25+ Christmas Crafts and Activities to get you through December!

Does your family start celebrating Christmas the moment Thanksgiving is over? My son insists that we put up our tree right after our Thanksgiving meal!  In case your family is like ours, I'm sharing this fun list of 25+ favorite Christmas activities and crafts.   So go ahead and peek around.  You can do an activity everyday in December- like a crafty advent of sorts!

Surprise Smiling Face Cards

These DIY cards are adorable and seriously funny.  I saw Craftwack's ferocious beings cards and knew that we had to do something with faces.  So tada!  Open up the smiling faces to reveal a secret message inside!

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DIY Paper Chain Christmas Village

Last week I saw stores with Christmas villages already set up and ready to go.  Anyone else love seeing these tiny scenes on display?  There's something magical about seeing things in the miniature.  Today I'm sharing a fun Christmas Craft that you can do with the kids this holiday season.   Make your very own Paper Chain Christmas villages!

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Colorful and Glittery Skull Craft

In the midst of what is going on in our country, I almost feel hesitant to keep posting this week.  How can I write posts about crafts, Sharpie markers, and glitter when there is so much misunderstanding, hurt, and turmoil going on?

But you know what?  This blog is my happy place. And being creative and making things with my son makes me happy.  So I'm going to keep making and posting... even while we try to wrap my mind around everything that's going on.

That being said- this Halloween/ Dia De Los Muertos Craft is from awhile back.  We're keeping  the skulls up until Thanksgiving... so I figure I could still post about them here too.

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25 STEAM Christmas Activities (Book and Coloring Page!)

Looking for ways to encourage kids to tinker, create, and explore this holiday season?  How about 25 awesome STEAM Christmas activities?


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Amazing 3D Paper Christmas Star Ornaments

What?  Thanksgiving isn't even here and we're already talking about Christmas Crafts?  Ok, you've got me.  I'm jumping the gun with this super neat folded Christmas star ornament.  But, I had to share because this week we'll be launching our new STEAM KIDS Christmas books.  Woot woot!  I'll be sharing more about those books later on this week.  Today I'm giving you a sneak peak of one of cool projects included.  These 3D paper stars are super fun to color in and such a neat way to craft this holiday season!

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Play Doh Dia De Los Muertos Sugar Skull Kids Craft

I love this time of year because we celebrate Hallowen and Dia De Los Muertos at the same time.  While I'm not Mexican, I do appreciate Dia De Los Muertos.  It's a good reminder to celebrate and remember those that are no longer with us.

Every year my son and I have done an easy craft to celebrate the holiday.  (You can find the whole list below.)  This year we tried an easy open-ended play doh sugar skull activity.  Gotta say, the results were pretty fabulous!

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Stapled Paper Pumpkins

Hi everyone! Sorry for the crickets around here.  We're in the midst of hosting family so things like crafting and blogging have taken a short hiatus.  Today I'm just popping in with this super easy Halloween Craft.  Simply grab staplers, hole punchers, markers, paper, and glue.  Then get to work making some funky paper pumpkins!   

Halloween Paper Cut Chains

Here's a really easy, open-ended Halloween Craft to try out with the kids after school-  Try cutting some Halloween paper chains!

 

Make Your Own Spotty Dotty Game!

These days our family is always rush, rush, rushing.  Ever feel like that?  Whenever we do get a moment to breathe I plan to make something with my eldest.... but then the baby ends up needing me for something too.  So lately projects have to be quick and fun.  Last weekend we created this simple DIY board game using materials that we already had around the house.  It was really neat putting it together and making up our own game!

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Cute Kitty Gift Box

Who loves cats?  Who loves Halloween crafts?  Did you raise your hands for both?  If so, you'll love making this adorable kitty gift box craft!

Magical Unicorn Gift Box Craft

If you're ever invited to a unicorn-themed birthday party.... you have to try out today's craft.  Yup.  I'm living out some childhood fantasies with this magical gift wrapping idea.  Recently I turned a plain-jane gift box into a cute unicorn one! Tada!

