Tag Archives: Christmas Tree

Dec7

Simple Christmas Card Ideas, Part 1.

Posted on December 7, 2014 by thestick81

Here’s a simple card decoration idea that doubles up as a fine motor activity.

For all the card projects this year I am using plain black card stock. They were $2 for a pack of 12 at a $2 shop.

For this project you will need some coloured paper or thin cardboard, craft glue and any decorations you like (we kept it simple with an angel sequin)

Trace out a tree shape on the back of one of the pieces of paper.

Fold the other coloured paper in half to double it over then bring all 3 pieces together and cut along the outline so you end up with 3 identical shapes.

Using a pencil draw some lines across the back of one of the trees. Then tear carefully along the lines as demonstrated by Ms5

Cover the other colour tree completely with glue, then stick down every second piece of torn paper.

Allow to dry and secure to your card stock 🙂

Torn paper christmas tree.

Christmas paper

Trace out tree

hold pages together for cutting

identical trees

draw lines on back of one tree.

tear along lines

ripping paper

glue down.

Torn paper christmas tree.

Nov28

Christmas Craft For Kids – Cup Cake Christmas Trees.

Posted on November 28, 2014 by thestick81

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Christmas Craft For Kids – Cup Cake Christmas Trees.

These are so easy to make and turned out super cute. Inspiration actually came form some fish scales I saw some students at school making.

All you need is some cup cake papers, cardboard (we used an old cereal box) glue stick (or paper glue) and scissors. We just used cup cake papers we had in the cupboard, the striped green is my favourite.

Draw and cut out a tree shape. For the first few, I drew lines as a guide for the rows so that Ms 5 didn’t just stick the papers all over the place. This created the layers or ‘tiers’. By the time she got to do her own at the end, she didn’t need lines anymore as she understood the process.

Just press down the flat part (the bottom) of the cup cake paper, not the corrugated part. Once the bottom line is covered, move up to the next row and repeat until you get to the top.

Ms5 decided to finish them off with a yellow paper sticking out the top like a star. Great idea!

What you need

Draw tree shape

Cut out tree

Cut papers in half then half again

Ready to stick

First row

second row

Almost done

Mr4 has a turn.

Ms5s white tree.

Rainbow tree

Now she has the hang of it.

Cupcake Tree

Toddler craft,

Christmas Craft

Easy Christmas decorations.

Cupcake Tree

Dec19

Chocolate Cranberry and Pistachio Christmas Treat.

Posted on December 19, 2013 by thestick81

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Chocolate Cranberry and Pistachio Christmas Treat.

A good friend makes this recipe each year as just a large slab that she then cuts into squares (or shards as she calls them, lol), The colours just look so pretty together, so I thought I’d take it a step further and make an edible decoration out of it!

There really is no recipe as such, and the method is as straight forward as it looks. Heat chocolate until smooth and runny. You could use any kind of chocolate you like, milk, white, dark, I used a store brand milk cooking chocolate. You can just pour it out onto a flat surface or use some cookie cutters like I have. While still runny, sprinkle with your favourite fruit and nuts, pistachio and cranberry work well at this time of year as the colours are what I consider “Christmassy”. Dust with edible glitter if you like, but it still looks yummy without!

Light spray of oil to stop sticking

Pour in chocolate, using a spoon to help it reach the tops of the shape

Sprinkle with nuts and berries.

Sprinkle with edible glitter (optional)

Allow to cool

Mr3 cleaning up!

The cookie cutter set, $17 on ebay

Assemble

Chocolate tree

How the flat versions can turn out

Dec18

3 Easy Mini Christmas Tree Decorations

Posted on December 18, 2013 by thestick81

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My crafty mum friend at All Tizzied Up has been very busy putting together some Christmas Craft projects with the family. Thought we’d share for inspiration.

They created 3 different trees from styrofoam cone shapes using buttons, ribbon, felt, and every crafters favourite tool – a hot glue gun!

The felt tree was created by layering leaf shape felt pieces working from the bottom up, then decorating with plastic jewels.

This one is simply a case of measuring out same lengths or ribbon, fixing with hot glue, then twisting, gluing again. Glue 2 of these together to create a flower type shape and attach to the cone. Again, finishing with some jewels to look like ornaments.

The button one is covered in aluminium foil, before attaching buttons all over with hot glue.

So if you are wondering what to do this weekend before Christmas, maybe get out the craft supplies and get crafty with the kids. Would make a great addition and talking point for your Christmas table on Wednesday!

