Christmas Crafts!!

So this time my sister (Lisa) came over to do some Christmas crafts with me.  All of our ideas came from Pinterest  and they all worked!  :)

First we started with Yarn Balls...  I had chosen some nice colors that we could use.

White school glue is the best glue to use.  Mix it with water to a thinner consistency, but not too watery.  We put wax paper on the table as my work area so that the mess was easy to clean up.

  We used water balloons since they are small.  Blow them up to the size you would like for your decorations.

Take your yarn and wrap it around your hand to ensure that it doesnt knot up while you wrap the balloons.  Place the yarn in the glue and submerse it.   Be sure not to cut the yarn yet as you may not have enough to make the decoration as full as you would like.  Then begin to wrap the balloon in a random pattern.... continue to dip more yarn in glue if needed.  Continue to wrap the balloon until you are satisfied with the look and cut the yarn.  Put more glue on if there are areas that feel dry and if it is too wet, squeeze out any access.  
Place the finished product on a cookie sheet with wax paper to ensure they don't stick when dry.  It may take 2-3 days to dry completely.

When they are dry, pop the balloons and remove all balloon matter.  Voila!  Place in bowl, on shelf, table or wherever you desire!!

List of materials
~ yarn
~ white school glue
~ balloons
~ containers and stir sticks
~ scissors
~ wax paper
~ cookie sheets or something similar

Trees
Using the same glue, we took twine and did almost the same process.... this time instead of balloons, we used cups wrapped with paper to form a large cone shape.  Be sure to wrap the cone in wax paper as well so the glue wont stick when dry.

Dip the twine in glue until it is soaked.  Start wrapping the twine around the base.  Be sure to wrap it a few times and it needs to be level/flat, as this is what will determine if your tree is straight or leaning :)

Start wrapping up and when you get to the top go back down to make x patterns... then do the rest random to your liking.

(my gorgeous sister modeled for me)  :)

We chose to glitter them while they were wet to give a cool effect. (this glitter is also going to be used in the next craft)

 
Place the finished product on a cookie sheet with wax paper as well.  Once again it will take a couple of days to dry.

When they are dry, remove them from the wax paper molds and place wherever you like :)  You can also hot glue decorations to them, such as berries, greenery, ribbon... be creative!!

List of Materials
~ Twine
~ white school glue
~ cups
~ containers and stir sticks
~ paper
~ wax paper
~ scissors
~ cookie sheet or something similar
~ glitter is optional, as is any finishing touches

Snow Globes

And now one for the kids to help with... I purchased the jars at Dollarama, the glitter I had for the other project as well, the figurines you see are little ornaments that I removed the string.

First I took Gatorade bottle lids (Thanks for the suggestion Lisa) and hot glued 2 on top of each other.  These worked for me because of the size of lid on the jar being used.  You may have to choose s different option depending on what jars you have.  I wrapped the lids in tinfoil to hide the dreadful orange color. and then glued them to the inside of the jar lid. 

I hot glued decorative plastic crystals around the outside of the Gatorade lids only because I have them and thought it would look pretty.  To ensure this stays as a cheap project, use whatever you have available or nothing is fine too.  I glued the figurines back to back on top of the tinfoil, so that which ever way you turned the globe there would be a figure to look at.

 This is the part where I got my oldest to help... he enjoyed it but lost interest quickly :)

The next step is to mix water and corn syrup in the jar.  The consistency is your choice, I did half and half.  The more corn syrup the longer the "snow" is suspended and the slower it moves.   If it is too rich, the water will look cloudy, I wouldn't recommend going thicker then 1/4 water 3/4 corn syrup.  I have done 3 globes and they are each at a different consistency to show you an example of each.

Now add the glitter... once again the amount is up to you, more means more snow and less is obviously less snow effect.  My examples will list the differences so you can choose before you start. 

Next you want to place the lid on (with the figurines attached).  Do this over the sink as it will allow any extra water to leak out and then it will seal properly when glued shut.  Then dry off the lid and hot glue all around the inside of the lid where the edge of the jar will touch... Do this quickly and make sure it is threaded properly when screwing the lid on as you will not likely get a second chance.  The cold water seals the hot glue instantly and it is not possible to reopen once shut :)

The first pic shows as soon as I sealed the top, the second pic shows after an hour of sitting.  The water clears up after a while so do not sorry if it looks blurry in the beginning.  Wash the outside after it is sealed, dry and shake to your satisfaction :)

Below is the differences in the consistency and the amount of glitter used... Hope you enjoyed!!

The first globe has 1/4 water 3/4 syrup and approx 2 tbsp of glitter.
The second one has 1/3 water 2/3 syrup and 1 1/2 tbsp glitter.
The third has 1/2 and half with 1 tbsp glitter.


List of Materials

~Jar with Lid
~ figurine of some sort, could be anything (plastic animal, ornament, dinky cars, lol seriously it could be whatever you want!!)
~ White corn syrup
~ glitter or snowflake like something (haha be creative)
~ water
~ glue gun and glue sticks
~ tin foil and caps, or again whatever you can find to work



Have fun!!!!!  And BE CREATIVE!!