Today we experimented with the idea of fruit and cheese kebabs (which I really, really want to spell as “kabob,” despite Spell Check’s insistence that I shouldn’t).  We made a trip to the produce section of the grocery store and walked out with strawberries, grapes, and apples.  Then to the dairy case for a couple of kinds of cheese.  We went with cheddar and mozzarella because I have some other recipes in mind that use those two types.

What you need to make fruit and cheese kebabs:

• One or two cheeses
• Different types of fruit
• Skewers
• Small cookie cutters

A little fruit, a little cheese, and a couple of skewers!

We used small cookie cutters to make our cheese and apples into fun star shapes.

Cut your fruit and cheese into bite-sized pieces that kids can help put on the kebabs.

Alternate fruit and cheese on your skewer for healthy fruit kebabs that kids love to eat.

What I Learned the Hard Way:  Your kid may be way more interested in just eating the fruit and cheese as you’re busy trying to make it look pretty.  This is a good thing, though.  It means she was actually enjoying a healthy snack!

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Be sure to check out our awesome Valentine crafts, too!

I didn’t even know that some people called these candies peanut butter balls until recently.  My whole life, I’ve known them as Buckeyes.  I guess that’s not too surprising since they were my grandma’s specialty, and she was born in Ohio!  Grandma’s Buckeyes were delicious, but they were a little intimidating.  For one thing, you actually melted paraffin wax into the chocolate.  What?  I guess it made them shinier.

Luckily, I came upon this really simple recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  They were so easy (and delicious) that my preschooler and I ended up making a couple of batches during the holiday season last year.

Related Pages: No Bake Cookies, Anise Cookie Recipes

What you need to make buckeyes:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 3 Tbs. butter (softened)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 bag chocolate chips

Buckeyes (peanut butter balls) really only take four ingredients.

Mix the butter and peanut butter, then sift in the powdered sugar while continuing to mix.

Roll the mixture with your hands into 1" balls.

I started letting the peanut butter balls chill for about 20 minutes in the fridge to make the next part easier.

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 20-second increments, pulling them out and stirring them before continuing to heat.

We used a whole bag of chocolate chips, and there was so much left over that we made a batch of chocolate spoons as gifts.

Insert a toothpick into each peanut butter ball and swirl it around in the chocolate until all but the center is covered. Gently shake of excess chocolate and place on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper to dry.

Printable Dragon Paper Craft

How to Make this Paper Dragon

This craft is so easy that a toddler can do it – they aren’t going to color with fancy-schmancy colored pencils or stay within the lines of course… But they can certainly handle it.

Chinese Dragon Paper Puppet

You will need an additional piece of construction paper to create the accordion dragon body, plus wooden kebab skewers to make it into a ‘puppet’, like this.

Printable Dragon Paper Craft

Then simply click the above image to print out the dragon, color, and fold and glue as shown!

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For more Christmas crafts, check out this penguin keepsake plate, Christmas handprint crafts, and our snowflake crafts!

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Check out all of our Christmas crafts, coloring pages and activities for kids from Woo! Jr. Network sites!

You can change this craft up for just about any holiday or occasion by altering the sprinkles and candy colors.

Credit for this chocolate spoon craft goes to Mr. P. at DelicousDeliciousDelicous.  His are absolutely beautiful, so I recommend you take a look over there, too.

Related Pages: No Bake Cookies Recipe, Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipes, Christmas Treats Coloring Pages

My three-year-old and I made these as party favors when it was my turn to host Bunco night at the house, but we also packed some up and took them to her teachers at preschool.  The idea was to use them to stir into your coffee, but I found that many of the ladies were perfectly content to just eat the goodies right off the spoon!

What you need to make this chocolate spoon craft:

• Plastic spoons
• Chocolate chips
• Sprinkles and/or small candies
• A book
• A bowl

My daughter is convinced that everything is better with sprinkles!

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave. We did a few rounds at 30 seconds and a couple of follow-up rounds at 15 seconds.

Prop the spoon handles up with a book so that the bowl part is flat and the chocolate won't run out. We used a regular spoon to ladle the chocolate into the plastic ones.

Kids can help add sprinkles to the still-warm chocolate to make this edible craft fancier and tastier.

You can add candies to your chocolate spoons, too. We used M&Ms and Kisses.

One bag of chocolate chips makes a lot of spoons!

What I Learned the Hard Way:  It takes them a little while to set up, so don’t make them 15 minutes before the party starts.

