Salt Dough Cookie Cutter Shapes
Amelia's favorite is the red glittery stocking. If you look closely at the gingerbread man, you will notice that he has purple eyes and a pink smile. Megan put the decorations on the candy cane, but Amelia made all the rest. I'm sure we will do this again next year, I just have to remember the following things: Roll the salt dough a little thinner (this was about 1/4" and the ornaments are pretty heavy). Bake at the lowest temperature setting of the oven (these were baked at 200F, and they got puffy and uneven). Do not use Elmer's washable glue (decorations do not stick). Do not use Tacky Glue (does not dry clear.) Find a different kind of glue to use. What? I don't know.
Snow Globe Hanprint Snowmen
I got this idea from Mom to Two Posh Lil Divas. Amelia loved painting her hand and smushing it on the plastic ornament ball, although she needed help with the fingers so they didn't get smudgy. I did all the snowman hats, faces and buttons, but maybe next year I will let her try that herself. We filled it with epsom salt (cheap, available) to look like a snowglobe. Lessons learned: Crayola washable paint will flake right off the plastic ornaments. If you try this anyway, you could very carefully brush a layer of Mod Podge over the handprint, trying not to flake any of the paint off. It will dry a little opaque, but will still look okay, and keep the paint protected. We also used regular white acrylic paint, and this has been staying on nicely. Although, you then have to watch to make sure your child doesn't get handprints all over your nice oak door to the bathroom that will dry on and never come off. Not that I have personal experience with that.
Stars/Snowflakes
Pretty self-explanatory. I painted popsicle sticks white and hot glued three of them together to make a snowflake shape. I would have let Amelia paint them, but she wasn't feeling like painting that day. Then glue on anything small and decorative that you can find. We used Tacky Glue, and it mostly works, although some of the sequin stars want to come off. She didn't get the idea of cramming things close together, so I made one with her, and we had a contest to see who could make the prettiest sparkly star. She won, of course!
Glitter Pinecones
Megan and I took a walk up the hill bordering the field across the street, the only place where there are grown pine trees near us. It was a fun little path - I will have to take Amelia in the spring. Anyway, we found these pinecones and brought some home to decorate for Christmas. I baked them in the oven at 200F for 30 minutes just to kill any bugs that might be in them. Then we painted them with Elmer's washable glue and sprinkled them with glitter. I let Amelia handle the glitter herself, which went okay until she upset an entire tub and we had glitter EVERYWHERE. Oh well, what's Christmas without a little glitter?
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