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Christmas Card Crafts for Kids…Before there was Pinterest.

Once upon a time in a land far, far away that I like to call the internet, there were these unknown creatures called blogs. They existed before the launch of the dark rabbit hole, that we now know as Pinterest. You’re probably asking yourself, what do Christmas card crafts for kids have to do with Pinterest? What’s the difference between now and then? Allow me to explain how we got to this point in time.

Remember blogs?

Blogs, pre-Pinterest era, were some of the best places to go to find inspiring projects and ideas. But if you wanted to find these projects and ideas, you usually had to type in some words in a search engine.

The horror.

Then you had to go through lots of them individually, and lots of images in various search engines to look for an inspiring idea.

There were no “Round Up” posts or “Top 10 DIY Crafts for Christmas” collages that you could feast your eyes on in that Red and White logo laden page.

Or even worse, you had to use your imagination. As if.

The inspiration for this post

So this post is inspired by my life back in the day, when I really started to rekindle my love of making stuff. That part of my life got put on the back burner for a huge portion of my adult life due to things like University, exams, work, paying off student loans, rent, getting married, stress at work, and then newborn babies who left me with about as much time to craft as the possibility of sleeping.

Seriously all you bloggers with newborns and four other kids doing Christmas house tours, what are you taking and where can I get some? I’ll give you my email address. Actually I’ll give you my number, call me.

Enter Pinterest – the creative world of endless ideas

My love of card making really came back around after my first child was born because I began to see how inclined she was to arts and crafts. I started to do a lot with her to encourage her passion. This was right around the time that Pinterest became came to light.

Suddenly your old school crafts, were taken to the next level of crafting.

But these cards? These are pre-Pinterest Christmas cards.

ALL of these photos I am about to show you I took solely for my own records.

There is no fancy lighting and staged beautiful photos of card stock.

There is awful and bright flash photography.

There are visible shots of garbage bags, my ugly kitchen counter top and a mess of a fridge.

But the projects are great for kids, and last year I swore I would share them to help out some parents. Then Christmas came and went I didn’t have time to get them up here. And now Christmas is almost here, and I almost missed it the second time around.

So it’s late at night, my kids are asleep, and I’ve just ransacked 2 portable hard drives with over 10,000 photos each to try and find these photos.

Enjoy. Please. I beg you.

Christmas Card Craft for Kids # 1

The handprint Christmas tree card. Pretty self explanatory.

This we did when my older daughter was 2, which I am pretty sure is all over Pinterest at this point in the foot version. I did the Christmas tree hand print. Back then we lived in a 700 sq foot condo, we did all this with her in her teensy bedroom with giant garbage bags laid out all over the floor.

Hands are easier to control in that environment then feet covered in paint. As in they can’t run off all over your floors with green acrylic smeared on their soles.

If you don’t think that can happen, you should have met her when she was 2. There’s a reason her nickname is Trouble.

Christmas Card Craft for Kids # 2

I had been seeing all these aluminum foil sensory project collages being done, and came across a site that did them as ornaments.

I am one of those bloggers that really believes in giving credit where credit is du,e and for the life of me I cannot remember where I found the photo of those ornaments. So it pains to me to not be able to link back to the person who inspired these.

We did them 3 and a half years ago, pre-blog, pre keeping track of anything. To whomever the mystery person is, I thank you! They were a huge hit for my daughter to do.

Who for the record looks so young in this picture that I can’t even believe it’s her. Yes that is a bowl of Kraft Dinner next to her. We had just moved into our home, and did not even have a kitchen table so that is our kitchen floor as well. Mother of the Year.

Basically all you do, is get some aluminum foil and cover it with white school/craft glue.

Then get your kids to cover it all up with bits of tissue paper, glitter, sparkles, etc. Let the collages dry, cut out the shape of your choice and glue it onto card stock.

CRAFTING TIP: If you use ANY hard sequins on them, add the sequins AFTER you cut the shapes. I

I still remember how bruised my thumb was from cutting over the sequins because I didn’t anticipate that oh they may be difficult to cut. I mean really now…

Christmas Card Craft for Kids # 3

This was the year my younger daughter was born, and she wasn’t even 2 months old when Christmas craft season started.

This was also the time period where I had left my car door wide open in the Home Depot parking lot, because I was so exhausted from lack of sleep that I forgot to close it when we left to walk into the store.

Of course I didn’t notice until we came back out, and wondered who would want to break into a 10 year old Ford Focus.

That year, I let my then 4 year old make all the Christmas cards by herself. Which if you read my blog and know how obsessed I am with the yearly Christmas card craft, was a huge moment for our relationship.

This is what we came up with.

I bought the pre-made foam Christmas tree shapes at Dollarama. Then she took her craft glue and smeared it all over the trees like pouring mustard on a hot dog.

And then basically dropped the sequins that nearly killed my thumb the previous year, all over the trees randomly.

Added a mirror snowflake for the “star”. No cutting. No paint anywhere.

Easiest Christmas kid craft ever. Just glue and happy kids. Ok that doesn’t sound right at all.

The next year, I started my blog and made these and then my older daughter made her own versions which we gave away to her teachers like we do every year.  My younger daughter however is showing about as much inclination to doing crafts as I do towards baking and cooking.

It’s a good thing her Pandora’s Box is baking and cooking. I open the fridge to start making dinner and she pulls up a chair to the counter and starts asking a million questions, wanting to mix ingredients, taste textures and become the next Julia Child.

I guess I better start practicing my culinary skills for future FoodGawker entries and learning to photograph ice cubes without them melting.

Help me…

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9 Comments

  • Reply
    Tara @ Suburble
    December 17, 2013 at 2:01 am

    Love these, Alex! They’re all so awesome (and the foil one might just be my favourite)!

    And if you find out what sort of uppers are being passed around in blog world, give me a call, lady! 😉

  • Reply
    Natalie
    December 17, 2013 at 9:43 am

    Fantastic ideas Alex. Love it! Like Tara, I love the foil ones particularly… Now to find the time to get these supplies together… 🙂

  • Reply
    Amy D (LoveOnSunday)
    December 17, 2013 at 11:50 am

    Love them. They are all so beautiful!

    I don’t even have kids and I barely have enough time for anything. Kudos to you and the rest of the moms out there. You ladies continue to amaze me.

  • Reply
    Lauren @ The Thinking Closet
    December 17, 2013 at 11:58 am

    Thanks for scouring your hard drives for these gems! I might not even wait until little humans show up around here to try them…especially numero dos. I find that one extremely beautiful! (Though I’ll heed your warning about the thumbs.)

  • Reply
    Inspire Me Heather
    December 18, 2013 at 5:59 am

    Oh, the trees in #2 are so beautiful – thanks for the great ideas!

  • Reply
    Victoria • Restoring our Victorian
    December 18, 2013 at 11:02 am

    Sequins! Dammit, I KNEW I was missing something!!
    love the handprints!!

  • Reply
    Tonya m
    December 22, 2013 at 5:27 am

    I don’t have kids, but I loved these all the same. I can’t wait to do the foil one. Thank you so much for sharing! I’m bookmarking you!

  • Reply
    .
    January 1, 2014 at 3:27 pm

    The foil one is gorgeous

  • Reply
    Heather @ Interiorgroupie
    January 2, 2014 at 9:26 pm

    Very funny and great ideas!! Pinning… 😉

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