Christmas decorations hand sewn or machine Idea's

[{sarah}]

Something that is fun for bigger kids (not sure how old yours are) is to make beaded baubles. You buy foam balls in various shapes & stick in pearl headed pins threaded with one or two beads or sequins. You then make a loop of ribbon & attach it on to hang from the tree. You can also spray paint or put glitter on the foam balls to for a different effect. We also made a Christmas tree one with a foam cone.

Then there's the good old pine cones sprayed with gold or silver paint.

We make lolly wreaths as well. You undo a wire coathanger & make it into a circle shape then thread on wrapped lollies, close up the coathanger the tie a ribbon near the hanging part. Depending on what theme you want to do, we have done minties (tradiditonal red, green & white), columbines (pink & blue) or fantales (but they tend to melt!). It usually takes around 1.5 - 2 packets to completely cover the coathanger.

One craft we used to love at school was pin pr.ick pictures. Get some basic images of the net, print them out & then get the kids to make pin pr.icks around the outline. You then hang them on the window & the sun shines through the holes. The best images are basic angels & Christmas trees.

Cut out shapes with cardboard & stick foil & glitter on them. Or cut out shapes with contact & put coloured celepane on it to make stained glass windows.

I have lots more if you want! Mine are mostly child friendly

[squidipa]

thanks sweet, dd is 11 and ds is 8 then the younger boys are 4 and 1 dd does do a bit of sewing so was hoping on some cheap felt projects? do you have any sarah h? lol

[{sarah}]

Do you all have Christmas stockings? She could make them out of felt & sew little cut out pictures on the front....

Another thing she can do, not decorations, but with the sewing machine, it to make Christmas cards. Lots of scrapbook pages use sewing onto the cardstock, so you can use that principle for Christmas cards. Maybe sew a border around the outside & then glue things on the front. Or even do a minature felt gingerbread man on the sewing machine & stick that on.

And this one for a door hanger -
Cut 10x5 rectangle out of heavy weight cardstock. Cut a 3 inch circle in the top.Do the same thing with felt but make allowance for sewing by adding a fraction. Cover your cardstock with the felt and stitch around the edges. Alternatively you could glue this felt on and cover the glued edges with ribbon, glitter paints or cord. Once your door hanger is covered you can embellish with ribbons and ornaments.

[squidipa]

thats cool sarah thanks for that sewing cardboard cool idea too

[melbel]

your older ones might like the paint/gel stuff you get that you can make peelable picture things to go on glass...they could do holly leaves etc on the window...you can then peel it off and store them for next year.....all your crafty stuff you can get at spot light...I love the sequin tree deco idea...i have some a friend made me 10 yrs ago that take pride of place on my tree every year...they are still going strong despite losing a few sequins over the years.