Hair Bow and Flower clips

How to make Simple Hair Bows

 

What you'll need:

*Ribbon (in what ever color or colors you choose)
* Needle and thread (pre threaded and knotted at the end!)
*Hot glue gun and extra glue
*Hair clips (can be found at local craft stores)
* No Fray liquid (can be found at Wal*Mart & craft stores)

I typically don't cut off a piece of ribbon from the spool, just to be on the safe side. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and so I like to make sure things are even.


Start with your first loop in almost the middle of the length your chose. This particular ribbon had stiff edges and I was able to just push it against the table to take pictures. If you use silky ribbon, you'll have to always hold it between your thumb and pointer finger with the hand you don't write with.

With the left side, make another loop about the same size:

Now, because I could, I flipped mine over to make the next loop.

and the fourth loop

I cut off the extra on the end to match the end of the other side. With my needle and thread I put the needle through the center of the ribbon and wrapped it around the center (this will make it look more like a bow)

Because I was making a Christmas Hair bow, I added an extra color to the back . Following the same steps as above, I made a green bow slightly bigger than my peppermint ribbon.

I then took a piece of ribbon and wrapped it and hot glued it around the middle to cover up my thread.

Now it's time to get your hair clips out.  Hot glue the bow onto the clip. Some people glue ribbon down on the base of the clip to make it look nice. I feel like it get in the way of the clip when I'm trying to clip them and they end up coming undone.



Flower Clips

What you'll need:

*Fake flowers (can be found at the dollar stores, Wal*Mart, and craft stores)
* Gems or buttons for the middle
*Hot Glue
*clips

Pull the fake flowers off the stems (if needed) and then pull out the yellow centers of the flower

With your hot glue gun, glue the gem or buttons onto the flowers middle (you can leave the extra middle or take it out. It's your choice). Hot glue the flower onto the clip. Again, some people glue ribbon down on the base of the clip to make it look nice.

Simple 5-10 minute Christmas Crafts

Ah, I love Christmas. All of the lights, the decorations, the good smells, the food! Here are some cute crafts to make with your kids to hang around the house.

Paper Santa

What you'll need:
*Scissors
*Glue
*construction paper- pink, red, and white
*cotton balls (optional)
*Sharpie
* a bowl

Start by folding the pink construction paper in half (only necessary if you're doing this for more than one child). I used a a bowl (Santa) to make the circles. Cut them out.

To make Santa's Hat I put the circle up against the red construction paper and traced the shape of his hat around the circle (this way I know it will be the right size). To make his beard, I did the same thing.

For Santa's white trim I  made a cloud shape the length of Santa's hat & a circle for the ball of his hat. I cut out two small blue circles for Santa's eyes.  After you have glued the pieces down if you want to add  a small smile in his beard. To add texture to his beard and hat I suggest gluing cotton balls on.

Santa's Elves

What you'll need:


*Construction paper-, Pink, green, red, your choice in hair and eye color for elves.

*Scissors
*glue
* CD case



Start by folding the pink construction paper in half (only necessary if you're doing this for more than one child). I used a CD case (elves)  to make the circles. Cut them out.

To make the hat, I put the circle up against the green construction paper and folded it over to make a triangle that would be the right size for the elves head. I made a strip of red to add color to their had (you can use any color really). You can also make Holly leaves, bows, etc..

 I did the same thing to make the collar (this time I traced it on)



After I cut out all the pieces, the girls' chose their hair color and we glued  it all together

Reindeer hands

Santa can't get around the world without his reindeer!

What you'll need:

*Scissors
*Construction paper- Brown and black
*Red and white candy mint (or a red circle)
*Sharpie or small black circles for eyes

Fold the black piece of paper in half. Trace and cut out your childs hands-these will be the antlers. Cut a triangle shape out of brown construction paper & "leaf shape" for the ears. Glue on the hands and ears to the brown triangle face. At the tip of the triangle glue the candy mint on. Somewhere along the lines our mints "mysteriously" went missing (but our breath was minty fresh!) You can use black if you don't want to be Rudolph (he's not really one of Santa's Reindeer anyway!)





The Christmas Angel

What you'll need:


*White paint (or white paper)

*Blue paper
*markers
*Your choice in dress color.




Start by painting your childs hand with white paint and stamp it onto the blue paper. Notice in the picture about the hands are stamped on opposite sides ( Left hand is on the right and vice verse). Let it set while you trace their foot in which ever color choice (ours is almost always yellow- which i never have any more...hmmm I wonder why?) glue the foot down onto the wings.  Let it set before your child colors on it.

Snow Man

What you'll need:


*Blue construction paper
*Orange for his nose
*3 different sized circles ( I used a yogurt container, a kids cup and adult cup)
*Construction paper in your choice of color (for decoration)
*Sharpie
*Cotton balls

Start by tracing the circles onto the blue paper & outlining them with sharpie. I added arms with my sharpie.

