Well, as "polished" as a tree can look with silver ornaments uncomfortably grouped in small clusters, many hanging on the bottom branches so that our cat Sasha might rub against them and ring the bells, much to the girls' delight...that is.
The girls brought home their first handmade ornament from preschool last week to kick things off.
And I decided our Advent activity on Wednesday would be "Make a Christmas Ornament".
I bought a couple of bags of jingle bells, a mix of small and medium, in silver and gold. I gave the girls each a pipe cleaner, and let them maneuver the bells onto it.
I'll pause here and say this process wasn't without its challenges. I had no trouble pulling the bells on the pipe cleaner, but the girls tended to pull too hard, bending the pipe cleaner, so that they couldn't pull the bells on straight (if that makes sense).
Ultimately I'd say the girls did about 75% of the work, but I had to stay very hands-on with them, mostly straightening the pipe cleaners every bell or two.
[For future reference, might this have been easier with thinner wire? Or maybe some kind or cord?]
I don't know how many bells we used in total, but it was quite a few. When we had enough bells to make a decent loop, I twisted the pipe cleaner ends together, trimmed the ends, and tied a ribbon on.
The girls were so proud of their creation! And I think it looks great on the tree!
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| Here's a different view to show scale. |
We still have 10 days or so to add a few more hand-made touches. Stay tuned!
Hope you and yours are enjoying the holiday season as much as we are. My almost-four-year olds are so much fun!!!
I'm linking up with Charlene at Adventures-in-Mommy-Land for "Hey, Mom! Look What I Did!" There are so many great craft ideas on her blog!
6 comments:
Super-cute ornament, Mandy! I'm pinning all your great ideas, so that we can do all this next year :)
FUN! I'm pinning this!
We made some ornaments the other day & we love them. They are so much fun!
Sounds like your tree is decorated just like ours with the ornaments mostly clustered near the bottom! Love the girls' little bell-wreath ornaments! I actually made the same exact thing (using elastic string, instead of pipe cleaner) in college for Christmas gifts - festive napkin rings!
Mandy, usually when people say "easy" anything, it's normally not easy at all for me but I'm 100% sure I could do it.
I may go look and see if I can find bells because I actually have an unopened bag of pipecleaners and the kids would love it...plus good for fine motor skills, right? :)
PS about to send you my weekend list :)
thanks for sharing this...I was thinking about doing the same thing, bought the bells and the pipe cleaners last week and haven't touched them since. Guess I better get busy.
I love that!! We have the tradition of creating a new ornament every Christmas. I am pining this one!
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