It's December and time for some Christmas cheer!
We made this fun craft in the second week of December. It turned out so fine I decided that's the Christmas Tree we are going to flaunt this season. It has some different fun craft process appropriate for a toddler.
Let's make it:
You will need
Card sheet - any color of your choice
Tree twig - will be used as tree trunk
Stickers - will be used as ornaments
Rhinestone stickers - will be used as christmas lights
Thick Cardboard / foam - will be used as gift
Sharpie
Scissors
Hot glue
Process
With each of these artworks, I choose to spread the time we spend on making the artwork, over the entire week. It helps to make art a fun activity, as kids have short attention span. Also, it's a lovely "quality time together" when we sit and make something constructive and creative. Artwork helps with hand and eye coordination and obviously gets everyone's creative juices flowing.
Each day of the week you can have one crafting activity that adds to beautify your artwork. We start on the weekend and spend a solid 20 to 30 minutes to create the base for the craft. The first day mostly has the most amount of work. And on the weekdays it's a commitment of only 5 to 15 minutes. Here's how we built Christmas tree one day at a time.
Day 1 | Stick and Sticker fun | Time: 30 mins
Draw a triangle. Ours was 8 inches tall. Leave 1/2 inch border on the longer two sides. This border will help give the tree its 3D look.
Add glue in a straight line, starting at the base. Stick one strip of paper or we stuck cloth. I helped Bubu with this. I held the strip in air right above the glue line and asked Bubu to press down to stick it onto the glue line.
To make it look like leaves and give it more texture I had prepped the cloth with a fringe beforehand.
Let it dry overnight. We went to the next step same day instead, as Bubu was too excited. Which was Bubu's favorite part sticking the ornaments. We chose star and circle stickers.
I decided, it would be good to add a drop of glue, to make the sticker firmly stick to the cloth base. Bubu decided where to add the glue, I helped him to squeeze the glue out. And then he topped the glue with the sticker of his choice.
Day 1 | Prep: 20 mins
That night I prepped the artwork, so next day we could go straight to Bubu's part.
I cut the triangle leaving in the extra borders. Get the borders a little closer and stick it with hot glue on a card-sheet so that it protrudes to look 3D.
I hot glued three sticks of cinnamon to make it look like the tree trunk. You can use a thick enough tree twig instead.
Last, cut square, triangle, circle out of a foam sheet. You can use cardboard or bubble wrap like I did. Anything that will give it a little relief and continue the 3D look.
Cut paper to match the square, triangle and circle. I used cloth.
Day 2 | Match shapes | Time: 5 mins
So keep the artwork in front of your Bubu the next morning. That way s/he gets some time to observe the change that has happened since they last saw it. Bubu was excited and wanted to touch and pull things. Calmly explaining that pulling might rip it out helps (mostly).
In the evening I presented him the cloth cutouts and asked him to match it to the bubble-wrap shapes on the main card sheet.
He was so excited, he loves puzzles. Bubu then added glue and stuck all three of them. I think if we had more shapes he would have loved it. If your card sheet is bigger, go ahead and add add more shapes. Just see to it that they are different.
Day 2 | Prep: 20 mins
Add ribbons in a cross pattern to make the shape look like a gift. I did a mix of center and off-center patterns.
Make a bow for each gift. Do not glue the bows, that's the work for your Bubu.
Day 3 | Match location | Time: 5 mins
Introduce what is a cross by showing the ribbons you have stuck. Ask Bubu to add a bow right in the center of the cross. You can demonstrate without glue.
Encourage Bubu to add a glue dot and add the bow. My Bubu liked this part too. He was excited to get it to the center.
Day 4 | Sticker fun | Time: 15 mins
Draw lines on top of the tree. These are going to be your christmas lights. The lines act as a guide so you can have a cleaner looking artwork.
I did the same thing as the Christmas leaves. I held the rhinestone sticker border in air right above the drawn line and asked Bubu to press down so it sticks on to the main paper.
And done your artwork is ready to flaunt in your Bubu's daycare/class for "show and tell" day, for us it's Friday and it's are exciting to go to school that day. Hope this encourages to get some fun creative juices flowing during your time together with Bubu. And share those awesome creative projects with me and my Bubu.
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