Dec11

Easy Kids Craft – Hanging Christmas Decoration

Posted on December 11, 2013 by thestick81

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These are really simple to make and kids of all ages can help. Mr8 actually showed me how to make one, then we extended on the concept to create this hanging ornament.

It is really just 2 card board stars slotted into each other at right angles to create a ‘3D star’ as he calls them. But we made 4 different sized and hung them form some cotton. We covered each star with some paper from a themed wrapping pack, so they were not all exactly the same, but similar enough to ‘match’. The whole project took about 20 minutes for 3 of us and looks pretty cool! Further instructions available if you open or scroll over each picture.

Draw the star shapes on some card. We used cookie cutters to make it easier.

If using plain card, glue on some wrapping paper

Cut out and glue paper to the other side

Covering second side then cut out again.

Cut one star to the middle from one side, then the other star from the opposite side to the middle again.

Slot together and you have 3D stars

Hand on some string

3D Star Ornament.

Dec6

D.I.Y Leaf Print Christmas Cards

Posted on December 6, 2013 by thestick81

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Here’s a unique home made card idea that the whole family can get involved in. All you need is some card stock, paint (brush and roller), sequins or other bling and some tree shaped leaves. Glitter optional!

Coat the leaves in a thick layer of paint, we used white as I thought it would stand out nicely on the black card. Place the leaf, painted side down, carefully on the card, then roll over it with a clean dry paint roller to press down. Remove leaf and you should have a pretty leaf print. If you want to add glitter, do so now while the paint is still wet so it sticks. If you are creating more than one card, just give the roller a wipe with an old rag between leaves to remove any paint and avoid smudges. Once dry, let the kids decorate with sequins, we used PVA to attach them – done.

Coat with paint

Painted leaf

Place on card and roll over to press down

Leave print

Sprinkle with glitter while paint it still wet

Shake off excess glitter

Leaf print cards

Home made Christmas Cards

Dec5

Christmas Tree Decoration

Posted on December 5, 2013 by thestick81

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Maybe I should rename this blog ‘101 alternate uses for Christmas Baubles’, lol. Here is something we put together this afternoon. It took about 45 minutes and stands over a meter tall. As usual, I struggled to take a photo of it, I really need to learn how to use my camera properly.

The sticks are those ornamental ones you buy from home decor shops, I think these ones actually came from The Reject Shop as around $4 a bundle. We cut them to size with secateurs and glued with hot glue, I reinforced the corners with zip ties. The stem is glued on – it is not weight bearing! Then starting at the top we glued the bead string to one side, worked out the length needed to reach the other side, cut the string, threaded on some baubles, and glued the cut end to the other side. Repeat, working your way down the tree. To create the zig zag look, the strands are 12cm/5cm apart down each side.

Once upright, I shortened each string on the baubles by just tying another knot in them. Glued on the star (came with the pack of baubles, $8 for the lot), and we are done.

What you’ll need

The tree frame

Mr8 helping glue

Glue the beads to what will be the back of the frame

Work your way down.

Christmas Tree Wall Art

Bauble Tree.

Nov28

Easy DIY Christmas Table Centrepiece

Posted on November 28, 2013 by thestick81

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These were so quick and easy to make and I could not be happier with the results.

I picked up this wool a while back with nothing particular in mind, I just loved the colours. The styrofoam tree shapes are available just about anywhere at this time of year. These came from a $2 shop. However, there’s no reason you couldn’t just make a cone shape from cardboard and achieve similar results.

I tied a tight knot in one end to stop fraying, then pushed through the wool and down into the middle of the cone. Then gently began wrapping the knit around the top of the cone, before fastening again a few rows down so that it doesn’t spin off. Continue down the full length of the cone until you reach the bottom. Cut with enough room left over to tie another knot, then secure with a 3rd pin. Done!

What you need

Close up of the pre knitted wool

Pin fastening to the top, and again at the side

Fasten at the bottom

Wool Christmas Trees

Christmas Table Centrepiece.

Nov18

DIY Marble Effect Baubles, Family Christmas Craft

Posted on November 18, 2013 by thestick81

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DIY Marble Effect Baubles, Family Christmas Craft

Everyone was making all sorts of cool glass baubles last Christmas, but by the time I tried to source the actual baubles to do anything with, they were sold our or $6 each – errr, nah. But I found some in Spotlight in August this year and grabbed them so I didn’t miss out again!

