Crafty, Craft-A-Rama, Craft-A-Rific...Nevermind.

I love being crafty.  I love being crafty with my girls.  My girls love being crafty.  My girls love being crafty with their mom.  It's really a win-win.  :)

Every Christmas season I try to make some type of ornament with Olivia and Addison.  Something a grandparent will hang on their beautifully adorned tree like it is the best ornament they have ever seen.  Grandparents are good for that.  But, this year, as I was browsing through Kelle Hampton's blog, Enjoying the Small Things, she had a post about some ornaments she and her girls made this year and I knew I had to make some of my own.  

I picked up some sand when we made our afternoon jaunt to the sunny beaches of Florida...in December.  I won't rub that in.  It was December...and we were at the beach.  Anyway, I filled the bucket with a plan in mind.  I made Man stop off at JoAnn's on the way home.  Spent way too long looking for the ornaments before I asked where they were.  Thankfully they still had them and I was up and running.  Sort of.

You see.  I can't draw.  I am a perfectionist.  I was afraid the recipients might not have a clue if Olivia just free-handed them.  She is fairly whimsical.  I am not.  So I did what any good mother would do.  I Googled the animals I thought I had a chance at and even gave Olivia a shot.  I know.  I know.  I am trying.

I think you might be impressed.  Man was.

I traced them in pencil and then went over them with a black coloring pencil.

The girls put the color to them with water colors.

I should tell you I used heavy card stock paper to minimize the wrinkling that can occur with water color.  I was pleased with the outcome.

After you cut the animal out you will put some clear drying glue on the back, bend it enough to fit through the opening and slowly lower it into the plastic ornament with your tweezers.  This is tricky and tedious.  Once you get it in the ornament, lightly position it and then use the tweezers to press it to the back of the ornament.

Silky white sand, gathered on a sunny December day, was funneled into the ornament and secured with a touch of glue to keep the lid from pulling off.  E-6000 to be exact.  Swear by it.  

 

Kelle decorated her tops with craft paper.  I did one and decided that I was not patient enough.  I was doing way more then two people.  Please forgive me.  But, the one I did turned out pretty cute.

 

 

This was lots of fun for all of us; and, what a fun gift for the girls to give their friends this year.  You still have time...gather up the supplies and you have an afternoon craft that your kids will love!

---The Craft-A-Rific Mama...or something