Christmas Tree Crowns

Christmas is upon us, once again!

Every other year, the Church holds a Christmas Tree Festival and our toddler group always enters a tree.

This year, our tree's focus is based around the concept of the potential of each baby. 

In Jesus' case he was born to be kind, albeit not an earthly one. So this year, we made clay crowns, like these:

What child can resist a bit of bling, eh?

Equipment:

• Air drying clay* 
• Rolling pin
• Crown cookie cutter
• Drinking straw
• Paper
• Pen (for writing names)
• Paint brushes
• Gold paint
• Pot for paint
• Glittery bits (beads, sequins, gems)
• PVA glue
• Glue brush
• Glue pot
• Newspaper
• Overalls
• Baby wipes
• Scissors
• String or ribbon for hanging

Preparation:

1. Prepare pots of paint.

2. Roll out balls of clay. You could roll these out in advance, and keep sealed, but I did this on the day, as fresh clay is more pleasurable  and easier to use. I do this for them, as clay needs to be rolled evenly, and that can be hard for children to manage. If it is too thin, it will be more fragile, once dry.

3. Roll out clay (on sheet of paper) and cut out crown shapes. Remove excess clay from around cutter, before pulling cutter away. I roll out on a sheet of paper, which may sound wasteful, but sops clay from sticking to the table and makes it easy to transfer clay work away, once it is finished.

4. Make hole for hanging. The end of a drinking straw is ideal for this. If you do it in advance, the children will work around it, if you try to do it at the end, there may not be much space! 😄

I only roll out enough for one table, at first, as I don't want the clay to dry out.

Method:

1. Child paints crown gold. Yes it is on damp clay, but they will dry together. The paint will be a little thin, but using white clay means it will be fine.

2. Child adds glittery bits, by pressing them in firmly. It does not matter where they place them, or how many they use, the end effect will still be stunning.

3. Write child's name on sheet and remove to dry. This may take a day or two, depending on where you place it. 

4. When the crown is dry, paint it with PVA, across all the crown and round the edges, but not underneath. Try to keep the ole for hanging clear of glue.

5. Leave to dry (approx. 6 hours, depending on how thick your glue is).

6. Cut string or ribbon to desired length, ready to hang your ornament.

I balanced the clay crowns on small pots, whilst painting the PVA and leaving it to dry, so the edges didn't stick to the newspaper.

The completed tree!

*Resources:

Das Clay  (we use this one - widely available Hobbycraft, The Works, W
HSmith etc.)

Giotto gold paint (also available at The Range, I think)

Crown cookie cutter

Gold string for hanging (similar in Sainsbury's)

Please note: no Ads here. Resources listed, purely to help people find similar.

Holly Christmas Wreaths

It's the first of December and Christmas has truly begun! This is when my Christmas decorations go up, one of the first being a Wreath on the door. I love a good wreath! I often have them inside my house as well as out. This one hangs in my hallway:

At toddler group this week, we made these cute little wreaths. Obviously not the kind you put outside the door, as they'd soon disintegrate in the rain! 

The mums and tots absolutely loved them! 

I could show you a picture perfect version, but this is the work of one of our tots!

Of course, they're made with a craft staple of ours, the good old paper plate! 

Equipment:

• Paper Plates/Scissors
• Tissue paper light green & dark green
• Holly and Berry shapes (see below for stockists)
• Ribbon/Sellotape
• PVA glue/spreaders
• Baby wipes

Preparation:

This craft involves a bit of prep. First you need to order/make your Holly shapes. Then you need to cut out the centre of your paper plates. You also need to rough cut up two shades of green tissue paper. you could use just one colour, but two adds a nice touch of light and shade. Also, cut Short lengths of ribbon for hanging and final touches.

Here's 'the one we made earlier'!

We usually make a 'here's one we made earlier' to help the mums and tots see what we are trying to achieve and of course we lay out materials on the day.

Method:

1. Cover the paper plate rim with glue. If using PVA, it needs to be spread thinly, or you will end up with a gloopy mess, that takes a while to dry!

2. Layer a mix of dark and light green tissue paper over the glue.

3. Add holly leaves and berries. We aimed for about 6-8 Holly leaves per plate. 

4. Add a loop of ribbon to the back of the wreath (at the top) with selloptape. This will enable the wreath to be hung up.

5. Add two pieces of ribbon to the bottom of the wreath, for a nice finishing touch.


*The Holly Stickers came from Baker Ross. They also make larger cardboard holly shapes, but these look a little more expensive. You can, of course, cut your own, if you prefer!

Baker Ross actually make a Wreath Foam Blank, which is probably easier than cutting out loads of paper plates, but it's nice to create something with more of a home made touch.


