Get Out The Glitter!

In the spirit of the holidays, I just couldn't do posts about kids crafts and goodies without using glitter. So, take a deep breath, get out the glue and glitter and be amazed at what your little ones can make!

Not only are these easy, they are going to make your tree sparkle and shine in the glow of the Christmas lights.

If your lucky, you will get enough glitter on your face for the lady at the post office to tell you how festive you look. It's true, they do that. I should know it happened to a *friend* of mine.

Here are today's Keep The Kids Busy Activities!

Here we have a simple star made out of craft sticks. I hot glued them together for the kids before they painted them with glue. We put the stars over a bowl and sprinkled on the glitter. I highly recommend doing both of these crafts in one day. Also, be sure that you do the stars first. I have a method to my madness. We used all kinds of colors of glitter, but when I went to take a picture, the only one not in the blaring sunlight was this one with clear glitter on. Use a couple colors (at least) of glitter so you have some variety on your tree.

Next, we have the glittered pine cone. If you followed my directions above for the glittered stars, you now have a bowl with multicolored glitter in the bottom. This is for the pine cones. I got a bag of 25 cinnamon scented pine cones from Michael's for $2.99. You can certainly use unscented, but I have to tell you how surprised I am at how good these smell! They are still smellin' up my house with their cinnamon-y goodness. So, I thinned a little glue with water, let the kids paint the tips of the pine cones and then dropped them into the bowl of glitter leftovers. We just shook them around a little bit and they covered up pretty easily.

And lastly, if you haven't already done it, a popcorn strand is the best activity for kids. Just string a needle with a long sting and pop a big bowl of popcorn. Tie a big knot at one end and start stringing. I always have one kid hold the knot and the other ones be "runners" for taking the popcorn down to the other end. I make 4 or 5 strands, about 6'-7' long instead of trying to do one really big one that will go around the whole tree in one piece.

Happy crafting!