this birdie on a branch. It was just going to be a birdie but then I discovered the paint at the bottom and side of the shirt so I had to think up something else. I have never done this before and I figured it looked simple enough but it was a bit tricky. I think my sewing machine is in need of a work out! It hasn't been out of the cupboard for quite a while. :-(

I hand stitched the legs. They are kind of funny. Whatever. It is still cool. What do you think? Esther and Ellamay have decided that they want some tshirts now that have pictures on them so I guess I will have to get this tshirt making thing figured out. Meanwhile, do you recognise the birdie? I used the same pattern as I did to make the eraser stamp back in June. June... that was a good craft month...

Anyway, I think I will have to google around and see if I can find some tutorials on doing tshirts like this to see if I am doing it right.

Have a great weekend :-)

Making new from a whole lot of old

I had an idea the other day. I thought I would try my hand at stitching some old and new together. Amelia had a tshirt that was in need of a makeover. After only wearing it once or twice, she managed to get paint on the front of it.

Come back and see what I did to make it better :-)

Paper leaves on cardboard trees

Here is what was made with all those paper leaves I cut out and showed you the other day. The 3 girls made these while Amelia had pump time. I cut the trees out from scrap photo mat board and slotted them together. Then the kids just used some glue to stick the leaves on. I think it's funny how different they all turned out.

Esther lined up all her leaves nice and neatly.

Ellamay went around the edge with the leaves and then started filling in the centre. She decided that the leaves were like petals and so she made flowers to stick on too.

Amelia was very random. She seemed more interested in painting the glue on that actually getting the leaves on :-)

We might add some flowers or apples to them if we do a take 2 with them. I also thought about getting the girls to make a little swing out of pipe cleaners and then cut out a little person to sit on it. That would be cool too don't you think? Wish I'd thought of that the other day when I was getting them all ready to make.

We also used a lot of the leaves the next night on the pump because the girls decided to make green flowers. Sorry no photos of that. They made them up like Ellamay's flower (in her tree photo). After the 'petals' were stuck together like a flower, the girls stuck them to drinking straws for a stem. They looked great. Now I am under orders to cut up lots of coloured paper to make petals so we can make more colourful bunches of flowers.

Bees knees

Have I mentioned lately how cool I think my camera is? Yeah. It's cool. Still don't know which settings to use but... Bees knees baby! That's all.

Paper leaves

More pump time, craft time. Paper leaves waiting to be used.

Felt Christmas decorations

I have got Christmas on the brain lately. I really want to get making Christmas stuff and feel like I am organised this year. I say that every year. Oh well, I can dream. I am a bit earlier than usual but how can I help it when the shops have had their Christmas stuff out since the end of September or something ridiculous like that.

These are some decorations I started making last year. I never quite got to finish them. Such a surprise to not be finished something! Maybe I will get them done this year. I was thinking about getting the sewing machine out and just stitching them onto cards. Might be a quicker way to finish them. Plus, that would be cute don't you think?

I have been digging around the hard drive and found some photos from the last couple of years of Christmas things so I will share those in the next few weeks.

What do you do with a pile of coloured paper?

Well, if you are our kids, there is a lot of things you can do.  Amelia has started back on the pump with a new (wonder) drug and it is having a fantastic affect on her lungs. And of course, pump time means craft time. I put out a pile of coloured paper, scissors and sticky tape and here's the results. Esther and Ellamay had been to school and learnt about the Melbourne Cup as it was Cup Day. They made Cup related paper things.

Here is Esther sporting her paper jockey helmet (don't think that would be a very safe option) and first place ribbon. I love that she wrote Esther One!

Ellamay is wearing her jockey helmet too and holding her replica of the Melbourne Cup. So clever :-)

This is something that Amelia made just as she finished on the pump. To be perfectly honest I am not really sure what it is. She was singing into it at one stage like a microphone but she told me it wasn't one. Amelia made a lovely book with pictures (strange cut out shapes) stuck in with sticky tape but I couldn't find it to get a picture of. It was a pretty cute all covered in sticky tape. I saw it floating around her bedroom earlier so obviously it has made it into the pile of treasures. At least she got her photo taken with her microphone/whatever. And it is her favourite colour GREEN :-)

Expect to see a few more kids crafts coming up that the kids are making on the pump. And if you have any suggestions for them let me know.

Lady bug hair clip

Yes. I am still here. Been under the weather again. So have the kids. I thought I would just pop in to the neglected Crisis and show you something that I actually managed to make last month. Are you impressed? I love to make hair stuff because (in theory) it should be quick to see a result. Do you recognise my inspiration? I used Amelia's 3rd birthday cake inspiration for the hair clip too.

I have been writing lists of things that I want to make for Christmas and things that I need to finish off so hopefully things will start looking a bit busier here soon. Now if I can just get rid of this rotten headache.

Has anybody started getting Christmas on the brain yet?