Christmas crafts

Now that Christmas is over I can post pictures of some gifts I made this year. Here is the family tree we gave to Dave's parents. It was one of the projects at the super Saturday craft day in October, which I couldn't go to because Levi was just a week old. But I loved it so much I made them later on my own. I also did one for Josh and Megan and one to keep. If you're interested, here's the tutorial.

The other major project this year was shell ornaments. It all started when Spencer begged to make something to sell at the school's annual craft bazaar. I am always against this kind of thing. Emphatically so. I hate to sell things. I don't need more work right before Christmas. And as much as he promised he'd do it all on his own, I knew I'd end up getting hugely involved. He was coming up with all kinds of ideas that made me cringe. He even collected bags full of pine cones. Then one day I looked online for simple Christmas craft ideas, and I found these. Now this was something I could actually get excited about. It was simple. Cute. Something I would want myself. Even if he didn't sell any, I'd love to give them as gifts. And since he's all about the ocean, it seemed like the perfect thing for him to do.

So we made a trip to the Shell Shop (my kids' favorite store in the world) and bought a variety of shells. They sell ornaments there too, which helped give us ideas.

There were some shells he really liked, but they were so expensive that he'd have to sell them at a high price to make a profit. We were going for cheap. Like this cut shell that only costs 50 cents. He painted it green and added glitter. Then he sold them for $1.

These longer ones looked like icicles, so we painted them white and added glitter. My favorite thing about these ornaments was that the boys (Tyler helped) could make them almost completely by themselves.

These sand dollar snowmen were a little more complicated, but I thought they were so cute. I'm not artistic, but I can handle decorating with dots.

Here's another snowman. More dots.


We had the most fun with these starfish santas. They were the biggest ticket item at $3.

Don't you just love the polka dot swimming suit?! I got the idea for this one from google images. Kristen's boys also made these, and they glued theirs to shell surfboards.

Spencer really wanted to buy these heart-shaped shells, but they were kinda small and we didn't know what to do with them. So we stuck them on these circle shells and added some things we had around the house - beads for heads and silver rings for halos, and we ended up with these cute angels. We only made 3 of them, but they were the first to sell. After all our work, the school decided not to do the craft bazaar this year! But his teacher, who had gotten him all excited about doing it, said he could go around the school and sell them on his own anyway. They were a huge hit, and he made $26. He had SO much fun selling them! I can't even begin to tell you. He came home with his pockets full of quarters and dollar bills every day, grinning from ear to ear. Then we gave some as gifts and kept the rest. We might even do it again next year.