It's "Ornamental"!

I love handmade ornaments. Some of my favorites are the ones that my kids have made at school. But even better are the ornaments we have made together! This year we took plain glass ornaments and covered them with beads (pictured on the left).

Plain, clear glass ornaments are perfect for customizing because there are so many possibilities! And, barring any gravity-related tragedies, they will be treasured for years to come.

To create the ones pictured here:

Bead Covered Ornament

Use a small paintbrush to cover the entire ornament with a generous layer of Tacky Glue. Then roll the ornament in a bowl full of tiny glass beads. Hang it to dry overnight.

Stuffed Ornament (the one in the middle)

In the one pictured, we simply put a few strips of sheer shiny fabric into the ornament. You could also fill your ornament with tiny paper snowflakes, sparkly yarn, Christmas confetti, or any other light-weight material that you think would look snazzy.

Paint Swirl Ornament

Choose two shades of acrylic craft paint. In ours we used metallic gold and plain white. Squirt a generous amount of each color on opposite sides of the inside of the ornament. Shake gently to spread the paint, then leave it to dry overnight before replacing the ornament cap.

Other Ideas

• Paint the outside of the ornament with a fun Christmas design and/or your child's name and the year.
• Use glue to draw a simple design, then sprinkle with glitter.
• Tie a ribbon to the top of the ornament in place of a hook.

Will you try these? What types of ornaments have you made with your kids?

Playing in the leaves

Today was an unseasonably GORGEOUS fall day. 

We spent it raking and playing with leaves! We have the misfortune of having no trees in our yard, so we traipsed across the street to an elderly neighbor's house and asked if we could have their leaves. They seemed happy to oblige.... we cleaned up their yard and brought the piles home! 

All kids like to jump in a pile of leaves. Now, what else can they think of? 

My kids played a game they invented, like a combination of duck-duck-goose and tag, with some leaf-throwing and pile jumping involved. They also:

were eggs in a nest

made leaf-angels

target-practiced with foam swords

and, oh yeah: they did plenty of jumping!

Happy raking!