Christmas DIY Roundup

Leading up to the holidays, I love to spend any extra time crafting. Making ornaments is generally pretty easy and quick and there is so much inspiration out there. I've shared a bunch of Christmas DIY's in the past and wanted to do a quick round up of them in one space.

PAINTED ORNAMENTS - I shared these last week and it was the easiest DIY for all ages. They look so perfect on the tree and I can't wait to make more in the next couple weeks leading up to Christmas.

HANDPRINT SANTA - I kind of forgot about this one until we pulled out the ornaments, but it is definitely my favorite. We're going to try to make some more this year and we're excited about the endless possibilities of hat and skin colors that we can pick.

DIY GIFT WRAPPING - This is super easy and saves money! Last year, we used leftover paint from our Handprint Santas and Cora helped paint lines all over the paper. I have also used crayons/markers in different lines, triangles, diamonds, and plus signs. It is fun to make and I love adding a little DIY touch to presents.

PAINTED PICTURE MAT - This is an easy and fun DIY for younger kids and is a great gift idea for any holiday. Pro tip: dots all over the mat helps the kids cover the entire thing and keeps it from paint from getting too muddy.

YARN WRAPPED MONOGRAM - I get a lot of inspiration from Target's holiday section and this is one that I finally got around to making. I plan on making more of these this year so Ida and I can have our initials on the tree too.

PAINTED NUTCRACKER - This is by far my FAVORITE Christmas DIY! My dad collects nutcrackers and this was the perfect present for him... I'm basically always going to feel like I can never top this gift. It was fun to make and we love seeing it displayed every December.

DIY ULTRASOUND ORNAMENT - This one is pretty popular on my Pinterest. Five years ago, it was the only DIY Ultrasound Ornament pins and now they are a bajillion... so I'm basically an ornament trendsetter. This is still a favorite DIY and the only thing I would change is I would make more so that we could have one at our own house.

Creating With Kids : Painting Ornaments

During Thanksgiving break, Cora requested that we finally paint our christmas ornaments. I bought a bunch of plastic ornaments from Michaels right after Halloween and she has been asking to paint them every single day for the last couple of weeks. We laid out some cardboard, turned on the Christmas music and got to work.

For a while, Cora was trying to be pretty neat and use a paint brush... then she started finger painting. It was interesting to watch her process. Some times she would paint her hand then put them on the ornaments and other times she would put little dots all over the ornament before mixing it all up.

While Cora was painting a million ornaments, I had Ida paint these wooden IDA letters that I purchased before she was even born. I also have ones for Cora that she painted when she was around 2.5 years old and I can't wait to get these both hung up. Ida is always pretty timid at first before she goes wild with the paint.

Once Ida was finished painting her letters, she took a page from Cora's book and tried a little bit of ornament finger painting herself. She only wanted to paint for a couple minutes before she was over it.

Once the ornaments dried, we drew some designs on top of the paint with paint pen. Cora's designs were really versatile with faces, cats, and even an ornament full of letters/numbers she knows. She was really cute drawing and saying things like "so-and-so will really like this one" and "I can't wait to give this to so-and-so"etc. Once the drawing was done, I did a light clear coat and hung them up to dry.

Since most of these are for Christmas gifts, I'm not going to share a complete after yet (all the drawings are facing the other way), but I definitely call this a successful DIY. It was easy for both girlies and was perfect to split up into more than one DIY session. 

Check out my Tips for Creating with Kids.

Tips For Creating With Kids

Because I love to create, I'm intentional about making time for my kids to create. Spending time DIYing is one of our favorite things to do together. I always receive compliments about how much people love how I create with my kids, so I threw together some of my tips for a successful creating session with my girls.

PREP - Prep is key to enjoying time creating with kids. Lay out a drop cloth, have paper towels and wipes handy, strap younger kids in high chairs (if using tray, cover with garbage bag), and messy clothes (or no clothes) for everyone. Snacks and music are always a good idea to prolong the DIYing.