I got the 2 different sizes available at spotlight, but for this project we just used the smaller ones. The process really is so simple it barely requires explanation. The beads are just plastic pony beads, you can find them in either the craft section or the ‘girls’ toy section of most variety stores. The ones that turned out the best were about 2/3 transparent beads and 1/3 solid colours. We did one with just transparent beads, but it ended up all kind of mixing together and turning brown, which was disappointing. If you don’t have a well ventilated kitchen, it would be a good idea to do these outside on the bbq, but the beads surprisingly don’t let off much fumes compared to other melting plastics I have played with. I had the oven set to just over 220c. You will need to keep checking on them every 5 – 10 minutes and turning as desired to create the marble effect. We used a silicone muffin and chocolate tray to position them after each turn and plastic tongs to handle them with. I ended up adding some extra beads to a few half way through the process, and just used a tea towel to hold them while they were hot.

Glass baubles

Ms4 filling up her ‘rainbow’ bauble

Ready for the oven

Blue green and yellow combo

In the oven

The finished products

Green and Red – Christmas colours

Marbles baubles

Tie die baubles

Christmas tree decorations

DIY Christmas decorations

DIY baubles

As they cooled down out of the oven, they did make a popping sound, which I thought was the glass breaking – but it was just the plastic separating from the glass inside a few of them. There you have it, marbled Christmas baubles.

Nov16

Pine Cone Christmas Tree Decorations

Posted on November 16, 2013 by thestick81

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Yep, it’s that time of year again kids. I can deny it all I like, but that doesn’t help at all. I am disgustingly unprepared this year, but don’t really have the time to care, I am sure I will pull it all together in time. I do however, have time to think about some Christmas projects, YAY! So this very simple Idea should have probably taken a single afternoon, but things have been so hectic around here lately it took several afternoons over a week. It didn’t really turn out as well as I had imagined, but they are still pretty cute, and we have plenty of left over cones to make something else out of when inspiration hits me.

The shaggy wool (I’m sure it has a real name) was $2 a ball. There was wayyyy more than we needed in each colour. I just used cheap spray paint, Mr 8 did the first few coats then I went back and got the bits he missed. I tried sticking on some plastic ‘diamonds’ for extra sparkle, but you can’t really see them. We all had a go at wrapping the wool into the cone, then I gave them a hair cut to tidy them up. Simple as that!

: Mr8 Spray painting the pine cones

: gluing on some bling with hot glue

: Ms4 wrapping around the wool

: Before the hair cut / tidy up

: Finished pine cone trees.

: Christmas Tree Craft

Jan25

Christmas Decorations, Easy Toddler Activity

Posted on January 25, 2013 by thestick81

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Christmas Decorations, Easy Toddler Activity

These really are too easy and turned out so well! I will be using this concept for some other projects as soon as more cookie cutters arrive.

We used a tupperware baking sheet under them, but I think any flexible non stick surface would do, (baking paper). Simply fill some metal or oven proof cookie cutters or moulds roughly 2 layers deep, and bake at around 180c. Keep an eye on them until they are all melted. The plastic beads we used did not emit any nasty smell and did not burn, even when I got impatient and turned the over up to 200c, however, make sure the area is well ventilated just to be on the safe side.

Try to pile the beads up in the middle slightly, but only leave them 1 high at the edges, to avoid any bits sticking to the sides higher than other areas (you can see where this happened on the small man) Once cooled, remove the cutter and there you have it. I ran cool water over them to cool them a bit faster and this didn’t damage the shiny finish at all.

The husband drilled some holes in the top for string, and there you have it.

We will make a stack of smaller Christmas coloured ones for the trees next year.

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Place the beads, trying to keep them at only 1 high around the edges

Green and red for the tree

Nice and flat and smooth edges

Once out of the oven,

Drilling the holes for string

Ms 4 showing off her man

You can see some sharp edges on this one where the beads were 2 high.

The finished 3d tree from jelly mould

In the sun

Catching the sun light

Pink baby

Dec14

Classic Christmas Cooking – Window Biscuit Decorations

Posted on December 14, 2012 by thestick81

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Classic Christmas Cooking – Window Biscuit Decorations

I helped the kids in Mr 8s class make these at school, so thought we would give them a try at home. There is heaps of different recipes out there, so you can really make them any flavour you wants, but you want to choose a biscuit that doesn’t rise too much. We used a basic butter biscuit recipe.

125g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature
2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.

