
Here’s a frugal idea for making a cheap dollar store clock into an expensive-looking work of art. You can buy a basic clock for cheap and change it into this elegant gift.
Read the rest of this entryHere’s a frugal idea for making a cheap dollar store clock into an expensive-looking work of art. You can buy a basic clock for cheap and change it into this elegant gift.
Read the rest of this entryA while back I had to make DIY Chirstmas gifts for Mother&Child Magazine. I had so much fun creating these, so I thought I’d add them to my gift ideas for this Christmas.
I just love DIY Christmas crafts! The idea of thoughtfully making something for someone with love, warms my heart. As gifts, the challenge for me was adding some gifts that people actually want and not only use on Christmas day so something not necessarily Christmassy that they will want to use during the whole year.
Enters my first idea:
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This fun project is easy to do with toddlers if you are not too focused on having it perfect.
Let your toddler paint the back of the paper plates. This is what mine looked like after they were done. I kept their Read the rest of this entry
Oh how I love these bulbs… Buttons, buttons and more buttons! This one is more for older kids if you want to do it neatly with a glue gun as the buttons are too heavy for glues that don’t dry as quick but younger kids can probably do something similar with craft glue and something other than buttons.
Now before you get all excited about all the buttons and start glueing like me, take a scissor and make a hole for the rope. I added the photos from a previous post cause with this one I accidentally got ahead of myself.
Squirt a little glue inside and quickly insert the rope.
Make sure there’s enough glue to hold, squirt a little on top if neccessary.
Now you can glue your heart out… its best to glue the button instead of the polystyrene ball as the glue can melt the ball and its better for exact placing of the buttons.
When done, it will look something like this… the best of all is that each ball will look different!
Christmas is such a special time and I think its a great idea to have a countdown from the first to 24’th of December for kids to know when Christmas comes. That way they won’t have to ask every day and on the 25’th they get their presents.
Every day from the first of December, a number gets poked to see the gifts inside. I suggest adding bible verses for older kids or maybe the story of Jesus (or Santa if you prefer) so every other day they can get an additional paragraph until the story is complete.
The kids had so much fun making this advent calendar. This seems like a lot of steps but its fairly easy!
Trace the toilet paper roll with a pencil to make 24 circles, leaving enough space in between for adhesion tabs.
Stencil the numbers 1-24 in the middle of the circles
Cut the circle out, about half an inch or less away from the pencil line and cut small little tabs so the paper can go around the circular toilet roll smoothly.
Glue and paste.
Glue all the pieces neatly together with a glue gun. Its important to use fast drying glue otherwise it will fall apart before it dries. Remember to do all the numbers backwards from right to left, otherwise you may get your numbers mixed up.
Cut out two identical rectangles for the roof (optional to make it stick over the front edge to give it more depth. The back edge needs to be flush with the wall.) Place them and trace the triangles for the triangular space in between to give strength to the structure.
Now this is a tricky part and you may need an extra set of hands… Once again its much easier with a glue gun (hint hint… glue guns aren’t optional in a crafty house) Hold the two roof sections 90 degrees and glue them together. Glue the back triangle flush and place a toilet roll to measure the distance for the front triangle. Glue baby glue!
Glue the roof to the toilet paper rolls. This is very tricky and needs strong glue that dries properly to hold.
Paste a little strip of glue to the back of your roof and stick a loop that you can hang it on.
Now you’re ready to insert all the gifts in the rolls. As I said in the “You will need” above, if you are planning to make one house for multiple kids, remember to buy gifts that you can fit more into one toilet paper rolls. I have two kids so everything had to be small enough to fit two into one toilet paper roll.
I bought all my gifts at a dollar store and some of the items include finger lasers, stickers, ink stamps, mini bath ducks, candy watches, candy dummies and other sweets.
Lastly, cut a piece of cardboard big enough for the back of the house to cover all the openings and glue it tightly to the back.
Viola, your advent calendar is done! I can suggest sticking it with additional prestik to make sure the weight holds all the gifts.
Remember not to be too worried about how it looks. Another one we made did not come out so perfect (you can see it in the pictures with the gifts above) but I actually loved it.
Enjoy!
Ive been busy with creating DIY Christmas ornaments and will be sharing them in the following month. Here is my first attempt at a globe made from recycled materials. It may cost you if you don’t have the tools but if you do, its very cheap. I made my own version, but saw the original post HERE. Read the rest of this entry