Reindeer Gift Bags

Last year, Hadley wasn't ready for Christmas to be over, so she chose Christmas and specifically reindeer as a theme for her January birthday - I loved it!  I put together these reindeer gift bags for all the kids who attended.

For This Project You'll Need:

Brown paper bags

White Cardstock

Black Cardstock

Red/Brown Glitter Cardstock (you could do just red noses, it can be glitter or plain)

Patterned scrapbook paper that corresponds with brown

Brown Pipe Cleaners

Glue Dots (I used these to stick everything on)

2 sizes of circle hole punches (optional, you can also trace and cut the circles out)

Goodies to fill the bag

Along with some candy, these were my fun purchases from Oriental Trading, great prices, especially since I was buying them in January!

Although I made these for a Christmas-themed birthday party - they would make adorable Christmas gift bags!!

Underwater Quiet Book Pages

I like this page because it incorporates a lot of activities.  

1. Fishing - the fishing pole has a magnetized worm at the end of it and then there are magnetic fish hidden in the "wave" pockets.

2. Once you've caught the fish, you can open the whale's zippered mouth and store the fish there.

3. You can fold down the bottom of each page and find all kinds of things there.

4. One of the things you find is a treasure chest, which has a real latch to undo.

5. The jellyfish is also a finger puppet.

 

Marbled Clay Bowls

This is a craft that I planned for my whole family (ages 2 - 62) and that everyone really enjoyed.  I read other blogs about making these and everyone said "they're addictive" and we found that to be true as well!  

Something else I love about these is that every one is unique and special.

1. For This Project You'll Need:
2. Polymer Clay - assortment of colors, larger size of white clay
3. Knife
4. Cutting board
5. Rolling Pin
6. Liquid Gilding
7. Small Paint Brush
8. Oven Safe Bowls
9. Baking Sheet
10. Oven

I gave everyone about 3/4 inch of white clay and then let them choose two other colors and gave them about a 1/4 inch of each of those colors.

Then we rolled each color separately into a "snake" about 5 inches long.  Then we twisted the snakes together several times.  Then fold that long piece in half and twist again.  Once you've done that, smush into a ball and then roll it into a flat disk shape, the thickness should be approx. 2-3 quarters stacked on top of each other.  

Then set the disk shape into your oven safe bowls and make it conform to the bowl shape, but the clay should not be pressed tightly to the bowl.  Then trim the top edge of the bowl, if you want.

Then bake, according to your directions on your clay.  Mine was 275 for 15 minutes.  

Once they started to cool, it was easier to get the bowls out and set on a cooling rack. 

The final step is to paint the liquid gilding around the top edge.  

Quiet Book - Dinosaur Page

Kellan LOVES dinosaurs, so I was searching for a dinosaur page on Pinterest that inspired me and hadn't really found anything.  Then I found one for sale on Etsy with an incredible amount of detail.  To buy the page would have cost $128!  So I took elements I liked from that page and made my own page.  My idea for the learning and activity to go with this page is to learn that the type of dinosaur was an herbivore and make his long neck movable, so he could eat the plants and fruit surrounding him.  There's also a surprise lift a flap to show dinosaurs hatched from eggs.  I also tried to make the background Garden of Eden like.

To make the dinosaur's neck movable and bendable, I cut out two dinosaur shapes and sewed them together and sewed a large pipe cleaner into the neck.  Then, when attaching the dinosaur to the page, I just sewed around his body and left his neck and limbs free.  

If you're thinking about making a Quiet Book - an assortment of felt will help you get started!

Quiet Book - Snowman Dress Up

Since I was giving this gift at Christmas, I wanted to include either a Santa or Snowman page and I settled on Snowman. I came up with a dress the snowman concept and made a bunch of hats, scarves and a few ties for the snowman to wear. Here was the planning phase:

I just copied and pasted hats I found online to use as templates for my hats.  I knew I wanted the hats to look super cute and realistic, so that meant a lot of detail work and hand-sewing.  I made a polka dot tie by adding French knots (first time doing them) and it turned out so cute!!!

Then I ordered really wide Velcro and made the entire snowman out of Velcro. Then I used stick on Velcro dots on the back of the hats and on the closet page.

For the background, I made snow on the ground and a few pine trees.  I made an adjoining page with shelves to store the hats.

For this Project you'll need: 

light blue felt sheet

white felt sheet

dark green felt sheet

brown felt sheet

colorful felt scraps (for the hats)

orange scrap (for the carrot nose)

wide Velcro

sticky back Velcro dots

needle and embroidery thread

sewing machine

Two small black buttons (for the eyes, optional)

snowflake brads (optional)

                                                 

If you're thinking of making a quiet book, an assortment of felt will help you get started!