Crafty Kids

Snowmen out of used CDs, candles out of old jars, picture frames out of just about anything, including old puzzle pieces. When it comes to gifts and crafts kids can make for the holidays, the possibilities are endless – if the creativity is flowing.

Having been a craft-loving kid myself, I’ve always encouraged my kids to make homemade cards for friends and relatives. A sucker for sentimental things, I believe that handmade gifts from kids are the ones parents and grandparents treasure most.

That belief of mine was confirmed recently, when my parents dug through their Christmas decorations and found the reindeer clothespins I made as a little girl. They also kept a handwritten coupon book I made for my father, filled with certificates good for free chores such as pulling weeds and washing the car. Instead of redeeming the coupons, he saved them for the past 30 years. Of course I had to tell him that they were now expired.

Megan McDermott, an instructor at the Corbin Art Center who recently led a group of school-age kids in making homemade gifts, said, “Any gift a child can make is a wonderful gift. It’s the purpose, the thought that makes it special.” Even just putting a simple, hand-drawn picture in a frame made of anything from wooden sticks to construction paper makes a nice gift, she said.

Armed with $25 in craft supplies including colorful self-sticking craft foam, pipe cleaners, beady eyes, jingle bells, Styrofoam balls, faux fur, holiday ribbon, glitter glue and every imaginable scrap I could round up in the house, I set out to find fun, useful gifts kids can make – without a lot of trouble.

My first inspiration came from several sites on the Internet: Create a “stained glass” candleholder. Glass jars, small scraps of tissue paper, glue and a paintbrush are all that’s needed to create this rather elegant gift.

My 7-year-old used the concept in an art project at school last year. They glued pieces of colorful tissue onto waxed paper, framed it with construction paper and created sun catchers to hang in front of the window. They are surprisingly effective.

Because I didn’t have a small empty jar (baby food jars, for example) on hand, I tested the project using an old, small drinking glass. I cut red, white and green tissue paper into small squares and rectangles. Then I mixed a little glue with water just to make it thin enough to “paint” on the glass. The tissue paper stuck to the glue easily and the glass was covered in no time. When I tested it with a tea light inside the glass, I was pleasantly surprised how pretty it looked. My kids were hooked and wanted to do their own. My 4-year-old needed a little help, but my 7-year-old handled the project with ease. Before we knew it, we had a three-candle set that they decided was cool enough to send to their grandmother for the holidays.

McDermott said old glass jars are useful for all sorts of crafts. Decorated with glitter, tissue paper, ribbon and anything else a kid wants, they make nice candy jars, pencil holders and decorations.

Ideas flourished after I picked up a copy of “Pack o’ Fun Christmas” magazine at a local bookstore. The magazine is full of clever ideas for holiday crafts, although I was a bit skeptical about how easy they would be for kids to do.

But I was hooked when I saw the Glittery CD Snowmen. What a great way to use all those Internet provider CDs that come in the mail. Because I already had all the craft supplies I was going to buy and none of them was what the instructions called for, we improvised. The kids had no problem coming up with happy snowmen faces using scrap felt, pompoms, pipe cleaners, beady eyes, foam and glitter glue.

This turned out to be a simple and fun project most kids can do by themselves with minimal help. We attached a pipe cleaner to the top of each to allow for easy hanging.

Old CDs could be used in this way to create any sort of holiday characters.

Put a photo in a frame and you’ve got an instant gift. Reindeer seem to be a popular frame concept. We found several reindeer frames made out of base wood, craft foam and even old jigsaw puzzle pieces painted in holiday colors. But the reindeer frame we spotted on www.crafts4kids.com proved to be the favorite at our house.

Once again, though, we didn’t have the exact materials but we made do. This was one project where working as a parent-child team was required. My daughter colored the craft sticks with a brown marker, this proved to be easier and less messy than painting them. But when it came to the reindeer head, which we carved out of a Styrofoam ball, the markers didn’t work so we had to dig out the brown paint anyway. Beady eyes and pipe cleaner antlers were easy to attach.

