Craft ideas for Christmas - Guest Post from Red Ted Art

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...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!