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Quirky Fox Gift Box Craft

Ah fall.  Colorful leaves, cool air, and.... forest animals?  Hello, friends!  We've done 3D Butterfly Gift Wrapping and Kiss Wrapping Paper over here on the blog.  I figured it was time to do a fall-themed wrapping paper idea.  And what says fall more than foxes?   (Ok, ok.  Perhaps forest animals aren't particularly fall-ish... but they are on trend and oh so cute!)

 

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Groovy Sticker Snowflakes Art (Printable included)

With the start of the new school year, our family is still trying to find its new normal.  Transitions from school to home can sometimes be rough.  So we've been trying to keep things easy with more downtime in the afternoon.  We play at the park, read books, or do simple open-ended crafts.   Today I wanted to share a really easy open-ended snowflake craft that my son and I really enjoyed.  We pulled out some old stickers and made ourselves some groovy sticker snowflakes! 

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Two Ways to Make Paper People Chains

With the start of the school year, my son and I've been talking a lot friendships- what it takes to make and be a friend.  I guess all that talk about friendships must have seeped into my crafting too, because I found myself with the great urge to cut out some paper people chains.  Inspired by this wikiHow post I cut out and doodled some  kid paper chains.  Yup. Today's post is going old-school with 2 fun paper people chain designs.

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STEAM KIDS- An AWESOME book with 50+ creative, hands-on projects for kids!

I love doing things with my kids.  But lately it's been hard to carve out time to find, set-up, and prep fun and educational activities.  With all the buzz about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) activities, I've been especially keen on trying out more of those too.

Maybe you're like me?  Maybe you're looking for a great resource full of easy and fun STEAM activities to try out with your kids too?

If that's the case, then I'm so glad you're here!  I'm excited to announce the launch of a brand new book- STEAM Kids!      

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Easy DIY Marbled Clay Covered Pens

Ever swoon while you're walking through stationary stores?  I looove pretty pens and paper.  But I don't always like the price tag that's associated with them.  Since we've been doing tons of clay projects lately, my son and I tried our hand at making clay covered pens.

I'll be honest.  I wasn't too hopeful about the results.  Plastic pens in ovens?  Urmm...  I worried that they would catch on fire... or melt.  But it didn't happen!  We turned a couple of el-cheapo-freebie pens into some fancy-shmancy marbled ones.  Ooh la la! Aren't they gorgeous?

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40+ Projects that combine STEM with Art!

Seems like everyone's talking about the importance of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) these days. And hey, I get it.  We live in a highly technological world that's rapidly advancing in all sorts of new ways.   We want our kids to be be creative and adaptive problem solvers.

But maybe you're like me and you deeply love arts and crafts.  They're your jam.  And maybe you're unsure how to dive into all this STEAM goodness.  Hey, I get that too.  Hopefully today's post will help.  In this post I sharing over 40 ideas for arts and craft projects that also happen to incorporate STEM ideas.  Yup.  Here are some of my favorite artsy crafty posts...which also happen to have a little STEAM-y oomph to them!

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Free Printable Fingerprint Birthday Cards

Is a birthday coming up?  Looking for a neat birthday card idea?  Well, here are two free birthday card ideas (and 2 free printables!) that you might like.  Aren't these fingerprint birthday cards adorable?  Friends and guests can decorate a card with colorful fingerprints to make these special balloon and birthday cake cards.   

Free Printable Fingerprint Birthday Cards

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Paint Chip Pokemon Pikachu Bookmark

Pikachu bookmarks, get your Pikachu bookmarks!  This fun paint chip bookmark craft is easy to make and *gasp* free!  (You probably have most of the materials at your fingertips.) So grab your kids and poke balls and let's make 'em now!

How to Make Paint Chip Pikachu Bookmarks

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Fall Leaf Scratch Art (and related books!)

Are the leaves changing colors where you are?  Every year I look forward to seeing the beautiful reds, oranges, and yellows.  Today I wanted to share this really easy fall craft that doubles as a STEAM activity.  It's a science and art activity that helps kids to represent how leaves change colors in the fall.

Fall Leaf Scratch Art

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Spooky Chalk Stencil Halloween Haunted Houses

Ok.  I realize that Halloween is several months away.  But I made this city skyline scene with my son and thought... wait a moment... this would be a great Halloween craft to do with kids!   Whaddya think?  The chalk gives the picture an eerie feeling... don't you think?

