Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - B.C. and Calgary edition

What's the vibe today . . .

Crafty Christmas fun

by Keri Zingle

Kids love decorating the Christmas tree, so why stop at just one? Channel their enthusiasm for the season into some great hands-on activities! Try these craft ideas that will give you a tree for every room of the house while lightening your recycling load.

Toilet roll curly tree

You will need about five rolls for this project. For each roll – cut length-wise strips around the roll, leaving approximately 2.5 cm collar at the top. Curl strips up, by winding each around a pencil. Assemble your tree: stack one toilet roll inside the next one. Make a cone-shaped tree-top out of green construction paper, and place on top of stack. Paint your tree green, and sprinkle with glitter and other small decorations while paint is still wet.

Newsprint clippings tree

Choose your tree stem; use either a toothpick or a straw from a reusable juice box. Mount tree stem in putty or a marshmallow. Cut newspaper, flyers, or magazines into small triangles – the largest ones can be about 4 cm (longest edge). Cutting can be imperfect; the triangles don’t have to be exactly the same as one another. If using juice box straw for the stem, make a hole in the centre of each triangle with a hole punch. Assemble your tree: push triangles onto toothpick or straw, stacking them in a random pattern around the stem. Try to use largest triangles at bottom, and work up to smallest triangles. Leave tree as is, or paint tips green.

Skinny egg carton tree

To make a tall skinny Christmas tree, stack egg carton cups on a wooden dowel or skewer, or chenille stem (pipe cleaner). Separate the egg carton cups so that they’re not inside of each other, but just resting slightly on the cup below. Make several trees of varying heights, to create a ‘spruce grove’. Poke the ends of each tree into floral foam to stand. Paint trees green and decorate with sparkles and other small decorations.

Handprint tree picture

Trace and cut 10 handprints from green construction paper. Choose another piece of paper as your background. Assemble the tree: place handprints (fingers down) in overlapping rows, starting with four hands at the bottom, then three, two, and finally one at the top. Add a brown stem at bottom and a yellow star at top, and decorate with ribbons, pompoms, sequins, and other supplies.

Keri Zingle is a mother of two and the owner of Craft Caravan, a business that surprises kids with fun, educational crafts in the mail. Join the Kids Craft Club to receive a shiny green envelope of crafts every month – the Christmas gift that keeps on giving!

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