Filled Glass Ornaments

This was a project from last Christmas but I didn't post about it then because they were Christmas gifts.  These ornaments were something I had wanted to make for a long time, but it was harder than I expected finding plain clear glass ornaments.  On a late night shopping trip, I finally had time to dig through all the boxes of ornaments, and found the only box of clear ornaments they had! (Something that would have been impossible to do on a day-time trip with the kiddos!)

Two of the ornaments I filled with sheet music from one of my favorite musicals, Les Miserables.  It just so happens it's also a favorite of my sister who was the wonderful recipient of those ornaments.  Since she's a trumpet player, I used the sheet music for a trumpet part.  Huge thank you to Google for that find!  Seriously Google sheet music for your favorite songs and search through the images.  You'll find what you need!  Well mostly what you need.  The other piece of music was a flute part, but that's okay too.

After I printed off the music, I wanted to make the pages look antique.  I dyed them with tea by steeping a teabag in a pan of hot water and dipping the page in it.  Do this carefully as the page can easily tear when wet.  I let it dry completely, and then took a match to the edges to give it a rougher look.

Then I cut the music into strips trying to keep the staves together and included the song title and composer.  The toughest part was actually getting it into the ornament.  After carefully removing the top, I wrapped the individual strips tightly around a pencil and slid them down into the ornament.  I used a bamboo skewer and sometimes one of my crochet hooks to move the pieces around inside the ornament until I had the look I wanted.

To finish it off, I tied on a nice ribbon to hang the ornament with.  (I personally hate metal ornament hooks, and one day I will replace all of mine with ribbon!)

Besides the music filled ornaments, I also made this Hello Kitty one for my other sister who is a huge fan!  The Hello Kitty gift tag was from a McDonald's kid's meal.  I just punched a hole in it to tie the pink ribbon through!  Shhh don't tell!  I also made one for my grandmother with Christmas themed Bible verses as well as filled some with pretty ribbons and other holiday decorations.  The possibilities are endless!  I wish I had taken more pictures last year because they all turned out beautiful!

*Be careful stuffing your ornaments because the glass at the top can be sharp.  I wouldn't recommend this project for small children!

Snowman Fridge

Frosty has returned again this year and before Christmas Day of course.  Decorating the refrigerator for the holidays is so easy and adds so much joy.  All it takes is a few pieces of construction paper and strip of wrapping paper!

Here's a picture of this year's snowman.  We got a little more creative this time.  My five year old said that snowmen have stick arms so we needed to add them too.  The top hat is also new this year.  Comparing it to our light-up snowman in the living room, we couldn't forget the black hat!

The eyes were made by tracing a bowl on a piece of black construction paper.  The buttons and mouth were made by tracing a drinking glass on the construction paper.  The nose was just cut out free hand.  I like the carrot shape I did this year much more than the plain triangle from last year!

Here's a picture of last's year's snowman fridge.  It's a little blurry I know, but someone was just a little too excited about having Frosty in the house!

*This idea is not mine.  The original came from Pinterest last year, but there are so many out there now I have no idea which one was first!

The Crippled Lamb Story and Handprint Activity

We received this book as a present one year, and it's one of my favorite stories to read to the kids.  I love the message, and almost can't get through the story without tearing up.  I also really love any craft involving the kids' handprints so adorable handprint lambs were a must (We even made them last Easter too!)

First we gathered up all of the supplies.  I used a piece of plain cardstock to trace the kids' hands.  I wanted to turn the sheep into puppets for the kids to use while I read through the story this time, so that's what the Popsicle stick is for.  I initially planned on stapling the sheep to the stick, but I seriously underestimated the thickness of the jumbo Popsicle sticks and seriously overestimated the power of my mini stapler.  Luckily glue worked just fine instead!

I let the kids choose which hand they wanted to use and I traced and cut the handprints out for them.  Then they got to work creating their sheep.  We started by making the face with a googly eye and a black marker.

Then they covered the body of the sheep (or the palm of the hand) with glue and started attaching cotton balls for the sheep's wool.

Scunch in as many as you can as long as the glue holds.  You can tear apart the cotton balls or glue on the whole piece like we did.

After the wool was done, we added a little red bow just to make it extra special.  They also colored in the legs (or just the feet) with the black marker and attached the Popsicle sticks with the glue.

I think they turned out pretty darn cute!

Then they had fun holding them up and moving them around while we read through the story.  I loved every minute of it!