I cut a small triangle for the Snow mans  nose. Then I took a long brown for his broom handle and yellow for the bristles, and of course the red strip for the rubber band. Don't forget his top hat!


You can use cotton balls for the snow mans body to give it texture, (You can make it a guessing game for your older children, "How many cotton balls do you think will fit in the middle circle?" etc..) or paint him in. Other ideas are adding snowflake stickers, a flower hat. Your choices are endless.

The Ginerbread Family

What you'll need:


*Pattern
*Brown construction paper
* Decorations: buttons, beads, ric rac, etc..
*crayons
*Markers
*scissors
* Glue

Print out the pattern, here:

Decorate with whatever you want! the choices are endless. We used Crayons and beads (we're not the original, but it's what I had off hand!)

Melty Ornaments:

What you'll need:


The kit.





These are pretty cool, I remember them from when I was little. I found them at Michael's Craft for $1 a piece!  They are a little tricky for small hands, but they make great gifts. Follow the directions on the packet- sorry that's the best I can give you.  Warning: They kind of smell when you bake them (like when you melt crayons) and make sure you put tin foil down or they get stuck to the pans (like mine did!!)

Paper Chain Coutdown.

If you're like me, you get tired of your children asking, "how many more days until_____" This simple paper chain is a great way to encourage counting, making patterns (red, green, red or red green, white, red, green white) & sanity.



What you'll need:
*Scissors
*stapler
*Construction paper- red and green (or blue and White for Hanukkah)  Any color for birthdays.


Take and cut the construction paper into strips (you get more out of it if you cut it landscape). Loop the strip into a circle and staple it. Take the next color and loop it through the first colors hole. continue until you have 25  chain links for Christmas or whatever number you need for any other occasion.

Reading counted cross stitch pattern

Using a Cross Stitch kit

This is a Mickey Mouse Cross Stitch KIT that I bought at Michael's on clearance. The best part about buying a kit is that it comes with everything you need to make the image on the front. If you're still learning to cross stitch, click here  to find out how.




You'll notice when you open up the kit that the pattern is printed onto a piece of paper. The image of the character is made up of small symbols (sometimes numbers).

This is your guide to  which color goes where. The first thing I do when making  a cross stitch is separate out the colors from each other. You may need to hold some under light to help figure out where they go).
Most kits will give you an index card with holes punched out of it to help keep your thread separated until the time comes to use it.

Now it comes time to  figure out which color means which symbol. To do this you need to find the part of your pattern that looks like this:







This comes in handy, because it tells you exactly how many strands "lengths" you should have of each color. I found it very difficult one time because I had four different blues. That little number off to the side helped tremendously. Write the thread numbers next to the appropriate color. It's good to have that on hand in case you need to buy more. Next find the spot on your pattern that looks like this:


*note the X half X and 1/4 X (looks like half a slash) refer to whether or not you will do a full X stitch,


half

or just a half slash.

The numbers you just wrote next to the color have a symbol next to them. draw that symbol next to the color

Now when I am ready to start my cross stitch I don't have to keep looking back and forth to find out which symbol means which color.








each symbol represents one "square" on your cross stitch cloth. The easiest way to begin a cross stitch is by starting in the middle. Find out how here:  finding the middle in cross stitch

Counted Cross Stitch finding the middle

Once you've mastered the  Cross stitch basics  and you feel confident enough to start a counted cross-stitch, this is the place to be. I apologize in advance for the sideways photos. No matter which way I rotated them before uploading they had a mind of their own.

Counted Cross Stitch

You'll need: 
*A pattern (from a book, a kit, free prints online)
*Appropriate colors of threads you can buy from Michaels Craft for less than fifty cents. (only if you're not using a kit)
* Cross stitch cloth (only if you're not using a kit)
*hoop (optional)

You then need to find the center of your pattern. You do this by following the small arrows on the pattern (look where the pencils point)

Moving the pencils (or piece of paper is easier) towards each other until they meet. This will be your center. I put a mark on the pattern. (look in above photo to see blue pen dot for my center)

Next find the center of your fabric. You can do this by folding it in half

 & in half again

Unfold it slightly

keep an eye on the center & mark it with your pencil

Now that I know where my center is on both my cloth and my pattern I can begin working on my cross stitch by slowly following the pattern. take the appropriate thread & begin 

  ******TIP******

I check my pattern every few stitches to make sure I'm following it correctly. I also like to make the outlines first. This way I don't always have to look at the pattern if I know that the whole section is one color:

notice all of my stitches are facing the same direction.

Now that I have the heart outlined, I don't have to worry about looking at the pattern. I can fill in the whole thing red without accidentally putting the wrong color in. It also comes in hand when I want to fill in the heart, since I have the outline I can just stitch it in without looking at a piece of paper. Maybe watch some T.V.  When I am finished with one color I start a new one

Finished product! Now it's time to turn it into a gift.