Monogrammed Ball Ornaments

Each Christmas, I like to make a small homemade gift to give to special friends, teachers, co-workers, party hosts, and those family members that we do not buy a gift for. This year I had just about decided I would need to start baking cookies because I just wasn't coming up with an idea of something relatively inexpensive to make, as we would need to give about 30 of them.

Then I came across an idea on Pinterest. The blogger monogrammed her last name's initial onto a ball ornament in gold paint. It was the perfect idea, but it needed something...

GLITTER!

These ornaments will make a nice personal addition to the tree!

For this project, you will need colored ball ornaments.
I found these at Hobby Lobby. I thought it would be best
to get those with a matte finish, or the non-shiny kind.
You will also need paint pens and glitter.

Begin by writing the letter onto the ornament.
This takes a steady hand.

I found a font on my computer and printed the needed letters on paper and used it as a guide, but I did still have to free hand.

While the paint is still wet, sprinkle a generous
amount of glitter. As a rule, we didn't have time
to be neat. Dump the glitter on and knock off
the excess into a container. The paint dries quickly.

When it is completely dry, brush off any extra glitter.
To give it a nice finishing touch, I added a piece
of ribbon to hang it.

I used silver and gold paint and glitter on the darker colored
ornaments. For the white ornaments, we used red, blue, and
green paints and glitters.

While I made all of the above ornaments, my girls did get in on the action and made a few ornaments, too.

My 8-year-old made these ornaments. She made the "G" in
her school colors and plans to give it to her principal. She wrote
"JOY" on her second ornament.

My 5-year-old made these, a cupid's heart and "JOY" with each
letter a different color.

'And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.' Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 'Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.' Matthew 1:21-23

Snowman Snow Globe Ornament

Over the summer, my girls and I were shopping and a certain store already had their Christmas section in full swing. I saw an ornament that I loved, but didn't feel I could pay what they were asking. But the idea was so simple, I felt it could be reproduced. I made a few notes on paper and kept it until the time was right. 

My girls and I made our ornament a few days ago. I love them!

To make the Snowman Snow Globe Ornament, you will need clear
ball ornaments, Styrofoam Christmas pebbles, paint pens, glitter,
and self-stick gems.

Begin by drawing your snowman. The ornament I saw over the
summer had these spirals for his body, but you can make
your snowman any way you please.

While the paint is still wet, sprinkle glitter onto
his body.

Allow some time to dry, then add a hat, face, scarf, and arms
with various colors of the paint pens. Also add some
of the stick-on gems. I put my gems in the center of
his spirals.

Fill the ball with the Styrofoam balls. The ornament I saw
over the summer was only half full. We got carried away
and filled ours a little fuller.

My older daughter designed her snowman her own way with
black paint and silver glitter. My younger daughter and I
chose the white paint with the spiral bodies and white glitter
(which do not show up well in a photo, but are super cute).

I'm pretty sure we made these three ornaments for less than the price of the original store-bought one I saw over the summer. And you can't put a price on the time spent with your kids.





Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Psalm 25:4-5

Tissue Paper Turkey

My Wednesday night class of 3rd and 4th graders have started working to earn their craft badges, so last week I put together a Thanksgiving craft for them. After a little online search for ideas, I landed on two similar turkey crafts from Family Fun. I liked parts of both, and disliked parts of both, so I combined the two to make my own.

We turned our craft into a ministry project and gave our creations to our church to use for table decorations for the Thanksgiving potluck lunch.

To make one of these adorable turkeys, you will need brown,
red, yellow, and orange tissue paper, paper clips, brown and red
pipe cleaner, googly eyes, yellow craft foam (or construction
paper), and 2" pom poms (brown or tan color).

To make the tail, cut and stack 8 sheets of tissue paper as follows:

• 2 red - 20 x 13 inches
• 2 orange - 20 x 11-1/2 inches
• 2 yellow - 20 x 10 inches
• 2 brown - 20 x 8-1/2 inches

Stack them with red on the bottom, then orange centered on the red,
yellow centered on the orange, and brown centered on the yellow.

Fold accordion style creating a strip about 1-1/4 inches wide
and secure with a brown pipe cleaner, making sure the pipe
cleaner is centered along the strip.

Bring up the ends as shown and connect them with a
paper clip or two and set aside.

It's time to make the body. Cut and stack 13 sheets of tissue paper as follows... and this is where my instructions begin to differ from the idea I was following, mostly because theirs didn't look right, so I fixed it:

• 2 brown - 10 x 18 inches
• 3 orange - 10 x 13 inches
• 3 red - 10 x 13 inches
• 3 orange - 10 x 13 inches
• 2 brown - 10 x 13 inches

Stack them with the larger brown on the bottom and the
others stacked in order and centered on top.

Fold accordion style creating another strip about 1-1/4 inches wide
and secure with a brown pipe cleaner, making sure the pipe
cleaner is centered along the strip.

Begin to gently pull apart and separate each individual sheet
on one side of the piper cleaner.

Repeat the process on the other side. The longer pieces of brown
will be the bottom of the turkey body.

While the accordion folding was difficult for my class to master, this next part was by far the most difficult for them, well all of us... creating a neck. Probably because the instructions I was trying to follow were unclear and I was flying blind and making things up by this point.

View from the bottom - using the piper cleaners that are securing
the tail and body, attach the two together, twisting the pipe cleaners
and pulling the tail close to the body, while aiming the pipe cleaners
away from the tail in the direction of a neck.

