Monday, December 19, 2011

Holiday Greeting Cards for Preschoolers




Most of the kids in US have their winter break going on now. Usually the last day at school before the winter break is the day they have a little holiday celebration. That was on Friday Dec 16 at my daughter's preschool. Thursday night she decided she wants to give handmade holiday greeting cards to all her friends. Frankly I was little tired and was kind of reluctant. It was a very busy day and I had an order to complete which I had to ship early morning. But I didn't have the heart to curb her enthusiasm.
So we decided to keep it simple and quick so that we can make 15 cards and where she has to do at least 75% of the work.

This is how we made it.

Supplies you will need:
- Red Card stock Letter size
- Paper trimmer preferable
- Score board (optional but recommended)
- Bone folder
- Ruler
- Edge punch (optional)
- Scissors
- Silver stamp Pad
- Markers : Silver or any color that is visible on Red card stock.
- Peel and stick Felt : Green and brown
- Rhinestones red or any your like

Step wise instructions
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1. Cut the card stock in desired size. We made 3 fold card so I cut the letter size paper in 3.5" width from the 8.5" side of the paper. So you will get 3 cards from one paper. Refer the picture.

2. Take one of the card piece and on scoring board score at 3.5" and 7" from the left edge of the paper.

3. Use edge punch to punch the edge of the third part of the card. Refer picture.

4. Draw a triangle on the back side of green the peel and stick felt. Draw a little rectangle on the back of brown peel and stick felt. Cut them using scissors. Kids can cut this using safety scissors or parents can help.

5. Let the kids stick the felt pieces and rhinestone as shown in pictures.
6. Ink the punched edge with silver stamp pad. Just run the stamp pad on the edge. This is an optional step.
7. Use the silver marker to write Happy Holidays inside the card.
8. Let your preschooler write their names if they have learnt it, my daughter did. If not them parents can help but let them tell the alphabets of their names. Most of the kids know them by now.

The cards are ready to be given. As they are 3 folds you don't need envelope if you want to keep them cute and casual. We just tied all of them together by a golden ribbon. Her friends loved it.


Happy Holidays!!

Tips:
1. Plan in advance, my daughter was a little tired after writing her name 10 times.
2. Handmade cards are best for preschoolers, they learn making them and have lots of fun too.
3. If you do not have scoring board simple use bone folder with metal ruler. That should do the trick.
4. If you do not have edge punch you can use decorative scissors too or just leave it as straight edge.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Christmas Decoration 3D snowflake or Star



With the holiday spirit all around us this weekend our Christmas tree is also up with some ornaments from past year.
Though it is not a festival that we celebrate religiously, we love the festivity of this festival. So every year it is becoming a tradition at our house that we put a Christmas tree and decorate it with beautiful handmade ornaments. We also love to make other beautiful Christmas decorations and put them all around the house. Now my soon to be 4 year old daughter is adding to the enthusiasm of making the ornaments. She demands we make one ornament everyday till December 24th. Let us see if we can fulfill her wish. With the holiday orders keeping us busy at our little shop Navanka Creations, will try my best to keep her spirits up. Even if I am not able to post it at the blog everyday, we will keep making it and will definitely share them with you as and when we will get chance. There are some popular Christmas decorations and crafts that are loved by all. We will share with all our readers what we love in particular. Sometimes it is not known who has made it originally but if  we find something interesting and worth learning we will share it with you with all the relevant details. You are also welcome to share any particular craft you like. You can leave the link in the comments or send us an email at craftideasforall@gmail.com

This particular project is a six point star or snowflake as some prefer to call it.
We have used dual color origami paper to get a better effect. You can also use single color or metallic origami paper for the project.



Supplies needed:
- 6 square sheets of origami paper( we used 5 inch square)
- Scissors
- Double sided tape
- Stapler
- Fish line

I found this video by kongo204 which shows how to make this star beautifully. I love the holiday music in the video too . Click here to watch the video.

Hope you have fun making this for yourself or another crafty friend.
Happy Holidays everyone.

Tip:
1. You can make it in a smaller size or bigger size depending on the size of the paper you have or your needs. Smaller stars make cute ornaments.

2. You can follow the steps with just one piece of paper and make that in a smaller size to make an ornament. They look cute too.

3. Make it all white or silver for it to be a Snowflake.