CHECK YOUR EXPECTATIONS - be okay with a mess, focus on enjoying the process, and don't expect a masterpiece from every creating session. Many times I have to remind myself that our materials aren't precious... It's okay to use up a lot of paint or go through a million sheets of paper. Expect some projects to take multiple sessions. Our DIY christmas ornaments took a couple days to make (clay one day, paint another) so starting early and planning for multiple sessions made the project more enjoyable.

LIMIT COLOR PALETTE - Choosing an analogous color scheme (colors next to each other on the color wheel) keeps your child's art from becoming muddy. I generally like to choose a couple different blues and greens so they have a lot of shades to pick from. As my kids get older, they get to pick more colors.

CONSIDER COLLABORATING - Some of my favorite creating sessions were when we work on something together. These usually result in a fun piece of art to enjoy and a longer creating session than when we're working on our own solo projects. When working on a piece with your kid, follow their lead so they can stretch their creativity, mirror their strokes, and keep up the encouragement.

MIX IT UP - Work with a variety of medium. Sometimes we'll start out working in watercolor and end up drawing with markers. I introduce different medium as they start to get tired with something (usually when they get super messy) and they will continue on creating. Introduce them to different things like clay, water color, acrylic paint, pastels, etc. They may really love something random and we'd never know if we didn't try out a bunch of different things. I also love to let the girls work on larger projects like furniture painting or our cottage makeover.

DOCUMENT - Snap a couple of photos at the beginning when they start... or throughout the process. I love cutesy end of DIY pictures, but generally when we're finished, the girls are finished and won't even stop for a quick pic. The in process pictures are some of my favorite pictures and sometimes an in process art piece ends up so completely different than the finished piece.

CELEBRATE THEIR WORK - Compliment their technique and imagination, discuss what they like about it, and display their work! Building confidence in their artistic ability is a huge boost for the enjoyment of future creating sessions. I love hanging the girls stuff around the house in frames, on our fridge, on our calendar wall, or gifting it to family members.

ENJOY THE PROCESS! - I know I already mentioned this, but it is the most important tip so I'll say it again. Enjoy the process!!! If you want to instill the love of art and creativity into your kids, you want this process to be enjoyable. A lot of our artwork gets scrapped, but we enjoyed our time creating so we call it a success. 

DIY Painted Backpack

Cora goes back to school this week and I wanted to kick off the week sharing this easy and inexpensive school-related DIY. Two years ago, we painted Cora's lunchbox, so we thought we'd give her backpack a little makeover before she starts Kindergarten. This only takes about 30 minutes and she'll be reminded of the fun we had when she sees her backpack every day.

1 - Tape off the edges, zipper, piping, and any details that you want to keep.

2 - Pick a limited color palette that will not turn muddy (we usually like to stay in the cool colors). We use inexpensive acrylic paints found at any craft store.

3 - Go to town with the paint! My goal is usually to make sure everything is covered with paint while Cora focuses on adding her touch to a couple of areas. Try to keep the layers of paint thin, so it doesn't get crackly over time.

4 - Take off the tape and let dry. We usually have leftover paint for projects like this, so Cora will paint on some scrap papers or add a little bit to some extra canvases if she still feels like painting. 

5 - (Optional) add some finishing touches with paint pen. I showed Cora a couple design ideas and she picked what she liked.  

Creating with Cora

One day last weekend, Cora was the first one to join me in the morning (normally she sleeps in) and she requested that we paint. We laid out all our stuff and settled on a palette of cool colors plus yellow. Tip for creating with kids: choose a limited palette to keep things from getting muddy.

I started by putting some dots all over the canvas and we painted and chatted... and by 'we chatted', I mean Cora nonstop talked the whole time. We each did our own thing and we layered and layered more paint as the morning went on.

Last week, I was watching Alisa Burke's instastory where she discussed enjoying the process instead of worrying about the final product... and that is exactly what we did. We spent that morning enjoying the process of painting and spending time together and it was perfect.

I don't know if we're finished with this yet, but it's currently hanging in our living room. It reminds me of that quiet morning with my girl Cora as we enjoy the process of painting and reminds me when we used to spend our weekend days crafting just the two of us.