Blossoming Cherry Tree

I love the Frugal Family Fun Blog. We got the idea for making a blossoming cherry tree with tissue paper from it.

I remember doing something like this in my childhood :) We used a pencil end & cut squares of tissue paper which we wrapped around the end of a pencil, then dipped in glue & stuck to the paper. On Frugal Family Fun, they just scrunched up tissue paper (probably would've been less frustrating for Talia to do it that way).



We also painted our scene whereas on FFB they used paper- I was going to use paper, but Talia wanted to paint, so we went with it.

We went to the window to take a look at the trees and see how there's only a bit of green grass and a lot of blue sky behind most of the trees, and then we painted our picture like that.


It was fun! :)

Contact/Tissue Paper Sun Catcher

We made these hearts out of contact paper & tissue paper. This idea from Chasing Cheerios (we're so glad you shared it!).


How To Make This:

1. Cut heart out of clear contact paper (you can get a roll at the dollar store)

2. Cut or rip up pieces of tissue paper

3. stick it onto the sticky side of the paper

4. Trim overlapping pieces & voila!

Stained Glass Paper Trees

Today we made Stained Glass Paper Trees. I was reminded of this fun activity idea when I visited Alpha Mom's Blog.

What To Do:

- cut a tree out of construction paper
- cut holes in it (like you would a paper snowflake, or just fold here & there & cut a piece out)
- glue pieces of tissue paper on the back like this:



- hold up to the window & watch the light shine through! :)



p.s. This post was featured on ABC & 123's Holiday Crafts post!

Homemade Advent Calendar

Today we made ourselves an advent calendar!!

I got the idea from Filth Wizardry, and posted about it in my Christmas Ideas post a few days ago.

Preparation:

-On Saturday, Talia & I went to a local restaurant supply store and picked up some plastic shot glasses.
-Over the last couple of days, we've been making paper snowflakes.

Process:

1. I cut a piece of tinfoil for Talia to wrap around a piece of cardboard.
2. Together, we taped it onto the back
3. I cut a piece of blue construction paper, Talia covered one side with glue, I stuck it to our shiny board.
4. We decorated with some of our previously made paper snowflakes (we took turns gluing- she was getting tired of it, but wanted to direct my placement ;).
5. I glue gunned the cups to the paper
6. We took some computer time and we decided who she wanted to make Christmas cards for this year. I told her how to spell their names, she typed them out. We printed the page, I cut the names out. She folded the names & put them in the cups.


7. We got a chocolate advent calendar and had fun opening all of the doors in one shot, to get the chocolates out and put them in our own calendar :)

8. While she napped, I stamped the tissue paper with numbers and glued it onto the tops of the cups, so that she could break the tissue paper with her finger and get out the candy and the name each day of December.

(The plan is to make one Christmas card each day, so that she doesn't get sick of making a bunch in a row.)

Alternatives:

I also thought of putting a paper in each cup listing the activity for the day, but I can guess that we'll end up switching things around, so for us, that wasn't the best choice :)

I have seen this idea used as a way to put left over Hallowe'en candy to use as well. You can use it for the month of November if you're doing that, or make a giant one that goes from Hallowe'en to Christmas!