Toddler Wonderland Tutorial ~ Schnitzel and Boo

Toddler Wonderland: Crafting a Christmas Ornament-and-Card Combo

By: Schnitzel & Boo

www.schnitzelandboo.etsy.com

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I have an almost-two-year-old daughter named Remy who loves to do anything creative: dance, scribble, hop, sing, wiggle, twirl etc. I was excited to try this project with her because this was the very first time that she had ever done anything like it. This was basically her very first art project. My mom did something similar with me and my sister when we were close to Remy’s age. Because this was our first time getting artsy-craftsy together, I enlisted my mom’s expertise. It was a lot of fun for all of us to recreate something that I did as a child.

For this project, we chose toddler-friendly crafting materials to help ease any frustrations that may arise. We wanted to keep the ornaments simple, yet engaging for the child-something to help encourage that proud feeling of accomplishment. We decided on chenille sticks, round rhinestones, multi-colored mini puff balls, snowflakes and sequins. You could also use buttons, scraps of felt or fabric, confetti, pieces of ribbon, beads etc., anything that you have in your craft supplies.

Gather your supplies, you will need:

-Pen

-Craft Foam or Felt

-Tablecloth, newspaper or a work mat to cover your crafting surface

-scissors

-glue

-blank folded cards

-tree template

-snowman template

-hole punch or Crop-O-Dile and eyelets

-double sided tape

-sequins, rhinestones, chenille sticks, buttons, puff balls etc for decorations

(OPTIONAL SUPPLIES)

-ruler

-magnets

-ribbon

-clear vinyl

-popsicle sticks

-felt scraps

Set up your supplies while your toddler is occupied with someone else or having a nap. This will help make sure that you have everything that you need and you won’t be running off in the middle of the project to grab the glue.

Trace your templates onto the back side of the craft foam and cut out before introducing your toddler to all the shiny, pretty things on the table. They’re like magpies and you’ll end up doing what I did: performing fancy save-the-flying-rhinestone maneuvers with a pair of sharp scissors and a half cut foam tree in your hands. Not exactly a smooth move on my part! (Cut the circle out of the tree to turn your ornament into a picture frame. Just glue a piece of clear vinyl to the back of the tree, add a picture and then attach a second tree to it.)

Punch a hole in the top of the tree and, if you’re using a Crop-O-Dile tool, set an eyelet in the hole for reinforcement. Hopefully, the grandparents will go bonkers over this super cute little work-of-art that your toddler is about to create and the tree (or snowman!) will hang proudly on the Christmas tree for years to come! Tie a ribbon through the eyelet and you’re ready to start!

Have your child decorate her tree or snowman with the decorations you have set out. I put a variety of decorations in my hand and let Remy choose which ones she wanted to use. It was easier for her to pick them up from my hand than it was to try and pick them up from the table.

Allow your child to put her decorations wherever she wants them on her tree. It is so much fun for them and for you to see their creations come to life. They don’t care if the sequins are all on top of each other, or if a rhinestone is upside down! They are using their imagination and creating an endearing keepsake.

Have your toddler decorate as many trees and snowmen as they’d like!

When you’re all done, glue all of the pieces down and admire your Toddler Picasso’s work!

Attach the ornament to the front of a blank card for a card-and-gift in one! Her grandparents, aunts and uncles, family friends and neighbors are going to love it!

Thank you to much to Kristi for this wonderful and creative guest post!

Make sure you check out her sites for more goodies! If you leave her a kind comment - come back to this post and let me know you did. You can then have 4 extra entries into the giveaway of your choice!!