Category: Kids Craft

DIY Rustic Christmas Tree Banner

Published on by kerricreatesblog2 Comments

Each year, I try to incorporate some type of Christmas craft into our Advent activities. When my kids were younger, we would often take nature walks and collect all sorts of natural treasures. My kids are older now, and nature walks are a distant memory, but this remains one of my favorite DIY Christmas crafts that we made together.

This simple and inexpensive Christmas Tree Banner will add a rustic touch to your holiday decor and kids will have so much fun collecting sticks and twigs to use for their creations. You will need to pre-cut white or off white card stock in rectangles or pendants and purchase some wooden stars, gold paint, twine, and glue. Before your nature walk, take a few minutes to paint your wooden stars with the gold paint. #CommissionsEarned

Bundle up, grab a bag, and go on a stick hunt. Look for sticks in a variety of lengths, but try to find ones in a similar width around. Once you get home, hand each child a piece of the pre-cut banner and let them sort through the sticks, breaking pieces off to for their Christmas Tree, and working their way from bottom to top, while leaving a bit of room for a star.

Glue the sticks in place, including a vertical twig for the trunk and add one of your gold stars to the top of each twig tree. Once all of your banner pieces have dried and you have hole punched the top, thread your twine through and find the perfect place to hang your rustic Christmas Tree Banner.

For more fun Christmas ideas check out the following blogposts:

Advent

The Polar Express & Graham Cracker Trains

Turn Dad into A Snowman

Glittery Christmas Silhouettes

Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses

DIY Shadow Puppets

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A couple weeks ago our family went camping, which is a really big deal, because we are NOT campers!  Two of our kids attend a school where they have a Fall Campout each year so we committed to staying one night…and although my husband and I both agree that we are more “glampers,” than campers, we ended up having a ton of fun and our kids loved the whole experience.  I have a feeling we will be camping again!

My daughter was super excited because her daddy bought her a pink flashlight and she was really looking forward to making shadow puppets in the tent with her big brothers.  Of course, when we got home, she wanted to create some animal shadow puppets to play with.  One evening, last week, we went to work creating these cute little popsicle stick puppets that have provided a ton of content for imaginary play and story telling for little miss.

I used my Cricut Expression 2 to cut out the animals and other shapes, but if you do not have a Cricut, simply create a document with templates that you can cut out of card stock.  Here is one I put together that you can print off and use to make your own animal shadow puppets without using a Cricut.  animal template pdf

The possibilities are endless with these little puppets.  You can create seasonal themes, print off silhouettes of your child’s favorite story book or movie characters, weather puppets, dinosaurs, garden, farm, cars, princesses, fairies, and so much more.

One thing that I realized, after creating so many characters, was that they were hard to hold onto.  So with an old shoebox and a pair of scissors, I created a diy holder for all of the puppets.  This made a perfect “stage” for my daughter to put the puppets on as she told her story.  The great part about using a shoebox, is that it doubles as storage to hold all of the characters and a flashlight so they are contained & easy to find for future use.

Check out my video tutorial above for tips on making some shadow puppets with your own children.  fullsizeoutput_eda2fullsizeoutput_eda1IMG_9671IMG_9676IMG_9677IMG_9679

DIY Magnetic Marble Track

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At the beginning of this summer, we spent a day at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA.  If you’ve never been there, it is such a fun experience with tons of hands on exhibits.  One of my daughter’s favorites was a wall with plastic magnetic tubes to create a “marble track” and little balls to test it out on.  She spent quite awhile rearranging the tubes to make different tracks and trying them out.  As I watched her, I started thinking about how I could make something similar at home, and this idea was born.

I began saving toilet paper and paper towel rolls and waiting for just the right time to create our DIY Magnetic Marble Track.  This Saturday was the perfect day!  My oldest was away at camp with his youth group and my two younger kids were having a pajama day.  My husband was taking a nap and the kids were getting “bored,” so together we created this super fun “boredom buster!”

Check out my daughter’s “Craft Time With Karis” video tutorial (above) to learn how to make these with your own kids.  It took some trial and error, but we figured out the best way to keep the tracks up and the best balls to use.  Here are a couple of tips:

  • make sure your magnets are strong enough…we tried some at first that would not hold
  • use light weight balls: we found my son’s Nerf Rival Bullet Balls to be the perfect balls for this project.  Small bouncy balls were a close second.  Marbles were too heavy and knocked the tracks right off.  Experimenting with different options is part of the fun!
  • even though we used magnets that were sticky on one side, it is best to hot glue them as well for a stronger hold

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For more “Craft Time With Karis” videos click on the following:

DIY Kids Magnetic Puzzles

Colored (RAINBOW) Rice

Tricky Hopscotch (with a twist)

Valentine Craft: Cookie Cutters & Paint

 

Trolls Craft: Poppy’s Popsicle Stick Frames

Published on by kerricreatesblog2 Comments

You know that scene from the movie “Trolls,” when Poppy and Branch are on their way to rescue their friends from the Bergens, and they camp for the night?  Poppy sets up a collage of Popsicle Stick Frames with pictures of all the missing Trolls and it keeps expanding.  That was the inspiration behind this Trolls Craft.  As soon as I saw that scene, the first time we watched Trolls in the theater, I knew that my daughter and I would have to make a “Poppy Frame” of our own.  So I started gathering the supplies, and my plan was to have a special “Trolls night” with my girl as soon as the movie came out on DVD.

