Related Pages: Snowflake crafts, winter coloring pages, winter kids activities

Preschool Winter Crafts

Preschool Penguin Craft	Rainbow Ice Winter Craft	Preschool Ice Skate Craft	Pinecone Birdfeeder Craft

Winter Crafts for Kids

Sock Puppet	Winter Igloo Craft	Glove Puppets	Lacy Ice Craft

Winter Crafts for Teens & Tweens

Make Fizzie Bath Balls	Felted Sweater Mittens	Easy Felted Slippers	No Sew Slipper Socks

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

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

Pinecone Gnome Ornament	Pinecone Snow Bunnies	Elegant Pinecone Ornaments	Pinecone Placecard Holders
Pinecone Gift Tags	Pinecone Votive Craft	Christmas Pinecones in a Pot	Pinecone Christmas Tree
Fabric Button Pinecone Trees	Pinecone Christmas Carolers	Pinecone Christmas Angels	Christmas Pinecones

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

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!

Related Pages: Printable Christmas Decorations, Printable Gift Tags, Printable Box Templates

Day 1 - Kids Modern Art Wall Plates	Day 2 - Upcycled Photo Frame	Day 3 - Super-Easy Flower Brooch
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!

I’ve made this tutorial crystal-clear with step by step photos so that even a teenager can pull this together on their own.

Free Summer Top Sewing Pattern

To break her out of her “making pajama pants rut”, I taught her how to make this ultra simple tube top with a simple rectangle of fabric and elastic thread. If elastic thread intimidates you (it did me for a while!), don’t worry about it for another second. Sewing with elastic thread is just as easy as sewing with regular thread. I’d say it’s easier, because it does so much shaping of the fabric for you, so you don’t need to worry so much about cutting precisely.

Even though this project is easy enough for teens, don’t think you can’t whip up a few for yourself! You can finish them in less than 2 hours – more like an hour and a half, tops!

(ooooh… bad unintentional pun.)

What You Need to Make This Summer Top

Fabric (see measuring guide below)

Regular coordinating thread

1 spool of elastic thread

Steam iron

To determine how much fabric you need, print and complete this super-simple measuring guide:

Free Easy Sewing Pattern - Strapless Summer Top

*Disclaimer – If you have a rather busty figure, I’d recommend adding straps to this top!

Strapless Summer Top Sewing Instructions

Step 1 – Sew your rectangle into a tube

Step 1 - Sew a Tube

Step 2 – Hem the top and bottom edges

Step 2a - Press raw edges

To make this super-easy, press the fabric down 1/2 inch, then again another 1/2 inch. Then turn it over and topstich the hem in place with regular thread:

Step 2b - Sew the pressed hems

Step 3 – HAND wind a bobbin with elastic thread

This may seem like a real pain in the rear, but it’s not. You can do it in less than 90 seconds. DON’T pull the elastic as you wind, simply keep it snug but unstretched. Then load the elastic thread bobbin into your sewing machine. Keep regular thread in your machine needle.

Step 3 - Wind elastic thread bobbin

Step 4 -Start sewing rows with the elastic thread

Line up the right side of your presser foot with the hem you just sewed. Now simply start sewing rows around your tube. You will be doing the exact same thing on both the top and bottom of the shirt, so you can start on either end. Make sure that you have the right side of the fabric on top, so that the elastic thread gets sewn on the wrong side of the fabric.

Some sewing machines may have a hard time if you backstitch the elastic thread at the beginning of your row. If so, just start and be sure to backstitch at the end of your rows.

These rows are also referred to as ‘smocking’.

Step 4 - Sew rows with elastic thread

Depending on the weight of your fabric, the elastic thread won’t pucker much at first. Don’t worry about this – a little steam iron magic will take care of it when we’re all done.

Step 4 - First row of elastic thread

Step 5 – Starting a new row of elastic thread

You are going to sew 5 rows of elastic thread on both the top and bottom of the shirt. Along with your hemmed row, that will be six stitched rows each.

Some people prefer to cut their thread and tie it off on each row. I prefer to keep it all one long piece of thread, to minimize any future breakage. To make sure that there is no pulling between the rows, pull the fabric away from your presser foot about 3 inches and then put it right back down under the presser foot, lined up along the previous seam. This will give it just enough slack to prevent puckering where you don’t want it to pucker.

Step 5 - Start a new row of elastic thread

One bobbin should be just about enough elastic thread to get through 5 rows. But if you run out, no worries. Just wind a new bobbin, start sewing where the old thread left off, and make sure you tie the ends together on the back of the fabric.