Oooooh!  Spooky Chalk Stencil Haunted Houses

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Clay Portrait Pendant Necklaces

My son started elementary school this week.  *Sob*  It's been such a happy, bittersweet couple of days. Recently we've been creating a lot of little trinkets with clay.  (Have you seen our  clay outer space necklace and clay dream catcher?)  So I asked him to make some clay portrait pendant necklaces with me before school started.  This way I can wear them and remember him while he's away.

Clay Portrait Pendant Necklaces

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Cute Corner Envelope Bookmarks

Looking for a neat way to reuse old envelopes?  How about turning them into cute corner bookmarks?

How to Make Cute Corner Envelope Bookmarks

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Cereal Box Pizza Craft

Mama Mia!  Today it's all about pizza!  Yup.  Pizza is one of our favorite foods so we recently did a really cute recycled craft and made some cardboard pizzas!

Cardboard Pizza Craft Art Project

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How to fold an Easy Origami School Bus (And a book list)

School is right around the corner.  Eeek.  Are you ready?  We're excited and nervous around here to finally be going to "big kid school."   Ever since we folded Origami Yoda and Origami Pikachu together, my son's really been into origami crafts.  To go along with the back-to-school theme, we recently folded these origami school buses together.

Easy Origami School Bus Tutorial

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Let's Make Clay Dream Catchers

Here's a lovely clay craft to make with the kids.  Lately my son has been having nightmares at night.  We've been trying lots of different ways to help him through it.  Since we've been doing a lot of clay crafts together, I made him this clay dream catcher to help him have sweet dreams at night.

How to Make Clay Dream Catchers  

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Outer Space Kids Jewelry

As a kid I adored watching Ms. Frizzle.   Her crazy hair, her awesome outfits, her magic bus, her love of science... gosh. What wasn't there to love?  Well, today I'm sharing this awesome STEM inspired craft.  We're tapping into our inner science nerds and making some space inspired jewelry with the kiddos!  (Ok, who am I kidding... this would be an awesome craft for any space-loving adults too!)

How to Make Outer Space Planet and Galaxy Jewelry

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So grab your Sculpey Clay, favorite Magic School Bus books, and visit DIY Candy today to learn how to make your very own spacey clay jewelry!

More Space Themed Crafts

And, if you're looking for more space themed crafts, check out these ideas below!

• Cardboard Roll Model Space Shuttle
• Pie Plate Solar System
• Kirigami Stars
• Straw Rockets
• Cardboard Space Shuttle Climbing Toy
• Lego Space Station Stamping
• Galaxy Light Jar
• Star Painting
• Paint your own Galaxy Umbrella
• Glow in the dark Star Finding Game

Happy making, friends!

Sparkly, Colorful Peel and Stick Window Mosaics

Sparkly and colorful- this removable window cling craft was one of our favorites this summer!  We love doing mosaic crafts over here with kiddos.  There's something super neat about putting tiny pieces together to create a lovely design or picture. And this craft takes mosaics to the next level.  Kids can make their own mosaic pieces AND create beautiful stick and peel mosaics on windows!

How to Make Peel and Stick Window Mosaics! 

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School Supply Hack: DIY Rainbow Marker (in under a minute!)

Can you believe it's August?  Goodness.  My eldest is about to start elementary school in a month and I've been eyeing all the colorful back-to-school supplies.  Since we love making rainbow crafts, I thought it would be fun to make our own DIY Rainbow Marker.  Yup.  And guess what?  It took less than a minute to make.  And then- tada!   We swiped this marker to create a whole spectrum of lovely colors!

How to Make a DIY Rainbow Marker   

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Easy Origami Yoda Tutorial

So... I folded this origami pikachu with my son.  And after folding it together, it suddenly dawned on me.  If I just tweaked the ears to my original directions, I could make a Yoda instead.  (What?  Love it when those "aha!" moments hit.)  If  you're a Star Wars lover (or raising some little Star Wars lovers), definitely check today's post out.  Tada!  I'm sharing my easy instructions for folding an origami Yoda!