While I was attaching the tail to the body and forming the neck,
I grafted in a 3rd pipe cleaner to help with the formation of the neck.
I folded it in half first, and began twisting the ends into
the other pipe cleaners, leaving a loop at the end.

Glue the pom pom to the loop for the turkey head. Cut a small
triangle from the yellow foam or construction paper and glue
it on the pom pom for a beak. Add googly eyes. Cut a small
piece of the red pipe cleaner and form into a snood.

Once everything is put together and glue is dry, fluff the tissue papers on the body as needed.

A couple of finished turkeys.

More finished turkeys.

More finished turkeys.

Our turkeys were beautiful table decorations today at the church potluck, and the kids were proud to display their handiwork.





Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever. Psalm 107:1

The Turkey Project

My daughter has a family homework project to create a turkey for her Kindergarten class, something that will ultimately be used as a table decoration during the reception that will follow the Kindergarten Thanksgiving program. We made our turkey from a coffee can.

I think he turned out pretty cute!

To make a turkey like ours, you'll need a small coffee can,
masking tape, shoe polish, feathers, googly eyes, a pipe
cleaner, and construction paper.

First, use the masking tape to tape some feathers on one
side of the can for tail feathers. Then continue to cover
the entire can with strips of masking tape.

Use the shoe polish to color all of the tape and give
your turkey a nice brown color.

Add wing feathers and a second layer of tail feathers with more tape,
and stain the new tape with more shoe polish.

We used brown construction paper for a turkey head, yellow
for a beak, and red for the waddle. Then added
googly eyes.

We cut two identical pieces from the brown to make the head and glued them together with a pipe cleaner between them to give the head some stability. Then we folded back each side on the neck to make flaps to tape the head to the can with more masking tape, again staining the tape with shoe polish. We put some shoe polish on his neck and head as well, to give a little extra texture look to the plain paper.

The best part... I only had to purchase feathers. The rest we already had in the house.

This is not a project new to our family. We also made a turkey when our older daughter was in Kindergarten. We made her turkey with a clay pot, paper feathers, and modeling clay. I still have it and use it as a Thanksgiving decoration with fall flowers inside the pot.

Her feathers are made with double paper and a pipe cleaner
with a piece of burlap around the pot to hide the bottom of the
feathers and create the body.

The head and neck was created with modeling clay, bead eyes,
an almond, and pipe cleaner shaped into a waddle.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. Psalm 100:4

Sewing Craft Activity: Felted Flowers

I was tooling around Pinterest looking for a fun activity that would also teach my daughter a little sewing, including the sewing on of a button. I came across a blog where flower shapes of different sizes were cut from a variety of felt colors, stacked on top of one another, and sewn together with a button center.

Cute. But I wanted more... so I added scraps of patterned fabric and stitching to bring these flowers to life. And my 8 year-old daughter absolutely LOVED this project.

Materials needed for this project are scrap pieces of various patterned fabric, complementary colors of felt fabric, embroidery thread, and a button.

I used 3 flower shaped patterns that I made and used for a previous project - the largest flower is about 3-1/4 inches wide, medium is about 2-3/4 inches, and smallest is about 2-1/4 inches. You can find flower shapes on the web to print and use as a pattern, or hand-draw your own flower shapes.

To make one 3-tier stacked flower, choose 3 pieces of different
pattern fabric and cut a flower from each piece
so that you will have one large flower,
one medium, and one small. Also cut one of each size
flower from the felt in a coordinating color as the flower of that size.

For one layer of the flower, place the pattern flower cut-out on top of the
same-size felt flower and stitch them together with several strands of a
contrasting color embroidery thread, using a whipstitch.

Do the same with the other two flower sizes.
The felt gives each layer a bit of stability and thickness.

Stack the three flowers on top of one another with the
largest on the bottom and the smallest on the top, and sew them
together with a button at the center.

I used this project to teach my daughter how to use a pattern to cut fabric, pin two pieces of fabric together, thread a needle, make stitches, and sew a button. It didn't go without a few tears of frustration and plenty of knots, but as she learned, it got easier for her, and she was ready to make a few more.

Finished flowers can be attached to a hair clip or to a pin to adorn a backpack, hat or jacket.

My daughter put her flower on a pin and
attached it to her backpack.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.  Ecclesiastes 3:1,7 

Name Bugs Art Activity

Oh my! Has it been that long since I've written? I guess it's been that crazy busy around here and the girls and I have not had time to stop and be crafty. That. Must. Change.

One thing that keeps me on my toes is teaching my Sunday School class. I have 1st-3rd graders this year and last week we talked about names and what they mean. In Old Testament times, the meaning of a name was very important and often told about the character of that person.

I had my computer in class, and the children each loved finding out what their name means, and then we worked on a little art project and created Name Bugs.

Because of time constraints and the fact that the majority of my class have not learned to write in cursive, I prepared the first part of this activity ahead of time. An older child who can write their name in cursive could do this start to finish without help.

Begin by folding a piece of paper in half longways and create
a crease in the paper. Then open it back up and write the name
in cursive along the crease using a black crayon. Make sure
to press heavy to make it good and bold.

Then refold the paper and rub along all parts of the name
to transfer wax to the other side of the paper and create
a mirror image. Trace the transfer lines with your
black crayon.

Add color. Lots of color.

Get creative and add other designs and decorations to the page...

even polka-dots.

Love their finished artwork!

So, if you have paper and crayons, then you have all the ingredients for name bugs. An alternative idea would be to use water colors. Write the name in crayon on water color paper, and then use water color paint for the rest of the activity.







A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. Proverbs 22:1