Plus, I have to add that these would make fantastic Christmas or other gifts that kids can make!

What you need for this barrette craft:

• Silk flowers
• Felt
• Scissors
• Hot glue
• Barrette clips

The bigger flowers are actually the easiest to make into barrettes.

(Back view.) Pull the flowers off the plastic stems and cut off the plastic fitting on the back.

Cut a felt circle that is smaller in diameter than the length of your barrette.

Apply hot glue. I'd recommend going in a circle near the edge.

To put the pieces together, open the barrette and insert the felt, glue-side down.  Then press that against the back of the flower.

Glue the three pieces together.

We put three flowers on this barrette.

Here’s our sweet friend Kendall on her fifth birthday wearing one of the silk flower barrettes we made for her:

For these handmade decoupaged fabric Christmas ornaments, you will need:

• 3″ Styrofoam balls
• decoupage medium/glue
• fabric scraps
• paint brush
• ribbon
• skewer
• embellishments

Basic craft supplies for homemade Christmas ornaments.

To start, push a skewer through the Styrofoam ball.  This gives you a way to hold it without decoupaging yourself to within an inch of your life.  You can also stick the bottom of the skewer into a foam wreath so your Christmas ornaments can dry and to hold them still when you decorate them.

This is where things get a little sticky.

Next, brush decoupage medium onto the foam ball.  Place fabric scraps onto the ball, brushing more medium over them.  Continue to do this, overlapping fabric wherever you need to, until the entire ball is covered.  Set it aside to dry for a couple of hours.

The Christmas ornament on the left is dry, and the one on the right is wet.

Once the ornament is dry, you can add a ribbon for a hanger.

I removed the skewer and then used it to push a very thin red ribbon through.  I then tied some small jingle bells to the end to keep it from pulling back out.

After that, you can embellish as you wish.

My preschooler directed me as I hot glued buttons and pom-poms all over her Christmas ornament.

A simple bow was enough for my handmade Christmas ornament.

What I Learned the Hard Way: I used fabric scraps that were left over from the scrap fabric Christmas wreath we made, thinking it would be great to have these ornaments match the wreath.  That worked out well, but I discovered that 2″ square pieces of fabric were too big.  I ended up cutting the squares into quarters so the cloth would lay better on the round ball.

It was ambitious. It pushed my creativity. And in the end, I’ll tell you now – it ROCKED!

Over the next two weeks, I’ll be posting 11 more gift crafts that you will LOVE. Promise. And YES, kids can make all of them! They may look hard, but they aren’t! Some may be more appropriate for tweens, but nearly all of them can be made by kids as young as five. I’m seriously so proud of this series – I can’t wait to post them!

I’ll be updating this page every time a new project goes up, so bookmark it now to come back and see what’s new!

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Day 4 - Anthropologie Seashell Bottles	Day 5 - A Gift for the Pets	Day 6 - Dollar Store Gilded Cake Stand
Day 7 - Easy No Sew Scarf	Day 8 - Easy Yarn Wreath	Day 9 - Easy Beaded Ribbon Necklace
Day 10 - Ballard Designs Inspired Art	Day 11 - Easy Cell Phone Case Pattern	Day 12 - Homemade Hot Chocolate Jars

Check out all of the Woo! Jr. Christmas kids activities while you are here!

We had a friend coming over recently, and she was so impressed by the fact that we had made cider for her.  She walked in the house and said it smelled “mulled.”  I asked what that was, and she told me she meant the way some people warm it with spices and everything.  So, I was all, “Yeah, that’s the kind we’re having.”  Seriously, I looked like a total Suzie Homemaker, and the whole process from start to finish took about ten minutes.

What You’ll Need to Make Homemade Mulled Apple Cider

• Apples – We used about a dozen (If you want to cheat and do really easy version, just use pre-made apple juice.  Your kid will totally not care.)
• Juicer
• Apple slicer or knife
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Cloves

I've looked into the difference between "apple juice" and "apple cider," and even though the juicer filters it to some degree, I'd say what comes out still qualifies as cider.

Wash your apples. If you happen to have a ladybug around, it makes this part more fun. ;-)

Slice your apples.

Run the apples through the juicer right into a sauce pan. Add about a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon each of ground nutmeg and ground cloves.

I didn’t get a picture of it, but the spices left kind of a scum on top after the apple cider was warmed, so I just skimmed it off.

It tastes delicious and totally made my house smell like the holidays!