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!

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!

To make a balloon jack-o-lantern, you need:

• Orange tissue paper
• White glue (watered down)
• Paintbrush
• Black or yellow construction paper
• Green ribbon (not pictured)

This is a pretty easy Halloween craft for kids, too.

Start by ripping your tissue paper into small, irregular pieces, no bigger than about 2" x 2". As you can see, even the baby is "helping" with this one!

Affix the tissue paper pieces to the balloon by brushing on a layer of watered-down glue, pressing the paper on, and then covering with another layer of glue. Overlap the paper to cover all of the balloon.

Since our balloon was a pretty dark color, we did about three layers of tissue paper to make our jack-o-lantern nice and orange.

Cut the jack-o-lantern face out of construction paper and glue to your pumpkin.

Hang the craft up using green ribbon, and curl some to fall around the top like pumpkin vines.

To make this baby toy craft, you will need:

• A small water bottle
• Ribbons
• Buttons/Sequins/Beads
• Glitter
• Scissors
• Hot glue
• Water

Supplies for this recycled craft

Cut some bright colored ribbons so they're a little longer than the bottle is tall.

Put your ribbons, buttons, sequins, beads, dice, or whatever in the bottle. Add some glitter and fill with water.

Line the inside of the lid with hot glue. (Note: This did leak a tiny bit, so if you have some other non-toxic sealant, it might work even better.)

Ooh, sparkly!!! Not bad for a recycled craft, eh?

This baby toy craft was quite a hit with its intended recipient. I love it that her big sister made it for her!

What I Learned the Hard Way: As I mentioned, this did leak a tiny bit at first, although it did seem to seal itself up after a short time.

Related Pages: Craft Foam Projects, Easy Preschool Shapes & Colors Game

What you’ll need to make DIY home made stamps:

• plastic bottle tops
• craft foam shapes
• glue
• ink pads
• paper for stamping

Just a few items are needed to make your own home made stamps.

Glue craft foam shapes to the bottle tops. Smaller caps might only take one shape, while bigger ones can accommodate several.

Use your ink pad to cover the craft foam shapes on your home made stamp.

Have fun! We used ours to decorate some blank greeting cards, too.

What I Learned the Hard Way: We ended up using baby wipes to clean the stamps off before switching colors.

Recycled baby food jar into a friendly puppy.

Some days crafts are about making something nice.  Other days they’re about keeping the kids busy.  If you’re looking for a craft for kids that utilizes things you already have on hand, these baby food jar pals will fit the bill.  I used stuff we already had, including a few things out of the craft box, and they went together pretty quickly.

Related Pages: Animal Crafts, Giraffe Sock Puppet, Owl Crafts for Kids

What you need to make baby food jar pals:

• Empty baby food jar
• Cotton balls
• Colored pom poms
• Construction paper or pipe cleaners for ears
• Googly eyes
• Hot glue

Basic craft supplies for a baby food jar pal.

Have your kid fill the baby food (or other jar) with cotton balls.

We also bunched some colored pom poms in to make “spots” on our doggie.  Turn the jar upside down so that the lid makes a base with a neck.

Glue on googley eyes.

Use pom poms to give your new pal the rest of his face.

Cut out two ears (or make them from pipe cleaners). Glue them to your jar.

Dot made a bunny, while I made a dog.

I added a collar to the dog by gluing a thin strip of construction paper around the lid of the jar and putting a button on the front.

What I Learned the Hard Way: My kid is really uncomfortable with the idea that the top of the jar could become the bottom, so she left the lid at the top for her bunny.

Enjoy your own rain shower without getting wet when you make this kid's craft.

I am so thrilled that spring is here, and we celebrated its arrival by making a rainstick.  Everything we needed for this craft was already around the house, and some of it was even recycled.  How’s that for getting into the spirit of April?  Not only have we covered the whole “April showers” thing, but we kind of hit on Earth Day, as well.

Once your rainstick craft is done, you can turn it from end to end and hear it “rain” as the rice inside slides from one end to the other.  I find that turning it slowly makes for a more realistic rain effect.

Related Pages: Recycled box aliens, 12 More Recycled Crafts for Kids

To make a rainstick, you will need:

• An empty paper towel roll
• Left over tissue paper
• Scissors
• White glue
• Paint brush
• Rubber bands
• Wax paper
• Aluminum foil
• Rice/Popcorn kernels (if I made another one, I would just stick with the rice because I think it sounds more like rain)

The materials for an April showers rainstick craft.

Start with a sheet of aluminum foil about 25" long.

Roll the aluminum foil into a long tube to make the interior of the rainstick craft. I wrapped ours around a dowel.

Curl the foil into a spring. Again, I used the dowel.

You'll want the final coil to be just about the length of your paper towel roll. It then gets placed inside the rainstick.

Wrap wax paper around one end of your rainstick craft, and affix it with a rubber band. I then cut off the excess.

Have your kiddo help you pour in rice, popcorn kernels, or whatever you've decided to use to make your sound effects.

Seal up the other end of your rainstick craft with wax paper and a rubber band.

Cut your tissue paper into small pieces (about an inch or so). We recycled tissue from presents we've received.

Mix white glue with a little water and use your paint brush to decoupage the tissue paper on to your rainstick.

I decoupaged the tissue paper right over the wax paper to make it less likely to come loose and fall off.

What I Learned the Hard Way: I originally had cut out wax paper circles to put over the ends, but I found them really hard to work with, so I ended up just using a bigger chunk of wax paper and cutting it after I put the rubber band on.  Also, the popcorn doesn’t sound nearly as good as the rice.

Caterpillar kids craft from an egg carton

This caterpillar is a fun recycled craft that transforms an old egg carton into a toy.  It is a fun craft for kids because it’s simple, and they have something tangible to play with when it’s done.

Related Pages: Caterpillar Math Coloring Page, Bug Coloring Pages, more Recycled Kids Crafts.

To make your caterpillar, you will need:

• An empty egg carton
• Paint
• Paint brush
• Googly eyes
• Pom poms (optional)
• Pipe cleaner
• Glue
• Scissors

Craft supplies needed to make your caterpillar

Cut off one section of the egg carton to make the caterpillar's body.

Let your little one paint the caterpillar's body.

To make the antennae, use your scissors to poke two holes in the first “bump” on your egg carton.  Fold the pipe cleaner in half, and insert one end into each hole so they stick out the top.  Twist them once so they stay in place.  I wanted to curl them around a pencil for curly antennae, but Dot insisted that they stay straight.

Adding the antennae

Glue on googly eyes and a pom pom nose for the caterpillar's face.

Let your kid decorate the caterpillar.  We glued pom poms on ours to give him some color and character.

Dot loved the finished craft project so much that she carried it around for two days and showed it off to everyone!

She was so proud of it!

What I Learned the Hard Way: So, it turns out that when you tell a three-year-old to paint something, you are likely to get a whole lot of paint in one place and not much anywhere else.  To combat this, I “helped” her paint the caterpillar’s body.

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.