The New Gift Wrap. Nearly free and eco-friendly
Now it's really true that you and the kids can make your own gift wrap (and still have the gifts look nice). Your gift recipients will love the personalized and eco-friendly touch.
The New Gift Bags: Kids will love to decorate and give these gift "bags" and you'll feel good about recycling and saving money. You'll need: a cereal box, cracker box, or any such box that is the right size for your gift; scissors, a glue stick, paper (construction paper or whatever you like), cotton balls, a hole-punch, and ribbon or yarn.
Cut the top flaps off the box. Now you or your child can cover the entire box with paper. You decide how exacting you'd like to be about this step. Kids will enjoy taking a collage approach to covering the box, but if you are more interested in a tidy look, you can cut the paper to fit, and help the kids attach it. Either way, let the kids cover the box with a glue stick before you apply the paper. Fold the paper over the top edge of the box at the opening and glue around the inside rim for a finished look.
Now punch two holes near the top of each long side. Tie the ribbon or yarn through the holes to make handles for your gift bag.
Kids can glue cotton balls all along the top edge of the bag.
Once the kids are happy with what they've done, they can decorate with crayons, stamps or whatever else they can imagine. Consider writing a note right on the bag itself, and you won't even need a gift tag or card.
Options: For a more sophisticated look, you can use white pom poms instead of cotton balls. Or try covering the box with felt instead of paper, then decorating with buttons and sequins. Use tissue paper inside as you would with a traditional gift bag, and you've got a very professionally wrapped gift!
The New Bow: Put those plastic shopping bags to good use while decorating your gifts with a festive snowball!
You're essentially making tissue paper flowers here. You'll need plastic bags--any color you like, scissors, and pipe cleaners.
Cut squares from the plastic bags (about 6" x 6"). You'll need about 6-10 squares per flower. Put the squares in a stack and make accordion folds. Wrap the end of a short piece of pipecleaner (about 3-4") around the middle of the folded plastic and secure it. Now you can fluff up each layer of plastic to make a fluffy ball. In my experience little kids will like to help fold, wrap the pipecleaner, and will love to do the fluffing.
Now you can make a small loop with the end of the pipecleaner so that you can tape it to your gift. Or, wrap it around a ribbon.
Letters to Santa Hanger
This one is an easy craft you can do with little ones that can inspire years of keepsake letters to Santa.
You'll need: A paper towel roll, construction paper, glue stick, scissors, and any thing you like to decorate (crayons, stickers, markers, stamps), a hole punch and ribbon.
Cut a piece of paper to fit when wrapped around the paper towel roll (But don't wrap it yet). Now your child can decorate. Tell him this is going to be a holder where he can put letters for Santa on Christmas Eve. Ask him to think about what kids of decorations Santa might like. Or what might catch his attention. This will get him thinking a little about design. A nice touch is to make a label that says "Letters for Santa". Your child can write it or use letter stamps. Or, especially for the younger kids, you can print something out on the computer and let them glue it on.
When your child is finished decorating, wrap the paper around the paper towel roll and affix it with glue. Punch one hole near each end. Tie the ribbon through these holes to make the hanger.
Let your child decide where they'd like to hang it--near their stocking, on a door knob. Where might Santa see it? Then ask them to write a letter to Santa, roll it up and slide it into the tube. Now you have a great letter to save.
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Snazzy Snow Globe
Here's an idea for recycling some of those little toys that seem to clutter up every drawer and box but rarely get played with. Also a use for baby food jars. It's a snow globe that's just right for kids.
You'll need: A small plastic toy that can fit into a jar (needs to have a flat bottom), a baby food jar (or other jar slightly larger is fine too), super glue, glue, glitter, water, and decorative rhinestones (see "Options" below for alternatives to the rhinestones.)
First, glue the toy to the inside of the lid with super glue (don't let kids use super glue). Make sure you've chosen a toy that will fit inside the jar when the lid is closed. Let this dry completely.