How to Fold Origami Yoda (The Super Easy Way)

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Easy Origami Pikachu Tutorial

We've gotten hooked onto Pokemon Go.  I kept holding off on the app, but once my husband showed my son.... he fell in love with the little critters, especially Pikachu.  Pikachu was always my favorite too, so it was neat to share that with him.  We recently made this super easy origami pikachu together.  (Oh yes! Another paper folding craft!)  It was such a fun kids craft that I'm sharing the step-by-step folding directions over here!  

How to Fold an Origami Pikachu

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(And yes.  These instructions are so easy that even an almost 5 year old can make it!)

Dip Dye Kids Art Project

If you're looking for the easiest, funnest, cheapest, and most colorful kids summer art project... you're at the right place.  We've been dying up a storm over here and turning plain old paper towels into lovely dip dye art!

How to Make Dip Dye Art With Kids

Dancer Paper Snowflakes

Does your child love to dance?  Then these dancer snowflakes are just the paper craft for you.  Dainty, fluttery, and lovely, they are sure to amaze children of all ages!

How to Cut Paper Dancer Snowflakes

Rainbow Snowflake Cutouts

Bet you read the title and thought... what?  Rainbow snowflakes?  Well, I had a tough time figuring what to name this rainbow craft.  Is it a snowflake craft?  Is it considered kirigami?  I'm not sure. All I know is that it's a cute and fun paper cutting craft for rainbow-loving kids to try out.

Let's Cut Rainbow Snowflakes

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Sparkly Sand Castle Art

Hello everyone!   How has your summer been so far?  Visited the beach yet?  Well... today's craft is a beach-inspired one. Today we're sharing a fun sand castle summer craft.  All you need is some sand and some glue and tada!  You've got an easy breezy summer art project perfect for kids for all ages!

Let's Make Some Sparkly Sand Art

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Summer Bug Cards for Kids

Bugs, bugs, bugs.  We've got bugs on the mind over here!  

So we made some cute bug themed birthday cards. 

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Build Your Own Unique Wooden Car

Ever since my eldest son was young, he LOVED cars.  Is your child that way too?  Then you'll understand why we've done a ton of car crafts over here on the blog.  And boy are you in for a treat with today'd post.  Tada!  My husband and son designed and built their very own wooden car... for free!

  Let's Build A Wooden Car!

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Family Watercolor Hand print Art

I'm always a bit nervous about transitions in life.  And having a new baby has certainly been a humongous transition for our whole family.  Diapers, giggles, crying, baby snuggles... we're still trying to find our new groove as a family of four.  So I came up with this hand print art project to do with my eldest son.  Despite all the crazy chaos that this stage of life brings, I still wanted to celebrate our family.

Family Watercolor Hand Print Art  

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Summer Camp No Sew Felt Pillows

It's time for another easy summer kids craft! Awhile back I tried out a box from Little Loving Hands and made a cute no-sew felt tie heart pillow with my son.  It was so fun making that easy pillow that we made another!  Today I'm sharing these two adorable no-sew felt lion and sun pillows!

Here's the lion pillow....

Tape Resist Dinosaur Bone Art (And our favorite 10+ Dinosaur Books!)

I love it when an art and science combine to create a beautiful and easy kids STEM project. When I was growing up science, math, and art were always treated as fairly different topics.  And I get why they taught us that way... it's easier and we get to dig down deep into each one.  But I wish that my kid self also experienced how all three things topics were linked.  Don't artist use math and science when making art?  Isn't there beauty in math and science? Certainly!  And so my inner nerd and artist gets very excited when my son and I do a project that touches on what seem to be different areas.

Ok... but I digress.  Recently my son and I visited our local natural history museum's dinosaur exhibit and marveled at the size and design of t-rex bones.  (Gosh.  Those are some ferocious creatures!  So glad they don't live today.  Eeek.)  So, inspired by that visit and this awesome human skeleton tape resist painting idea, we made our own very beautiful and scientific tape resist dinosaur bone skeleton paintings! 

Tape Resist Dinosaur Bone Paintings 

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Rainbow Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (2 ways!)

