Cake decorating

Here is the Chocolate Cake I made for our family Christmas party we hosted. Gumdrops, sprinkles and silver dragees are just like edible glitter for me. The cake was three layers and quite yummy. I was just really pleased that it was so much fun to look at!

Poinsettia decor

Also, did some poinsettia decorations. I cut out the leaves in red and green and put down the glue. Then the kids put the leaves where they wanted. Then added the yellow circles in the middle and ... you guessed it, glitter glue. I think Henry's looks especially wonderful!

Wrapping paper snowflakes

I know I am not inventing these crafts but hopefully documenting them so others can say - hey - I can do that at home too - or - I forgot about that idea, thanks for the reminder. I LOVE doing the crafts and almost every morning - let's say at 6:30 am - I hear my daughter say - I want to do an art project (I am NOT kidding), so I think the kids are having fun too!
We do so many crafts that keeping them cheap is also important.
You can just use small scraps of wrapping paper that you have lying around or if you think of it use the bits of wrapping from opening Christmas gifts. I do love the white tissue paper ones too, but this is a bit of a change.
I showed the children what I was doing by folding the paper and then cutting it and they opened them up and taped them to the window. Once they are older I will of course let them cut the snowflakes themselves, but honestly bloody snowflakes would not be so festive! ;-)

The singular tree diorama

These are some of my favorite things we have done this year. I bought three craft paper ornaments from paper-source.com thinking I would do a nature scene like they do at Easter inside the Panoramic sugar eggs. I had the kids paint the outside of the ornament using three shades of blue however they mixed them together and the inside a silver paint - though my daughter used some blue inside too which made it even prettier than my original idea. After the first coat dried the kids put on a layer of silver and blue glitter paint. We put down some glue and some actual fine silver glitter - let it dry then the final step was putting the sweet Christmas/evergreen tree in the ornament with a dollop of craft glue - I actually had trouble finding these but did after Christmas in the sale stuff - I guess people use these tiny things for Christmas villages - the dollhouse ones at the craft store were way too big.
Love these - plan on doing them next year as gifts!

Christmas is a time for glitter

Anytime is a great time for glitter as far as I am concerned, but at Christmas other people join in the fun as well. We made lots of construction paper ornaments this year and they turned out great.
I just used the mouth of a glass to trace my first guide leaving a little topper on the paper too. I cut in triplicate to cut down on the work. I also grabbed a felt bird ornament from the tree and traced it out as well. My daughter calls everything you do with hand prints or tracing around your hands "turkey hands", so we also have a Christmas "turkey hand" ornament for her. The kids each got to decorate many different color ornaments with different colored glitter. They made lots of polka dot type glue drips as well as using part of a pipe cleaner for more "intricate" designs. After the glue dries just punch a whole and use some curling ribbon for the hanger and voila - glittery homemade ornaments.
You can save left over curling ribbon and reuse it - saving the new stuff for wrapping!

First Glittery Post

I have just recently re-become a stay at home mom/homemaker. I was an art major and want to keep myself busy with creative work to supplement the exciting work of laundry and dish washing. ;-) Since the holidays were just here the kids and worked on lots of projects. Some of our favorites were an ornament diorama, a poinsettia picture and lots and lots of glue covered in GLITTER! YAY!