I also added a sprinkle of cinnamon and all spice. I probably don’t need to tell you how to make biscuits. To be honest, they rose a little more than I would have liked, so might use a different recipe next time. The recipe also started with the usual ‘pre-heat oven’, but after mixing the ingredients you had to put the dough into the fridge for 45 minutes. What a waste of electricity having your oven running all that time?

Use any shapes you like, then a smaller shape inside. Pop a hard lolly (boiled lolly or jolly rancher etc) into the centre and bake on some baking paper at around 180 for only a few minutes. The lolly will melt in the time it takes to cook the biscuit. So simple.

If you live in an area of the world that is humid, these wont last long on the tree. So just eat them!

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: Ingredients

: Mr 7 rolling the dough

: Cutting out the shapes

: Place on baking paper and add lolly to centre.

: Poke a small hole in the edges if you’d like to be able to hang them on the tree.

: Bake

: Allow to cool

: The cookies

: On DDs stick tree

: Cookie ornaments

: The left over gingerbread men

: In the light

: Trying to catch the sun.

Dec3

Quick Kids Craft – Christmas Themed

Posted on December 3, 2012 by thestick81

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Mr 7 actually came up with this by himself. He was not home when we did the leaf pictures, but he used that idea for inspiration.

Some craft glue, a marker, coloured paper, leaves and flowers and a brush.

I drew the basic outline for him, while he and Ms 3 collected some fine leaves and flowers from the garden.

Spread the paint into the area you want to cover.

Then he painted the glue on.

and start sticking

The finished product.

Too easy! Next time we might frame them. Or cut out the shape and put it on some different coloured backing.

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: Some craft glue, a marker, coloured paper, leaves and flowers and a brush.

: Spread the paint into the area you want to cover.

: and start sticking

: Ms 3 and Mr 7 sticking on the flowers and leaves

: The finished product.

Dec2

Not your every day tree – Christmas Craft

Posted on December 2, 2012 by thestick81

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Not your every day tree – Christmas Craft

This idea actually came from a Woolworths Fresh Magazine idea, but I have also seen similar things on Pinterest and other blogs. I went slightly over the top compared to theirs – so unlike me.

We went for a walk around the local park lands and collected some sticks that I thought would be good for the job.

The branches

Then I gave them a light spray of white paint.

Spray painting the branches

Left in the sun to dry for a few hours, which resulted in this

The painted branches

The original idea I was looking at used a rusty bucket for the pot, but as I don’t have one of those laying around, I had to come up with something else. I found an empty plastic pot and decided we could work with that.

Covering the plastic pot with aluminium foil

I covered it in a layer of aluminium foil, before a layer of transparent cellophane just to give it a bit more shine.

Then a layer of cellophane to go with your colour theme

Once we were happy with the finish of that, we collected some rocks from the garden to fill the pot and hold the branches into position.

Filled the pot with rocks to secure the branches and to stop it tipping over.

Then it was time to decorate!

Decorating the tree

Outside, to try to catch the sparkle

With LEDs around the base

I am really struggling to get a good photo of this thing, just like the bauble tree, because the camera takes away all the sparkle. It really stands out in real life. I might have to read my camera manual.

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: The branches

: Spray painting the branches

: The painted branches

: Covering the plastic pot with aluminium foil

: Then a layer of cellophane to go with your colour theme

: The pot

: Filled the pot with rocks to secure the branches and to stop it tipping over.

: Decorating the tree

: Outside, to try to catch the sparkle

: The ‘Tree’

: With LEDs around the base

Nov30

Christmas Craft – DIY Bauble Tree

Posted on November 30, 2012 by thestick81

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I had been wanting to make one of these for years. And this year, we did! I purchased a large piece of card from the newsagent for $1.50 and cut out a half circle (i just used a piece of string to make a giants protractor). Secured with some tape and we are ready to roll

The little ones had the job of pulling off the strings and clamps, Mr 2 thought that way great fun.

I knew that hot glue gun would come in handy one day. This is the day. Mr 7 demonstrates.

Start at the bottom and work your way up. We did red purple alternations with every 5th ball gold. Trying not to put the same texture finish beside each other, but it becomes difficult to avoid

This is the back side where things don’t quite meet up. If I was to make another one, I would be more conscious of the size and make sure it fits the balls around perfectly – however, all is not lost as you can see next.

Once all the balls are stuck down start inserting the tinsel between the cracks. I actually ended up using 10 meters (30ft) of this thin tinsel. I didn’t imagine it would require that much. The tinsel hides any ‘mistakes’ very nicely.