super simple tree ornaments
“Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.”
– Unknown
Its been a busy week or two here in Puffville. All 3 of the toddlers, along with myself, have been fighting off a miserable batch of colds. We’re drowning in snot and the sound of coughing fills the air – how festive! I think we’ve killed several trees worth of tissues alone! And as anyone who has ever owned a toddler knows, a mere cold isn’t enough to sap even the slightest bit of their energy. *sigh* Moms, on the other hand are a different story entirely. ‘Specially us pregnant ones! We get tired, soooooo tired. . .
But the show must go on, in sickness and in health!
Here are a some super simple tree ornaments T has made over the last couple of weeks. Nothing exciting or difficult at all, which is great because it means that she was able to do these nearly 100% all by herself! She’s already excited about Christmas, but actually creating her own decorations for the holiday has really made it more personal and fun for her. She loves all of the beautiful decorations, and enjoyed ‘helping’ me to decorate the tree with our ‘real’ ornaments, but nothing beats the sparkle she gets in her eyes when she gets to hang the ones that she made by herself. She keeps a close eye on those – T is very proud of her work, and she likes to point out those which she designed – constantly!
These were made from styrofoam balls finger-painted and covered with glittery glue when the paint dried. They came out super pretty and sparkly! And, of course, I reserve the right to insist on the use of colors that match my pretty blue and silver tree! No worries – Puff didn’t mind one bit.
My theory, and T seems to agree, is that adding a bit of glitter makes anything festive and pretty! Don’t ask her father what he thinks about that. He’s quite a Grinch when it comes to the good ol’ sparkly stuff. . .We made a bunch of glittery pine-cones – glue + glitter = gorgeous! Some we did with white glitter, some with silver. I hot-glued a bit of ribbon on each when the glue dried. I suppose the idea is that they’re supposed to look as if they’ve been covered in snow? I dunno, but I DO know that they look super-cute on our tree! The picture below doesn’t really do justice. . .
This one was the easiest of them all! All the craft stores are selling plain wooden ornaments in a variety of Christmassy shapes right now, and you know I couldn’t resist an easy toddler craft like that! We picked out three big snowflake ones, painted them in various shades of blue and white, and sprinkled liberally with – you got it! GLITTER! Too bad sparkles don’t really show very well on ‘film!’
Last, but not least – our beaded candy-cane ornaments! I’ve been working with T on pattern recognition, and this was a GREAT craft to help with that subject! She did perfectly with the red-and-white, but when we added green to the mix, it became a bit more of a challenge for her, needless to say – we’re still working on that aspect of it! After making several candy-canes, Puff decided that a Christmas heart would make a pretty ornament, so we made some of them, too! Of course, I did the actual shaping, but it was her idea, which was cool.
THESE ornaments don’t seem to stick to the tree as well as the others. . .meaning that Teaball is especially fond of them, and pulls them down to play with several times a day. I don’t mind, she usually puts them back when she’s done, and this keeps her away from the temptation to touch my more fragile and irreplaceable decorations! I’m thrilled to see that she is so fond of her creations!
Huginn, Muninn, and me 
Ki said,
December 11, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Super cOOl. T crafted almost all of the classics! My favorite picture is the one where T is twirling her hair while working on a snowflake, like it ain’t no thang. She makes it look like arts&crafts are so easy… :[ They never have been for me! That girl’s got skillz . . .
Kendall said,
December 11, 2009 at 11:39 pm
So freakin’ adorable!!! My kids are cute, but you’ve got some pictures there mama that are just priceless!! She did an awesome job with all of her stuff!! I totally think I’m gonna break out our styrofoam balls for my girls pretty soon.
In fact, Kayda saw some in the store today and said, “LOOK! Snowballs!” hehe
Gabe said,
December 12, 2009 at 10:26 am
my little monkey is SO GOOD at arts and crafts!!!!!!!
julie said,
December 12, 2009 at 11:48 am
fun! she did a wonderful job! great ideas for my girl! we will be making some of these!
Kelli said,
December 12, 2009 at 11:09 pm
They ALL turned out to be GORGEOUS!! Hope you both feel better soon!
wecki77 said,
December 13, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Those are beautiful. I have to say I’m shocked a that you have a tree with specific colors. I would have thought that would be me, and you’d have the hodge podge of ornaments.
ChristinesLilSprouts said,
December 14, 2009 at 4:31 pm
They all turned out great….I especially love the styrofoam balls…I never would have though of that one. I love the pigtails by the way!
Tori said,
December 14, 2009 at 9:51 pm
How great! T’s so good at arts and crafts. Brooke still isn’t interested in that stuff. I mean scribbleing all over everything is different but yeah thats about all the art she does! How great working on patterns and shes so young! I wonder if thats Montessori? Lol haha
Jenn said,
December 19, 2009 at 1:08 pm
what pretty, pretty ornaments! You are sooo good! Always doing what I wish we were doing–at least you motivate my mind–now if I could get the rest of me in action!
Ma said,
January 5, 2010 at 8:59 am
you are an awesome mom!!!!!! T and T’s dad are really lucky to have you in their lives!
Weeks in a nutshell. . .part 2 « Huginn, Muninn, and me said,
January 14, 2010 at 12:06 am
[…] plus the whole exhausted/pregnant thing. . . Still we managed to pull off a few, aside from all the ornaments I posted about […]
we*heart*hearts « Huginn, Muninn, and me said,
February 12, 2010 at 11:58 pm
[…] when we made Christmas ornaments, and T wanted to make a heart instead of a candy-cane? Well, she still thinks it’s a […]
salty dough « Huginn, Muninn, and me said,
January 10, 2011 at 6:58 am
[…] girls gravitated to the styrofoam balls (Two of T’s ornaments from that day can be seen in this post). They had SUCH a fabulous time that it was decided then and there that we would do it again the […]