Holiday Craftivities for December!

Now it's time to celebrate the holidays in December!  Let's get ready for Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and Festivus for the Rest of us!  Let's decorate!

Reindeer Tubes

What would  the holiday season be like without reindeer with colorful noses?  It would not be the same!  Let's create some reindeer with colorful noses out of tubes so that we can see some reindeer prancing around this holiday season!

Supplies Needed for 2 Reindeer:  Two cardboard tubes (toilet paper tubes), 2 pom poms, 2 pipe cleaners, crayons/markers, glue/tape, googly eyes, scissors, whole puncher and anything else you wish to use to embellish the reindeer.  

Instructions: 

1. Punch 2 holes on the top sides of each of the tubes with a hole puncher.  

2. Cut out some spaces on the bottom of the tubes so that there are 4 pieces remaining on the bottoms of each tube.  The remaining pieces of the tubes left on the bottoms will be the legs of the reindeer.  

3.  Bend the bottom pieces out so that the reindeer tube can stand up on the legs.  

4.  Take a pipe cleaner and push one end of the pipe cleaner through one hole from the outside of the tube. Continue pushing the pipe cleaner through the tube so that the end comes out of the other hole.  

5.  Take the ends of the pipe cleaners and pull them into an upward direction and bend the ends into different twisty shapes to make it resemble the antlers of the reindeer.  

6. Using crayons/markers, draw a face on the reindeer and color in the bottom of the legs to make the reindeer have hooves.  

7.  Using glue/tape, attach a small, colorful pom pom onto the center of the face for the nose.  

8.  If the antlers keep falling down, then use glue or tape to fasten them along the sides of the tube so that they stay up. 

Enjoy the reindeer below created by the children at the library!  

Now that we have some colorful reindeer running around, let's create some holiday and winter figures from stars!

Star Figures

Let's create some star figures for our trees, rooms, house and anywhere else to decorate!

Supplies Needed: Card Stock (red and any other color), Scissors, Crayons/Markers, Glue/Tape, White Construction Paper, Pom Poms, Stickers, Pieces of Glittery Foam Sheets and String.

Instructions:

1. Using scissors and red card stock, cut out a shape of a star a few inches long and wide.  (You may use an outline of a star shape downloaded from online to trace or cut from if you wish.)

2. Make one of the points of the stars the head of the figure by drawing in a face using crayons/markers.  The rest of the points can be the arms and legs.  

3.  If you wish to make your star resemble a Santa Claus, then color the arms and legs a dark color to resemble black boots and mittens.  

4.  Draw and color in a dark stripe horizontally in the middle of the star figure's body to create a belt for Santa's suit.  You may draw in dark circles as well for the buttons.  

5. Using scissors, cut out a white beard from white construction paper or card stock and glue/tape the beard onto Santa's face under the eyes.  

6.  Attach a white pom pom or piece of cotton ball onto the top point of Santa's head to embellish Santa's hat.  

7.  Using stickers or pieces of glitter foam sheets, adorn Santa's suit the way you like.  I used small strips of glitter foam sheets to create a sparkly outline around his boots and hat, but you can do anything else if you wish. 

8.  Cut a string the length of six inches long and fold the string so that the ends are next to each other.  Glue/tape the ends of the string onto the top back of the star figure so that there should be a loop on top to hang the star onto a tree or anywhere else for decoration!  

Enjoy the star figures below created by the children at the library!

Holiday Candles 
Let's create some paper candles with bright colors that will light up the room!



Supplies Used:  Toilet Paper Tubes, Sparkling Pipe Cleaners, Construction Paper, Tissue Paper, Glue or Tape

1.  Wrap a toilet paper tube in a sheet of construction paper.

2.  Decorate with pieces of tissue paper.  Either roll the tissue paper in little scrunchies and stick them on the tube or just stick them on the tube flat.

3. Cut out a little flame out of orange or yellow construction paper and attach it to one end of a sparkline pipe cleaner.  (A popsicle stick can be used as well.)

4.  Tape or glue the pipe cleaner with the paper flame onto the inside or outside of the tube.

5.  Enjoy a nice, safe, pretty paper candle for the holidays.

Gingerbread Paper Dolls
After creating our candles, it's time to meet the gingerbread people!

Supplies Used:  Brown Construction Paper (or any color of your choice), markers or crayons, glue and glitter shapes

1.  Take a legal size piece of construction paper (either brown or any color of choice) and fold the paper half horizontally.

 2.  Cut the paper in half so that you have 2 smaller rectangles instead of one big one. 

3.  Take one of the rectangles and fold it zig zag accordian style in however many sections you like. 

Example:

4. Fold up the accordian so that it is condensed into a neat stack. 

5. On one end of the stack, place a gingerbread outline shape on top.  Then cut the entire stack into the shape of the gingerbread figure but make sure the arms are still attached.  Don't cut around the tips of the hands so that they can stay attached. 

6.  When done, open the stack to reveal a gingerbread paper doll chain and decorate with markers, crayons, sparkling shapes, foam shapes, glitter, etc.   Have fun!