Tip - Start new bobbin

Continue sewing rows until you have 5 with the elastic thread.

Sewing with elastic thread

Step 6 – Repeat elastic thread rows on the other end of the shirt

When you are done with one end, it will look like this:

Step 6 - Finished one end, do the other

The back of the rows will look like this:

Wrong side of elastic thread rows

Do the same on the other end of the tube top.

Step 7 – The fun part – steam the elastic and watch it pucker!

When you’re all done, fire up your steam iron. Do not touch the thread with the iron! You simply need to hold the iron right above your elastic thread smocking and give it a few shots of steam. Your elastic will pucker right before your eyes.

Step 7 - Steam Away!

Step 8 – Look cool and sip some iced tea in your new summer top!

Free Sewing Project - Easy Summer Top

Summer Top Variations

You can also make this top with a completely different look by omitting the bottom smocking rows and wearing it with a belt. Adorable!

More Teen Crafts

More Teen Sewing Patterns

Easy Bulletin Board Decorating Ideas

Recycled Crafts: T-Shirt Surgery

I’ve been holding onto this craft for a few days, and I’ve decided I can hold onto it no longer. It’s my new favorite craft on this site, and I think it would be a perfect thing to do with kids for a Mother’s Day craft (though I think the plant marker garden craft come in a close second on that).

Behold, the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

I’m actually thinking of making myself a two-tiered one to put in my office. That seems so dorky when I say that out loud though…

What You Need to Make the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

3 sheets of green tissue paper (ideally in three different shades of green)

3 sheets of pink tissue paper (again ideally in three different shades of pink, or whatever three colors you want)

I think the reason this turned out so well was because I was able to use different shades of green and pink tissue paper. Normal tissue paper packages don’t come so nicely shaded for paper flower crafts, but I swear by a huge package of tissue paper I am able to get at Hobby Lobby for $5 (inconveniently they don’t sell online, but CreateforLess has shades of green at $.89 a package).

A 3 inch styrofoam ball

A small cylinder or cube of floral foam to stick into the clay pot (You could also use play dough)
(I cut a triangle of styrofoam from some appliance packaging we had around the house)

A 3 inch (or so) mini clay plant pot

Plain straight pins

4 straight pins with pretty pearlescent ball on top for the main flowers

A 6″-7″ inch stick from your yard

How to Make the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

First cut up the green tissue paper into approximately 2 inch squares. They are going to get crumpled up, so don’t worry about being precise or anything.

Start scrunching up the squares into loose little balls. I found it worked best if I rolled them between my hands as if it were clay I was trying to roll into a ball. Even on a tiny ball you will need a surprisingly large number of these, because you want them to be relatively close together.

Next just start pinning them to the styrofoam ball. Don’t put them too close together, because you will want to have room to put in the flowers. You can see in the second photo how close I put them together.

Now cut up your pink tissue paper into squares. For the largest flowers I used about 3 inch squares, the medium about two inch squares and the small about one inch squares. Again, this is approximate, because they are just going to get crumpled up again.

Add the largest flowers first, because they will be the most prominent and need to be placed somewhat evenly around the ball. I thought I was going to add a lot, but found that four was plenty. If you can find straight pins with the pretty pearl tops, use those to attach the largest flowers. If you have a lot of those, you can also use them for your smaller flowers too. I didn’t, so I just used regular straight pins everywhere else.

Then add the smaller flowers in between the green ‘leaves’ where you can still see the styrofoam.

Next, decide what part of the ball you want to be the top, and stuff the stick from your yard into the bottom. I didn’t take a picture of this part, because it’s pretty dang easy to do. Then shove the cylinder or dough into the flower post, and stuff the stick into the midde so that it is standing straight up.

Cover the foam base with green tissue like you did the top ball, but this time, don’t let the styrofoam peek through.

And ta – da, you are done!

Most of these Easter printables are suitable for kids age 6+, though there are a handful of them that will either need adult help or are better for older children. All of them are free, though one or two them are on sites in different languages. Yet I made sure that all of them have at least picture instructions so that you don’t need to know Chinese in order to make them!

Related Pages: Easter Mad Libs, Easter Rice Krispie Treats, Easter Finger Puppets Craft

Find all our Woo! Jr. Easter Kids Activities right here!

Related Pages: Alphabet Wall Art, Bulletin Board Decorating Ideas, Scrapbook Paper Wall Art

Button Monogram Shadowbox Craft

To make this monogram letter craft, you’ll need:

• Shadow box
• Hot glue
• Pre-cut letter
• Buttons!