Please note: any links to or mentions of specific materials are purely to aid sourcing, no earnings are made via these links.

Clay Christmas tree decorations

Last year we entered a local Christmas Tree festival. 

We came up with the idea of making decorations out of clay, and I think they turned out pretty stunning!!

Each one unique!

We spread the craft over a couple of weeks, so that as many of the children that came to our group as possible would be represented on the tree.

Equipment:

• air dry clay
• rolling pin
• large Christmas cookie cutters
• drinking straw
• pencil (to label the back of each decoration)
• poster paints of various colours 
• paint pallets
• pva glue
• paint brushes
• overalls
• wet wipes
• thin gold ribbon/scissors

Preparation:

There's a fair bit of prep involved in this craft - more than we would usually allow, but this one was worth it!

We rolled out the clay and cut the shapes in advance - leaving time for the clay to harden. Whilst the clay was wet, we cut a small hole using a drinking straw, so that the decorations would be able to hang.

We did this in advance, for the children, as otherwise it would need a couple of weeks to complete the craft and not all children come every week.

Pre-cut and dried

On the day of the craft, we laid out materials for the children. We were careful to put out Christmassy coloured poster paints.

Method:

1. Make sure children roll up sleeves and put on overalls before beginning work.

2. Allow children to select tree decoration (we had two designs) and label the back of their decoration with their name - in pencil.

2. Allow children to select and apply paint, as they will! Glitter could be added at this stage, if so desired!!

3. Leave decorations to dry. This may take a few hours depending on how much paint has been applied.

4. Once dry, I applied a coat of PVA glue to add a 'varnish' to the decorations.

5. Once the PVA had dried, I tied a piece of thin gold ribbon to each decoration, so they could be hung. Once the tree festival was over, each child got to take their decoration home.

NB

If we run a craft over a couple of weeks (to try and ensure that everyone has a chance to make it), we tend to have a 'low key' craft running alongside on another table, for those who have finished quickly or have made one the week before. This will take extra prep and organisation. It may also require extra volunteers!!

Advent Candle Holders

Don't know about you but I absolutely LOVE Christmas!

At play group we spend about 3 or 4 weeks crafting for Christmas and one of these crafts is a particular favourite - making candle holders for Advent candles!

Whilst these were beautiful, we worried about their stability.

Last year we made these beauties! We used recycled Gu pudding ramekins, flower arranging Oasis and fresh greenery - choosing lavender, olive and rosemary from my garden, to add some lovely scent.

As lovely as they were, we were somewhat worried about the stability of the candles - even though we strapped the squares of oasis we had wedged into the ramekins, with floristry tape, and inserted plastic candle holders (made specifically for use with oasis). The base just didn't feel weighty enough, to be around little ones. They really needed to be well soaked with water.

This year, to add weight, we decided to ditch the oasis and go with Plasticine instead! It felt reassuringly heavy and there was no need for the additional plastic candle holders! Obviously real leaves weren't going to last long without water, so we swapped real leaves for plastic (we pulled apart a plastic holly ball, decoration). It didn't seem to dim the popularity of the craft - almost all of the children who were old enough to do craft took part!

This is how we did it:

Equipment:

• Gu pudding ramekins (we collect them throughout the year)
• Plasticine/knife (Plasticine from WHSmith)
• Advent candles (bought in bulk online from this site)
• Plastic greenery/berries/flowers
• Robin decorations (Hobbycraft)
• Washi tape (Hobbycraft)
• Ribbon/scissors
• Star Stickers (Baker Ross)
• Metallic craft pom poms
• Permanent markers (for labelling craft)

Preparation:

Cut each Plasticine bar into 4 pieces. Warm the pieces of Plasticine up by molding them with your hands. Squidge Plasticine into ramekins and insert candle.

Cut lengths of ribbon.

We try to make each craft  as'doable' as possible for little ones.

Method:

1. Children insert plastic greenery and cute craft robins into Plasticine.

2. Either use Seasonal Washi tape around the ramekin or tie ribbon around ramekin or stick ribbon round ramekin. 

3. Allow children to apply stickers to the ribbon. We love the star stickers from Baker Ross, because they're big enough for little hands to apply easily!

4. Use permanent marker to write each child's name on the base.

5. Place on table near sign-out sheet, for children to collect on their way home.

All ready to go!

NB:

During our notices (which take place before singing) I always try to remind parents about the importance of being careful around flames and with the glass dish. I try to do it without sounding like I'm treating them as kids, but just as a reminder! I'd hate for here to be any needless incidents!

Please note: any links to or mentions of specific materials are purely to aid sourcing, no earnings are made via these links.