Remember that Skittles commercial where we were encouraged to "taste the rainbow?"  Weeeeeellll... I took it one step further.  Today I'm sharing yet another rainbow-themed craft.  If you're NOT a fan of food coloring, avert your eyes!  But if you're ok with using it once in awhile for creativity's sake, then read on, fellow color lovers!  Here are two ways to make... (wait for it...)  rainbow grilled cheese sandwiches!!!

Rainbow Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (2 ways!)

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Father's Day Super Hero Comic Book Picture Frame

Fathers, stop reading this post and step out of the room!  (Are they gone?  Good!) Now that they've left, let's talk Father's Day Crafts. Is there a guy in your life who is a super dad?  Um hmm..  Thought so.  And would you and the kids like to make him an awesome gift?  Yup.  Thought so too.  Well, you came to the right place.  My son and I L-O-V-E super hero crafts and recently whipped up this super hero comic inspired frame to give my husband for Father's Day.

(Shhh! Don't tell him!)

Father's Day Super Hero Picture Frame 

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Lovely Yarn Wrapped Rocks

Got yarn?  Got rocks?  Good.  Then you have all the materials needed for today's summer craft.  We'll be doing some easy rock wrapping!

Lovely Yarn Wrapped Rocks

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Cheap, Easy, and Creative Super Hero Party Ideas

A couple of weeks ago my son graduated from preschool.  I didn't think I would get emotional... but I did.  I felt kinda sad-happy realizing that he wasn't a baby anymore.  Oh boy, I'm starting to feel a bit emotional right now.  Yeesh... must.. toughen.. up.... Ahem.  Anyway, back to introducing today's post...

Our preschool celebrated with a super hero themed graduation party.  All the moms and dads came together to plan a really fun day for the kids. I was so impressed by everyone's creativity.  I just had to share the super hero-themed activities and crafts here because I know a ton of you probably have super hero loving kids at home too.

So put on your super hero capes and get ready for some...

Cheap, Easy, and Creative Super Hero Party Ideas!

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100 Color Challenge

Ever wonder just how big 100 really is?  Lately my son and I have been talking about numbers.  While small numbers are easy to imagine... large numbers always seem quite vague.  100?  1,000?  1,000,000?  10,000,000?  We just don't have much experience dealing with numbers larger than 20 in the real world.  So I came up with this really easy combination math activity and art activity.  We challenged ourselves to make 100 colors together!

100 Color Challenge!

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Rainbow Paper Plate Weaving Project

I've been a bit down in the dumps lately.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's because of all of the transitions happening in my life... or lack of sleep... or both.  Hopefully I'll feel better once summer starts.  In the meantime, I've been doing quite a bit of crafting to cheer myself up.  Recently I took my love of rainbow crafts and combined it with my love for paper plate crafts to make... tada!  This lovely rainbow paper plate weaving craft!

Let's Weave a Rainbow!

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30+ Awesomely Unique and Fun Paper Plate Crafts for Kids!

It's no secret that I LOVE paper plate crafts!   Wanna make my heart sing?  Hand me a bunch of blank paper plates.  Seriously.  No joke. (Ok- Crafter confessional here- I've even snuck interesting paper plates out of parties before to craft with... shhhh... )

If you follow me on Instagram you'll see that I'm this week's #kidscrafts101 judge! Yup!  Every week there's a fun challenge to craft with a different material.  This week's theme is... drum roll please... paper plates! I know all of you and your kids have such creative ideas, so I'd love to see your ideas on IG!  (Just use the #kidscrafts101 so I can see your great ideas!)

And in honor of this week's theme, I thought I'd also share my absolute favorite paper plate crafts!

30+ Super Fun and Unique Paper Plate Crafts for Kids!

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Tiny God's Eye Woven Pendants

The quest for super fun and easy summer crafts continues!  A couple of days ago we made these adorable woven turtles out of popsicle sticks. They were a hit!  And of course... that got me thinking... is it possible to make even tinier God's eye crafts that you can wear?  Well.  The answer is YES!  Today I'm sharing these tiny God's Eye Woven Pendants.  You an make a whole bunch to wear or give them away to friends!

Tiny God's Eye Woven Pendants

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