How to make a button monogram

Start by removing the back from the shadow box.  Lay it flat and then hot glue your letter into the center of it.

Make sure your letter isn't too thick, or you won't be able to get the glass back on your shadow box.

Once you’ve glued your letter in place, start adding buttons all around it.  To fill in the gaps, it’s fine to glue buttons on top of others.

Different sized buttons give your monogram more dimension and character.

Make sure not to glue buttons too close to the edges, or your backing won’t fit back into the shadow box frame.  (Trust me.)

Glue contrasting buttons on top of the letter.

I started out intending to cover the whole letter, but ended up spreading them out to be more like polka dots.

Place back into the shadow box and your monogram craft is done!

What I Learned the Hard Way: A lot!  The first lesson was that the letter needs to be pretty thin (in depth), or else you can’t get the glass back on.  Then I discovered that it’s harder than you might think to cover the entire letter.  I did another one with black buttons in the back and white/clear buttons on the letter, and it just didn’t look nearly as cute as I’d hoped.  Finally, I wasn’t able to stack the buttons two-deep on top of the letter, as I originally planned.  Still, I think it turned out really cute, and the little ones can totally help if you use white glue instead of hot glue.

1.  I hate glitter

2.  Some of my favorite projects start out as something else

When I originally started making this alphabet wall art, I was really just planning to work with my preschooler on four letters.  The idea was to do a “little project” that was educational.  I figured, why not make some glitter letters to put on our Christmas stocking so that Santa would know whose was whose?  It turns out, however, that four letters just doesn’t cause enough of a glitter explosion to satisfy an almost-three-year old.  At that point, it was “Why not?” and we went ahead and did the whole alphabet.

Of course, since I’m in the midst of decorating her room (yes, I’m making pretty much everything), it occurred to me that a glitter alphabet on the wall is pretty darn cool.

Related Pages: Printable Alphabet Letters, Printable Animal Templates

What you’ll need to make this alphabet wall art:

This kids' alphabet project doesn't take a whole lot of preparation.

• felt that matches your decor
• glitter
• white glue
• scissors
• mini craft clothespins (I got 50 for about $3.00 through Amazon)
• spool of ribbon that matches your decor

Cut felt into rectangles.  Mine are approximately 2 1/2 x 3 1/2″.  I didn’t make them uniform in size, but the are similar.  The lettering is varied a bit, too, so the end result is very nicely mis-matched.

Use white glue to draw each letter onto your felt.

Try not to twitch as your child sprinkles glitter all over your dining room...I mean, the letters.

Sprinkle the letters liberally with glitter.

Shake off the excess glitter and put the letters aside to dry.

Hang the alphabet on a ribbon using miniature craft clothespins and then nail the ribbon to the wall.

This alphabet art is a learning project that adds nice color to your child's room.

What I Learned the Hard Way: I was literally on the letters X and Y when it occurred to me that I could have drawn a bunch with glue and then let Dot sprinkle five or ten all at once.  Instead, I spent a lot of extra time doing them one at a time.

Scrap Fabric Wreath Craft

This scrap fabric Christmas wreath has a lot going for it. For one, it was really, really easy to make. For another, it is really, really hard to mess up. The end product actually came out looking a lot more sophisticated than I expected from a simple kid’s craft.

Related Pages: Yarn Wreath, Printable Christmas Decorations, Rag Wreaths

To make this scrap wreath, you need:

• Styrofoam wreath (the one we used was 10″)
• a few scrap fabrics cut into 2″ squares
• glue
• a pencil

The best wreaths are from fabric scraps within one color scheme.

I thought I was being so clever by choosing some fun kid-friendly prints (snowmen, candy canes, presents), but in the final version, you can’t see any of  the pictures anyway.  I discovered it’s really all about the color scheme.

Since we used scraps, I don't have an accurate accounting of the amount needed, but this much was more than enough.

One at a time, wrap a square around the end of a pencil, dip it in glue, and stick it into the Styrofoam form.

Get the fabric squares fairly close together.

You want to get them fairly close together for a good effect, but it’s not necessary to measure them out or anything. You don’t really even need to be that concerned about which fabrics go where, as they all blend together to create the look. We chose to do the front, outside, and inside of our Christmas wreath, leaving the back plain. In the future, I would consider covering the back with felt for a more finished look.

To hang, I simply wrapped a ribbon around the wreath and pinned it in place on the back.

What I Learned the Hard Way: While this craft is easy, it’s also time consuming. It might be a good project for a couple of kids to work on together or to do during a movie or in a couple of sittings.