Adeola and boys Day 11

Really wanted to ‘festivise’ some of the boys’ Halloween and Star Wars masks. We chose Darth Maul because we have a lot of his ‘sayings’ to manipulate. Hard work trying to make Darth Maul’s sayings 'Christmassy', everything sounded dark and disturbing or just didn’t make any sense! Good fun though. “At last I shall reveal myself to the Jedi, at last I will have revenge.” Lo wanted to add “Jedi scum” but I decided to leave that bit out. Think we were influenced by the baddies: Drill X, Noodles, Chaos and Chompy Mage in the Skylanders’ Christmas song. (I’m sure I didn’t spell their names right!)

Cat and Eilir Day 11

Pomanders

This was a long-term project started at the end of November/beginning December when we were away in Ironbridge. We took away with us oranges and cloves to start these smelly festive decorations off. It was one of the first things Eilir had said he wanted to do for the twelve days challenge (remembering them from two years ago). This time I did a bit of research on the 'proper' way to do them, i.e. rolling them in a fixative spice mix etc and leaving them to dry for a couple of weeks.

Initially I did two and Eilir one - he again modelled his one on one of his 'happy face' characters. When we got home Eilir loved mixing up the pungent spices (ground cloves, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and orris root powder) and rolling them around in the concoction.

We then left them to 'fix', getting a lively waft of Christmas spices every time we  passed.  Unfortunately two of them developed some neon green mold after a fortnight and had to go in the compost - so much for preserving them properly!

The last one is still going strong, so today we decided to make a couple of fresh ones to add to it to make a table decoration for a festive get together tomorrow. Team work was employed here with Eilir making the holes with a toothpick and me filling them with cloves. He broke up the toothpick to make eyes to finish. The little one is supposed to be a hedgehog.

Silver and girls Day 12

Snowflakes

So simple and yet very effective.  I made up some different sized pieces of square and circular paper and Nim randomly cut pieces out.  She had a lot of fun exploring the way a lot of the shapes were made, using different shaped paper and using different ways of folding it too!

For a finishing touch, you guessed it!  More glitter glue!!

Silver and girls Day 11

Handprint Wreath

We started by pouring out some bright neon green paint into a small bowl, we then took a large piece of paper and started splatting!  Nim had so much fun making one of these at school, that she wanted to make another at home!

After the splatty handprints had dried, she very carefully cut around the shapes.  I took a spare paper plate and cut the middle out of it, which left an outer ring which Nim then painted green too!  She then glued the hand prints onto the card ring, added a hanging ribbon and once again used glitter glue, this time to make the red berries.

Silver and girls Day 10

After being inspired by how easy the kits were to make, Nim decided she would like a stocking.  I got her some felt pieces, drew a basic shape & cut it out of the red felt and punched along the edges to make holes for her.  Nim then chose some green wool and did a basic over stitch all of the way around the sides, leaving the top open.

Next I cut out the letters of her name and she decorated them with glitter glue, which we glued onto the main body of the stocking.  She then glued on some felt "fur" and finished the stocking off with a little holly decoration.

She is already looking forward to using it again next year, hehe