It's just a couple days before Christmas.Want a last-minute craft for the holidays?Here's a simple and meaningful keepsake that'sso easy and inexpensive to makethat you can keep one for youand send a bunch off to loved ones.


Start with blank ornaments. You can use whatever you have around,or you can find some at craft stores or online. Round ones work, but I preferred the ease of useof these flat wooden ones I found here.

Next you need at least three colors of paint. Easy peasy!I went with tempera because that's what I had.


Red, yellow, and green are nice and bright,but of course you can choose whatever you like.Don't forget your paintbrushes.

Candles are traditional, and chocolate is fun, but snuggling and spending time together is the perfect way to count down the days till Christmas.

Consider wrapping a series of winter or holiday books and craft projects, then having your child open one a day until the big day arrives. You'll get to enjoy a cuddly reading time or an interactive project opportunity together.


You can adapt this for Hanukkah by wrapping eight themed books, or as a countdown to Solstice or another celebration your family keeps.

You don't have to buy anything if you don't want to, so it's a frugal option to keep the spending and clutter down as well. I store our Christmas-themed books with our holiday decorations so that I can find them each year and keep them off the shelves when they're less relevant.



I'd seen this idea before of doing a solely book-themed countdown, but with our small space, we don't actually own 24 Christmas books. This year, though, I got the idea to sprinkle in other items:

Our sweet across-the-hall neighbors knocked and left the kids surprise buckets with Halloween treats within. As a thank-you, we came up with this pop-up card idea.

My preferred type of craft is the kind that absolutely anyone could do, and that probably many have done before. I'm sharing because these turned out super cute, and maybe you'd like a Halloween card idea. If my kids and I could handle this, so can you and yours.




Get out some colorful paper, and determine your pop-up items. My kids didn't fancy being too scary, so we went with pumpkins, and chose an orange construction paper as the base to save on coloring time. Other options could be a ghost or bat or such.

Remember to keep your pop-up items smaller than your card interior will be. We fit two big and one small on a single sheet.



For the jack-o'-lantern faces, have your kids draw or color in as their developmental stage suggests.



Keep your workspace absolutely clear of crafty chaos. I cannot stress this enough. Absolutely clear! Like so. Do not get out ALL the glitter glue and stickers and markers. Unless you have to.



Pick a card paper and fold it in half. Then we're going to use one of these thingy-dingies to secure our pop-up to the inside.

Here are some simple ideas to jazz up your Christmas gifts this holiday season. They aren't professional-level wrapping techniques, which makes them doable for any of us mortals; they use materials that are easy to source; and they still add a snazzy touch to your presented presents.

It's time for my annual roundup of coupons and deals sent to me by my affiliate partners. These are companies I support and recommend and whose savings I'd like to pass along to you for your holiday shopping! If you shop through my links, it costs you nothing extra and I get a little reward from the company to support my blogging. Thank you!

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It's time for my annual roundup of coupons and deals sent to me by my affiliate partners. These are companies I support and recommend and whose savings I'd like to pass along to you for your holiday shopping! If you shop through my links, it costs you nothing extra and I get a little reward from the company to support my blogging. Thank you!

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I first saw these adorable handprint snowmen ornaments on Natural Parents Network, which linked to the full tutorial on Little Bit Funky, which linked to the original (maybe?) tutorial at Full of Great Ideas. It's a holiday chain o' awesomeness! These are my favorite ornaments on the tree each year, so I think it's time for a reprise!

Supplies:

• Plain ornaments: We had two kids at the time, so I bought a box of eight ornaments at Michael's in a neutral pale green and had two for us, two for one set of grandparents, two for the other, and two to get messed up.
• White acrylic craft paint: The first year, I tried to get clever and bought white glitter paint to look more like snow. It wasn't opaque enough to show up. Make sure you buy opaque white. If you like the glitter idea, you could always paint over the snowmen with clear glitter paint after the first layer dries.
• Sharpies: I highly recommend the Ultra Fine Point for ease in drawing teensy designs. If you don't have a set handy, craft and office-supply stores let you buy individual colors. Make sure you have orange for the carrot nose and black for the coal eyes and buttons. Other colors are fun for decorating the snowpeople's clothing.
• Foam craft brush: I found this the easiest way of spreading the paint evenly on a child's hand.
• Drying surface: Ideas include an empty dish drainer, an egg carton, or the box the ornaments came in. You could also use several sturdy cups.