I found a set of Trolls stickers at Joann Fabrics.  The rest of the supplies we bought from the Dollar Tree.  I also picked up this amazing find, a plastic veggies and dip tray to hold all of our craft supplies.  I have reused this dollar store treasure many times since for other art and craft projects and sensory activities.

The week that Trolls hit the Red Box, I surprised my daughter with a special “Mommy/Sissy” Day.  We rented the movie, made our craft, and also created a yummy   treat to enjoy,  Trolls Marshmallow Pops.

My daughter thoroughly enjoyed her special day and spent a long time making her Poppy Popsicle Stick Frames with pictures of her favorite Trolls and tons of decorative embellishments.  Here’s what we used:

  • colored popsicle sticks
  • colored cardstock to back the frames
  • Trolls stickers
  • buttons
  • beads
  • sequins
  • paper cutouts (cut from my Cricut, left over from another project)
  • butterfly charms
  • pom poms
  • glue (I used a hot glue gun for the frames and my daughter used Elmer’s glue for the decorations)

Here’s a screen shot of Poppy’s Frames and some fun pictures of my daughter’s creation.

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Thanksgiving Turkey Place Cards

Published on by kerricreatesblog3 Comments

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.  I love the food, the family time, and all the yummy desserts.  Involving the kids in the preparations makes the anticipation even greater.  Each year, I give my kids an activity to do before we pack up and make the trip to visit family for Thanksgiving.  We made these place cards several years ago, and I have to say, they are still one of my favorites.  To make these cute turkey place cards for your Thanksgiving table you will need card stock in plain colors, scrapbooking paper in various fall prints for the feathers, and buttons or googly eyes.  Cut out rectangles of card stock and fold in half for the cards, cut out the basic turkey shape, small orange triangles for beaks, red squiggly gobbles, and feathers in various prints.  Hand out glue sticks and let your kids get creative with the design of their turkeys.  Leave some room on one side to place the names.  I just printed a list of names off of the computer and then backed them with dark brown card stock to make them pop.  These little place cards looked perfect on our Thanksgiving table, and my kids were very proud of their creations! #CommissionsEarned

My daughter and I recently added a tutorial for you to enjoy and you can find another fun kid friendly Thanksgiving idea by clicking on my most recent blogpost Thanksgiving (Turkey Handprint) Kids Table.  Happy Thanksgiving!

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Glittery Christmas Silhouettes

Published on by kerricreatesblog6 Comments

One of our Advent Activities for this year was “make a craft.”  I decided that Glittery Christmas Silhouettes would make the perfect actvity for my kids.  I have to say, I am very happy with how they turned out and it will be fun to put them up each December for years to come.  My kids range in age from 5-13 and they were each able to do this with just a little help from me.  Here’s what you will need for your glittery silhouettes.  Four rectangular canvases, adhesive-backed vinyl, a computer, scissors, cardboard or newspaper (to cover your work area), white school glue, paintbrushes or foam brushes, and four different colors of glitter. #CommissionsEarned

IMG_0993Google Christmas silhouettes online and find four that you want to use.  Size them to fit in the center of your canvas with enough space around each for the glitter.  Try and make all 4 about the same size.  Print out your silhouettes and cut them to use as templates. IMG_0992Trace your silhouettes on the back of your adhesive-backed vinyl.  Cut them out to create four stickers.  IMG_0994Place one “sticker” on each canvas.IMG_0997Paint glue evenly all over the white parts of your canvas.  It’s ok to get a bit of glue on the stickers, but try to keep it to a minimum so that you can see the outline for when you peel it off later. IMG_0998Sprinkle glitter all around your silhouette and be sure to go over the edges a bit to make sure you create a nice line all around each image.IMG_0999Wait about 45 minutes.  You will want to peel your stickers before the glue and glitter completely dry.  This will create a cleaner line.  IMG_1001Allow your canvases to dry completely.  Shake the glitter off.  Then paint over them one more time with white school glue.  This will seal the glitter in so that it doesn’t fall off everywhere when you they are hanging up on your wall.  Let them dry overnight. IMG_1037Hang up and admire your beautiful Glittery Christmas Silhouettes!

Update: We have now been using these for the past 5 years and they are holding up beautifully.  For a tip when storing them: use plastic wrap to cover each canvas individually, then stack them and wrap the stack in plastic wrap as well.  I store mine inside of a closet on a shelf, and each year they look as lovely as they did the first year we made them.  Here is a picture from last Christmas so that you can see how nice they look in my navy blue living room next to my Board & Batten Feature Wall .  

For more fun Christmas ideas check out the following blogposts:

Turn Dad Into A Snowman

Advent

Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses