If you know Les Enfants, you will know how much we adore creating bespoke, hand made decorations for each of our lovely client’s birthday parties. If you too fancy yourselves as the crafty sort, this blog post is for you.
There is something incredibly special about Christmas crafts, wether you are creating gifts for your friends and family, or making decorations for your home. There are plenty of wonderful craft projects that your children can help you with, that will create decorations that they enjoy, but that also look more than acceptable in even the most discerning interior designer’s family home.
CLOTHES PEG SOLDIERS
One of our favourite kids’ fashion websites Childrensalon, have come up with a beautiful craft project that will adorn your family tree. Wooden clothes peg Christmas soldiers! All you will need are a pack of old fashioned clothes pegs, some paint, and black pom poms for the hats. This project is very simple, and with a guiding adult’s hand, can create great results.
Begin by painting the bottom of the clothes pegs black, and the top red to create the base for the soldier’s outfit. Paint the round top of the peg pink – this will be his face. Let each stage dry before continuing with the next, and use masking tape to get neat, straight lines. Add facial and clothing detail with black, gold and silver marker pens, and glue a pom pom onto the top of the peg for a fluffy hat. See the full instructions, with guiding pictures on the childrensalon blog.
Pom Pom Garlands
Whilst on the topic of Pom Poms, (if you are one of our regular readers, you will know we are pretty keen), why not create festive pom pom garlands for the tree, or for the house itself? We have very fond memories of creating pom poms with our families, there is something magic about that final stage of cutting the string, and having a fluffy ball materialise from nowhere.
Follow our favourite and very simple guide on how to create pom poms with your hands (no flimsy cardboard doughnuts here), and use festive coloured wool, such as greens, reds and golds, or for an all season friendly decoration, whites and silvers, to create pom poms with a Christmas spin. After making a selection of pom poms, use a large needle to thread a length of wool through all of your creations to join them together. Be careful with small fingers, help kids with child friendly scissors, and maybe keep the needlework for yourself.
Christmas Snow Globes
A magical craft project for adults and children alike, Christmas snow globes are very easy to make, and so much fun. Almost any jar will work for this project, baby food, jam, or olive. Make several in a variety of sizes for a truly mesmerizing Christmas centerpiece. You will need a selection of plastic or ceramic festive figurines, such as deer, pine trees or sledges, strong waterproof glue and glitter.
Plop a blob of glue inside the lid of your jar and affix your christmas figurines. Hold until the glue is tacky and leave to dry overnight. Sprinkle a generous amount of glitter into your empty jar, and fill with distilled water. Screw the lid on tight, turn upside down, and give it a shake!
Pasta Snowflakes
Here is an adorable and incredibly simple project that proves that sometimes the easiest kids’ crafts create the most beautiful finished products. All you will need is pasta (in a variety of shapes and sizes), glue and spray paint. Glitter wouldn’t go a miss either.
Working on greaseproof paper, glue pasta edges together to create a snowflake shape, and let dry. Adults, spray paint the snowflakes white, and again, allow to dry. Let your kid’s loose with child friendly transparent glue, paintbrushes and a mix of silver glitter and rhinestones to finish each snow flake. Tie on some fish wire or ribbon, and attach to your tree, or your windows. You can even have your creations immortalised by artist Orange Howell, who will recreate and cast them in metal for you to keep.
Sparkling Icicles
If your kids are still into Frozen (I know, I know, we all want them to let it go – sorry not sorry), they are going to adore this project. Another incredibly simple craft, that actually encourages scrunching of paper, so small hands are going to be very happy indeed. To begin, cut your kids long triangle shapes out of Aluminium foil. With the foil shiny side down, fold over the top two centimetres of the top, flat edge. This will keep your icicle stable.
Stick a loop of silver thread to this folded section, and loosely role your triangle up widthways, starting at the end with the hanging thread attached. When rolled, gently squeeze along the length of your foil to create your crispy looking icicle. Top tip, you need to squeeze very tightly at the bottom and very gently at the top to create the tapered appearance. Once you are happy with the shape, paint on a clear glue, and sprinkle on blue glitter. Allow to dry, and voila!
Make sure to try to enjoy special one on one time with your kids this Christmas, they will remember and cherish it! These craft projects will stay in their minds for longer than you could imagine and provide a lot of family fun.
Author: Hannah Coates
Wreaths
Smallable ideas?