Next, fill the jar with water up to about 1/2" from the top. Add about a teaspoon of glitter to the water. Put the lid on the jar (toy attached) and close it tightly. (Go ahead let the kids shake it).
Now, let your child decorate the outer edge of the baby food lid. We glued rhinestones all the way around using glitter glue. Tell them to create whatever pattern of colors they like, but to cover all the words on the lid. You might want to use an emery board to sand the surface of the lid first, to help the glue stick.
Once the decorations are dry, you have a kids-sized, kid-made, no-cost snowglobe for the holidays.
Options: Instead of rhinestones on the edge of the lid, you can use sequins, glitter, or just glue a simple ribbon all the way around.
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Papier-mache Balloon Ornaments
I was never so fond of the ornaments my mom saved that I had made by gluing a magazine clipping to a plastic lid. But you have to admit that kid-made ornaments are what tree ornaments should be--personal, colorful, made with thought and effort. So here's a handmade ornament your kids will have fun with, and that will look a little more artistic than the plastic lid approach.
You'll need: a balloon, glue, paper (you can use brown paper bags, newspaper, or colored tissue paper), glue, paint, brushes, ribbon and a few beads.
Cover your table. Blow up the balloon to the size you'd like the ornament to be.
Papier-mache: There are a lot of recipes out there, but this is a rather low-mess papier-mache technique. Mix about 2 parts white glue with 1 part water. Brush glue onto small pieces (about 2" torn pieces) of paper, and stick the paper to the balloon. Repeat until the balloon is covered. This is great for kids because it does not matter if the paper is wrinkled, and overlapping is good. Let them have fun covering the balloon. Do a few layers all over. Papier-mache close to the knot at the end of the balloon, but leave the knot exposed.
Hang to dry--use a close pin and hang from the knot. When completely dry, the ornament should be hard. If you find soft spots, do more layers of papier mache and let dry.
Now, the kids can paint. Use tempera paint and allow them to express themselves. Tell them to think about what this will look like hanging from the tree. When they are satisfied, hang again to dry.
Next, make a hole in the balloon near the exposed knot. Now you can gently pull the balloon out through the hole in the papier mache. Pull gently.
Now use a skewer or other long object and push it through the hole to the opposite side to make another small hole. Fold a long piece of ribbon or yarn in half and sting through both holes, so that you have a loop at the top, and the two ends at the bottom of the ornament. Place a bead or two on the ends, and tie a knot to finish the ornament. Place beads at the top if you like, but leave a loop to hang.
Now you have a perfectly personal ornament.
Options: Add glitter glue or other decorations after the paint to make it more festive. Also, you might want to spray the painted ornament with a gloss fixative to give it a little sheen as well as a little protection (but this is optional.) If you would prefer to do this kind of project in one sitting: Cut shapes of colored paper, and glue them on as the last layer of paier-mache. Now you have a decorated ornament without the painting step.
With any project, make sure you encourage your child to think about what they are doing. Check out our tips on Talking About Art with Children for some starters.
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Gift Idea: Everything Art Jar
Here's an idea for the kid who has everything. Or maybe you're just looking for an easy homemade gift that can compete on the fun scale with the latest plastic toy. Make him an Everything Art Jar...
Get a big jar or box. Fill it with art supplies: pom poms, pipe cleaners, sequins, stamps, markers, crayons, safety scissors, buttons, glue, small pieces of interesting papers, stickers (paper or foam), popsicle sticks, etc. You can get most of these materials in small packs from the craft store, so you don't have to buy a lot of anyone thing. Consider including some fun-shaped crayons (make your own-see our Recycled Art section).
Make a label by hand or on your computer that says "[NAME] Everything Art Jar: Filled with artful fun for every day." Include a personalized sentiment (Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, etc.). If you want to personalize further, think about including some cards in the jar that have instructions for art projects or ideas for getting started.
Also see another version of our "New Gift Bag" under Recycled Art Projects--give this to a little girl as a crayon carrier or purse.