An improvised day 6...we made wreaths instead

This morning our Countdown to Christmas match box said we were going to go see Santa but the girls decided they didn't need to go since we just saw Santa at the Northpole the other day. Instead we stayed home and made wreaths!

We painted some egg cartons red the other day. I wasn't sure what exactly we were going to do with them but we put them to use today.

Today we covered a straw wreath I got at a thrift store with green crepe paper streamers and secured the ends in place with a touch of hot glue.

Next we glued on three clusters of three red painted egg cartons (thinking they looked something like poinsettias). Then we glued a sparkly golden pom pom to the centre of the egg carton.

Next we glued various sized and shades of green pom poms over the remaining wreath surface. We added a couple sparkly green ones and a couple sparkly red ones to be holly berries.

I think it turned out quite cute. We hung it with a Santa at first resting in the middle then changed it to an elf my mom made a couple years ago.

The girls wanted to make more wreathes so we made paper plate wreaths by wrapping crepe paper streamers around a paper plate which had the centre cut out of it.

 Then the girls glued on various collage items like crumpled tissue paper pieces, pom poms and sequins. We added a bow and they were ready to hang.

Since we had a collection of wreaths already on our tree I decided to brighten up a blank wall and put all the wreaths on display together.

The blue wreath Sierra made today too. She wrapped a grapevine wreath with blue tinsel then glued on the extra egg carton pieces, added her pom poms and a ribbon bow. I think it turned out very cute :)

The other wreaths were all made in past years. One was made by stringing buttons onto a pipe cleaner, one was made by painting empty wooden thread spools green and string them alternating with  red bead. There is also a rice wreath. It was made by mixing rice with glue, glitter and green food colouring. Mushing it all together and forming it into a wreath shape.

So no Santa for us today but we sure were busy!

And our Elf on the Shelf...he hasn't been on a shelf much. Last night he must have taken his friend to the North Pole with him as when we awoke we found them having a nice HUG on the Christmas tree.

Life size elves Day 5 Countdown to Christmas

Our day 5 matchbox contained the activity to make life size elves to decorate the kids door.

We bought a roll of craft paper from the dollar store and it was just enough to get both kids on one roll. The girls had to lie down on the paper and I traced around their bodies. They barely sat still long enough to do the tracing so no pictures of that...but you get the idea :) I started with the head by drawing a triangle point for the hat and added 2 pointy ears, the rest of the body I traced their outline.

We got out the markers first and drew on the faces and clothing details. Then out came the paints to fill in the body parts and clothing. We just used basic tempera water colour blocks.

After painting, set them aside to dry. When dry cut them out. 

Before we could put the elves up on the girls door Sierra had a bit of cleaning to do. She's becoming a wonderful artist but the problem is, she sees the world as her canvas!

With the help of a magic eraser and a little elbow grease it all came off and up went the elves.

As for Elfie...this morning we must have caught him as he was finishing up a movie...(perhaps he was watching Elf since we taped it last night) as we found him perched up above the TV.

Beaded Candy Canes

We just put up our tree last night and added candy canes like we do every year but I remembered a craft I did as a kid of beaded candy canes. I have none left from my childhood so I thought I'd get the girls to make some themselves.

They are super simple! All you do is string red, green and white beads onto pipe cleaners. twist into a candy cane shape, add a bow and hang!

And what a cute gift they would make to put ribbons on them and place them in the empty candy cane box to give away.

Day 4 Trimming the Tree and decorations from the past

Today's Day 4 of our Countdown to Christmas was to decorate the tree and take our family portraits...well we got the tree up :) Portraits will have to wait until another day as we got carried away with the decorations and basically finished the house today! I love unwrapping each ornament as we decorate the tree.

Egg Carton Santa Meadow made
when she was little

Paper mache Santa Meadow made

Santa painted on a mussel shell
from a craft fair

Paper mache star Santa I made years ago

A vintage inspired ornament I made for
 last years Christmas cards and you can
find for sale in my Etsy shop

Felted mushroom I made
and also in my Etsy shop

My gnome

Owl I made last year (In my Etsy shop)
and the Santa behind it is from about 15 years ago

One of my many snowbabies :)

This little guy was made by
 Princessnimblethimble on Etsy...
I added a string to hang him on the tree

Driftwood Santa

Beautiful porcelain reindeer

Another Snowbaby

A Christmas walnut mouse I made when
I was a kid...must be an antique by now ;)

A spool wreath my 23 year old made
when she was little

A spark plug ornament I made for my husband
for our first Christmas together...he loved
to work on his truck back then

Family ornament I made for
Aayla's first Christmas

If you are interested my Etsy shop is HERE.

And now it's time to get some of those decorations on the tree :)

Aayla putting her first decoration on our tree

How do you like those bangs?

 

Lovin the snowmen decoration earrings :)

Nana Diana sporting a nice pair of decoration earrings too

Our finished tree :) Take note of the heavy branches on the bottom of the tree. The girls help to decorate the tree and LOVE to hang 4 or 5 or 6 or more decorations on 1 branch! Our tree isn't themed like some peoples trees but our decorations have been handmade throughout the years, or purchased on holidays...each one has a special memory with it.

So all done our tree is lop sided, heavily weighted in certain areas but full of love. I must admit, putting up the tree is one of my most stressful activities in the whole world (I am a little over protective of most of the ornaments and it has only been the past couple of years that I have allowed anyone else to help me decorate the tree).

After we finished the tree the girls helped decorate the rest of the family room too...not quite how I might have decorated myself but they had lots of fun with it.

Our mantle this year is a bit squishy as normally we set up the tree and most of the decorations in our living room / dinning room but since it is still full of stuff we are selling we had to shift things around for Christmas.

Ohh I almost forgot to tell you where we found Elfie this morning... he was hanging from the chandelier :)