Christmas Crafts

I haven't really done too many crafts lately with the kids so since it is Christmas time, I figured it was a good time to do a couple.  The first thing we did was make salt dough ornaments.  It's something I'd done with my students in the past and thought it would be fun to do with my kids.  I also wanted something to remember how sweet and little their hands were.

1 C flour
1/2 C salt
1/2 C water

Mix it together with your hands until the dough forms.  I had to add just a tad more flour to get it to the right consistency.  Then just roll it out and press your hand into the dough.  Once I put the hand on the parchment paper on the cookie sheet, I used a straw to poke a hole at the top so that we can add a string to hang it from later.  Then bake in the oven for a couple hours at 250.  I started checking them after 2 hours to see if they were hard enough.  I think they actually baked for about 2 hours and 15-20 minutes.  We waited until the next day to paint them.  We just painted Santa for all three hands.  They turned out pretty cute!

The next thing we made was a canvas painting. Alex and Abby's hands made the tree and their thumbs made the ornaments.  Then each kiddo made a snowman using their foot.  I really love how this project turned out.

We also made some Christmas cookies.  I used a new recipe and thought the cookies turned out great.  They have cream cheese and almond extract to make them extra tasty.  They frosting turned out well, too.  I've never made frosting like this before, and I liked how it turned out.  You can see the recipe here.  Instead of painting with food coloring, like the recipe suggests, we just decorated with what we had on hand.  The kids were proud of their cookies!

DIY Disney Christmas Tree

I love Christmas time!  I love the decorations, the lights, the music, the cookies, the food, the family and  friends.  I love it all!  Every time we visit somewhere new, we buy an ornament for our Christmas tree.  I love the flood of memories that return while unwrapping each special ornament.

While we were at Disney World last year, I had so much fun trying to find ornaments for the tree.  Then again when we went on our Disney Cruise, it was fun to pick out ornaments.  I've kept the key cards from each vacation that have our name on them and am going to string them together with a ribbon to hang on the tree, too.

I have a skinny tree that I put in my entryway and it is just decorated with lights and cheap colored balls.  While it looks okay, I've decided to make that my Disney tree.  I'm so excited!!!  I'm going to hang all of our key cards and ornaments we bought while on both Disney trips last year.  But that is not nearly enough to make a Disney tree!  While browsing Pinterest, I came across a girl that made her own Disney ornaments.  Genius!  She bought the play sets at the Disney store like these.

I knew exactly what she was talking about since my kids have some that they play with.  They run about $10 a piece.  She added little eye hooks and threaded the ornament hook through, and voila!  instant tree ornaments with Disney favorites!  Each little set comes with about 6-10 figurines in them and for $10 it's a steal!  I can't wait to make my Disney tree!  Now to wait on on the FedEx guy to deliver my goodies so I can start my next project!

Headbands and Bows

When Abby was little, I always tried to keep a headband or a bow on her so she would get used to having it on her head.  However, when she was about 9 months old, she started pulling them off her head.  She'd keep them on long enough for a picture, but then she was done.  Luckily, it didn't last more than a few months and she really likes wearing them.

I've had stuff to make her storage for headbands and bows for about a year now.  Not really sure why I didn't do it before now.  Today I remembered that I had the supplies and while she was napping I made her a place to keep them.

The headband holder is just an oatmeal container covered in fabric with a ribbon added at the top and bottom.  The ribbon doesn't look like it's very flat, but that's OK!

The second thing I made her was a bow holder.  I just took an old wooden picture frame, spray painted it, hot glued and stapled ribbon to the back, and added the bows.  I actually think I need to make her another one because not every bow was able to fit and there are a few you can't see because they are so overlapped.  I think it makes a cute decoration for her wall, too!