Craft with your kids and make these DIY "stained glass" tissue paper & parchment paper Valentine's Day cards! These sweet Valentines are easy and fun to make, and so pretty when they're done.

I was able to wing this with supplies we had around the house, so I hope you've got these or similar materials at hand as well:

Supplies:

• Parchment paper
• Construction/colored paper
• Scotch tape
• School glue
• Scissors
• Markers, stickers, paints, stamps — whatever you want to use to decorate!

They've got a pleasing 3-D textural effect to them that suits the season.


I've included some ways to pop in some easy practice with writing, even for pre- or early readers.


Get your artsy side in gear, and make some cute and friendly Valentines for all your loved ones!

Here's the full tutorial and our fabulous creations:

Need a few Christmas-is-almost-here gifts for little ones? Here's a selection of options you crafty wizzes (et al.) can whip up on the quick. Bonus points that they'll be handmade with love (also speed!).


Some require sewing skills, some do not, and some require no crafting abilities whatsoever! Hooray!

Simply click on the title for a link to the full tutorial. (Some of the ones toward the end don't have their own tutorial if they're really easy to figure out!)

Make your own baby leg warmers

All you need are appropriately festive or fashionably forward adult knee socks! You might already have some (I've repurposed ones that had worn through on the sole before), or you can easily find some cheap and bright ones at any clothing store. The sewing is seriously minimal, so you could even do this by hand if needed.

Sew an easy superhero cape

Superkids will love a shiny, shimmery cape to race around in, saving the world! This design's reversible, so you can grab two colors they'll love.

Mikko picked out a Lego Christmas tree
when we were at the Mini Maker Faire.


Fluffy branches, festive ornaments,
and brightly wrapped packages ahoy!

Awhile back, our family decided to try out Green Kid Crafts, which is a cool subscription box for kids. You get a science & craft kit in the mail every month!

Green Kid Crafts sends your family a box focused on STEM and arts and crafts, full of multiple projects for fun with learning, experimenting, and crafting.

Here I'm giving my unbiased review of the service and showing you what's in a typical box. You can skip to the end for a COUPON CODE to use (perfect gift for the holidays — hint, hint).

Full disclosure here: Green Kid Crafts links are affiliate links. Green Kid Crafts did not sponsor this review in any way, and I paid for my own subscription. I do have a previous advertising relationship with Green Kid Crafts, but that is not current. The end!

First, I'll share my videos if you're a video-watching type. Below those, I'll give a mini written & photographic review if you'd rather have still action.

Here's my video review and unboxing. I give my honest impressions of the service and show you what's in a typical box by going through every project:

Over the years of helping our little pumpkins enjoy pumpkin-patch excitement, Sam has come up with a few tricks (treats?) for involving little kids in carving a jack o'lantern without losing any fingers in the process.

You could go with just drawn-on pumpkins if you want to make the easiest choice, but if you want to wield a knife and really cut that pumpkin up, here are our best ideas for toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary folk.

You can see the tips in action in our video, and I'll also describe below:

I thought I'd give some glimpses into our homeschooling / unschooling,
natural-learning process. Here are just a few of our fun artistic explorations.

When I decided on the theme for this post, I thought I wouldn't have much to fill it, because my boys are in the minimalist category when it comes to drawing and crafts. But it turns out we've had plenty of opportunities, and they dove into quite a few!


Trying out tempera paints in our new spill-proof cups.


Color explosion


Twist-tie king at a children's museum!


Making music at another


They put on their own performance there, too.