Today I have the absolute pleasure of welcoming Maggy Woodley the brains behind Red Ted Art over here on my blog. So do make her feel welcome while I pop off and put the kettle on and rustle up some biscuits for her...
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Lovely! This is possibly one of my
favourite times of year for crafting – nothing quite a fresh, chilly Winter’s
day, come in after a long walk and sitting down to a cozy craft with the kids
with a hot cup of cocoa. We love making all sorts of things this time of year –
but we especially love Christmas
Ornaments and making
gifts for family. A crafting session and thrifty gift in one!
I would love to share 5 of these ideas.
Loo
Roll Snowmen
I love crafting with “Loo Rolls” – they are
plentiful and surprisingly versatile. If not loo rolls, use kitchen rolls or at
this time of year the cardboard tubing inside a roll of wrapping paper. Then
turn your loo rolls into Snowmen Craft
or Santa
Crafts or better still an adorable Rudolph craft.
Job done. Kids delighted! We play Snowman Bowling with ours!
DIY
Advent
There is still time to sort out a quick
DIY Advent Calendar – especially if you use this little idea – yep, just
get some festive or pretty paper cups and you are almost done! Check out our Advent
Calendar hangout for ideas of “what to put in” – it doesn’t always have to
be chocolate!
Saltdough
Ornaments
Check out our easy and reliable Salt
Dough Recipe and make Christmas Decorations with them. We made some simple
hearts using cookie cutters. But the possibilities are endless (or at least as
endless as the number of cookie cutters you have at home!). We love using
hearts, Christmas trees and gingerbread men to make ornaments. Too cute.
Felt
Hearts
I love these felt
hearts, as they can EITHER be a simple Christmas Tree Ornament OR they make
for a great gift – use them as a key ring or a book bag decoration. Fill them
with lavender to make them extra special. A super easy project and a great way
to introduce sewing to kids. Read more about them here.
No
Bake Gingerbread Houses
After all that hard crafting, I now think
you deserve a treat.. and an EASY treat… Love Gingerbread Houses? Always wish
you were the “parent that made these”, but in reality don’t have the time (who
does?!). These MINI No Bake
Gingerbread House, will DELIGHT the kids, are seriously easy to make and
will make you king or queen of the holiday (no) baking!!
I do hope that you are feeling a little bit
inspired and that you are tempted by some of the crafts shared today. We have
lots more Christmas crafts over on Red Ted Art if you are looking for
inspiration. Why not take a look at Red Ted Art, Cute
and Easy Crafts for Kids. The book has a number of Christmas crafts in, but
also crafts for all year round. A great book to keep you busy over the years to
come and an even better book to give as a gift!
This year we are
going to give “The Gift of Creativity”. The idea is to create “Basic” and
“Jazzed up” Craft
Kits that you can put together yourself – both original and different! What
do you think? You don’t need much in a basic craft kit, especially if you add
recycled materials and finds from nature…. I love to add pine cones, stones and
recycled fabric to our basic craft kit to get the kids think creatively about
things they can find and reuse.
About
the Author: Maggy
Woodley, is a crafty mum of two!
She loves everything about crafts and
loves nothing better to recycle and forage for craft materials –making crafts
economical and fun.
Maggy also writes at Life at The Zoo about
cooking with kids, gardening and sciency “stuff” and Theatre Books and Movies for well,
theatre, book and movies! Red Ted Art, is also now being translated into German, Spanish and Russian
for more people to enjoy! Do check them out!
We love making salt dough decorations! Love the paper cup advent- so simple! And I think I will try the loo roll craft with Syd! Fab ideas x
ReplyDeleteAwww thanks for having me Liz!! Lovely to see my crafts up on your site!
ReplyDeleteThe gift of creativity, what an gorgeous gift!
ReplyDeleteLOVE LOVE LOVE the advent idea! Even I could manage that one! Brilliant as always Maggy x
ReplyDeleteP.S Liz, do you have any of those biscuits going spare???
I need to get my bottom into gear and get making stuff now! Feeling seriously inspired - thanks ladies :)
ReplyDeleteSalt dough ornaments are so simple but so Christmassy. We are away for Christmas in a rented cottage this year so I am going to make some to take with us. I might even leave them behind for teh next family next year!
ReplyDeleteI'm not feeling a little bit inspired as you hope, but a lot inspired and would actually like to see a Red Ted Art Christmas book one day *nudge* x
ReplyDeleteso many wonderful ideas i like the look of the no bake gingerbread hosues and the salt rock ornaments - will pin those x
ReplyDeleteooh fancy the no bake gingerbread houses!
ReplyDeleteI love your cup advent calendar Maggy x x
ReplyDeleteNo bake gingerbread house is a great idea and easier to make! Also love the felt hearts as a bookmark and great gift idea.
ReplyDelete