Then came the nose. We were out of small red pompoms so I picked through a basket where I toss small toys and game pieces that I find lying around the house. There I spotted a red peg from the game Battleship. Everyone agreed it made a perfect Rudolph nose.

We found a picture, trimmed it to fit the frame and attached it to the backside using small triangles of self-sticking craft foam. The finishing touch was hanging a couple of mini jingle bells from a thin gold string around the reindeer’s head. This too is going to grandma for the holidays, my daughter proclaimed.

Picture frames can be made out of so many different materials. Check out the jigsaw puzzle reindeer frame at www.dltk-holidays.com. Another easy frame concept is to cut a frame out of an old cereal box, cover it with craft foam and let the kids decorate the frame with anything they see fit.

I saw another clever idea at www.crafts4kids.com that I’d like to adapt for a holiday picture or card holder. Using several reindeer clothespins (clothespins with beady eyes, pompom noses and pipe cleaner antlers) attached to a thick wire such as a hanger, it would be a nice way to display favorite photos or holiday cards.

A good friend in California shared an idea for a menorah that her son made in preschool. The kids decorated a thick piece of wood with paint or glitter then they glued large metal nuts to it to hold the candles. For the Shamash candle in the middle, they glued two nuts on top of each other to give that candle its traditional higher position.

Since I’m always looking for ways to introduce my kids to different religions and celebrations, I decided we would make one. There was only one problem: I didn’t have a thick piece of wood or enough nuts of the same size, so once again we improvised. We glued two pieces of base wood together to make a sturdy enough base.

Then we rounded up eight plastic caps from water bottles and covered them in aluminum foil. We decorated the wood with blue and silver glitter glue and glued the bottle caps on top. For the Shamash candle, we cut out a single egg slot from an egg carton, covered it with foil and turned it upside down.

This is one area where adult input definitely isn’t necessary. Cards can be made out of anything from construction paper to craft foam. Among the supplies I purchased was one foam card kit that I picked up because it was on sale and I liked the pre-cut shapes. My 4-year-old daughter dove right into making cards, first following pictures on the package and then following her heart. The self-sticking craft foam proved to be so easy for her to work with she created several cards with no frustrations. Give kids markers, crayons, scraps of foam or felt, glue, glitter and let them go wild.

All the fun of making cookies without the sugar high comes from salt dough ornaments. This concept has been around for decades. Kids can shape the salt dough into anything they want or roll it out and cut it with cookie cutters. Bake their creations in the oven until hard. When the ornaments have cooled, the kids can decorate them in any number of ways. Last year my kids used glitter glue, markers, paint and glitter to decorate their ornaments, and they proudly displayed them on the tree. Once baked, the ornaments will last forever if carefully wrapped and sealed in a plastic bag during storage, or you can spray them with lacquer.

There are other uses for salt dough. McDermott said they have taught kids in past Corbin Art classes to form salt dough around the metal lid of a jar. When it’s baked, the kids can decorate it and the jar to make a nice candy jar, for example.

Here’s a recipe:

1 cup plain or iodized salt 1 1/2 cups hot tap water

4 cups flour

Combine salt and hot water. Add flour and mix until a dough forms. Knead for several minutes until dough is smooth and pliable. You can also add tempura paint to the saltwater solution before adding the water if you want colored dough. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap to store, but plan to use it within 24 hours.

If you plan to hang the ornaments, be sure to poke a small hole in the dough before baking. A round toothpick or a skewer works well. The hole will shrink slightly during baking.

When you are done, bake the ornaments until hard, approximately two hours. I baked ours at 250 degrees, which seemed to keep the ornaments from puffing up in the middle as did other ornaments that were baked at higher temperatures. Cool and decorate.

One trick to making gifts and crafts with kids, McDermott said, is patience, and a willingness to let go.

“A lot of it is letting children run with their creativity,” she said. “It might not be what you pictured but it’s their art.”