Paper Gift Stack

Now that we have our candles and gingerbread people, 

we can now stack some paper gifts!

Supplies Used: Pieces of card stock paper cut into different shapes (Square, Rectangle, Triangle, Diamond, Circle, etc. ), Sparkly Pipe Cleaners, ribbons of any kind, glue or tape, construction paper, crayons or markers, hole puncher.

1.  Take 3 pieces of card stock paper and draw designs on them using crayons or markers.

2.  Punch a hole on the top of each piece of card stock with the hole puncher.

3. Take a sparkly pipe cleaner or ribbon and push one end through the hole of one of the card stock papers.  Tie a bow with both ends of the pipe cleaner or ribbon.  Do the same for the other pieces of card stock if you would like a bow on them.

4. Glue the card stocks together in a stack. Glue or tape the top of one card stock onto the bottom of the next card stock and so forth until you have a stack of gifts.

5.  Flip the gift stack over so that the decorated side is face down.

6.  Cut out shapes of things you like out of the construction paper, like clothes, accessories, hats, scarves, toys, cars, etc.  Decorate them if you wish.

7.  Glue or tape them onto the back of the gift stack (the undecorated side) to make it seem as if there are items in the gift boxes that will be given as presents.

8. Enjoy the holidays or any other celebrations!

Now that we have our candles, ginger bread dolls and gifts, it is now time to decorate gift tags and wrapping paper for your presents!

Homemade Gift Tags and Wrapping Paper



Supplies Needed:  Card Stock, Ribbon, Tissue Paper, Markers or Crayons, hole puncher and Stickers

1.  Cut out a piece of card stock in any shape you desire. 

2. Decorate the card stock by drawing designs on it and placing stickers on it. 

3.  Punch a hole at the top of the card stock and tie a ribbon through to make a bow. 

4. Enjoy the gift tag. 

5.  Take tissue paper and draw a design on it and place stickers on it and now you can enjoy using some homemade wrapping paper. 

Enjoy more pictures of gift tags and wrapping paper designed by the children in the library. 

Now that we have our candles, gingerbread people, stacks of presents with gift tags and wrapping paper, it is time to enjoy the winter with all of the snow and sleds! Enjoy the Winter Wonder Lands!

Winter Wonder Land



Enjoy the winter wonderland dioramas. 

Supplies Needed: Blue card stock, white construction paper, green construction paper, smaller pieces of card stock (any color), scissors, a toilet paper tube cut in half, cotton balls, stick figures printed out from online or hand drawn, glue, markers/crayons, pieces of white string/yarn and sparkling pipe cleaners.

1.  Take a blue letter sized piece of card stock and lay it down flat on a table or desk.  Cut a big piece of white construction paper into a curvy shape to make it look like a snowy landscape.

2.  Glue/tape the curvy white construction paper onto the blue card stock and make sure that you can see the blue edges of the card stock sticking out under the white construction paper.  (Blue card stock makes the diorama resemble more of a winter scene, however, you may use any color of your liking.) Now you have the base of the diorama. 

3.  Cut a toilet paper tube in half and wrap each half in white construction paper.  Glue/tape the small tubes on the base.  Make sure they are laying down horizontally.

4.  Cut out two note card size pieces of white construction paper.  Glue/tape the end of one piece on top of one of the tubes and glue/tape down the other end onto the base.  The note card sized white paper should be slanted so that it looks like a ski slope or snowy hill.  Do the same for the other note card sized white paper and tube.

5.  Take different small pieces of card stock or cut small pieces of old folders.  Use those to create the shapes of winter sports equipment, such as skis (2 small strips), a sled (Take a rectangular piece and bend the front up so that it curves) and ice skates can be cut from white construction paper or card stock.

5. For ski poles and ice skate blades, pipe cleaners can be used.

6.  Cut out or draw at least 3 stick figures of people and draw on them to make it seem as if they are wearing winter clothes and that they're arms are sticking out to hold skis or to ice skate.

7.  Attach one stick figure onto the sled, attach the skis onto the feet of another stick figure and attach the skates onto the feet of the other stick figure.

8. Cut out small pieces of card board and bend them into an "L" shape.

9.  Glue/tape the back of each stick figure onto a cardboard "L" shaped piece so that the figure stands up or sits up.

10.  Glue/tape the stick figures with the "L" cardboard supports onto the snowy tube slopes or hills and glue/tape the ice skater anywhere else on the base.  (I drew a circle around the ice skater to simulate a small ice skating rink).

11.  Take a green piece of paper or card stock and cut out a shape of a pine tree.  If you wish, glue/tape small pieces of white string onto the tree shape to simulate snow on the tree.  Then attach the green tree onto an "L" shaped support and glue/tape that onto the base to simulate a snow covered tree.

12.  Glue/tape a few cotton balls around the stick figures and tree to resemble snow mounds.  You can stack up some cotton balls together to replicate a snowman.  Enjoy!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!