‘Tis the Season Crafts

The holiday spirit has hit me so it’s time to fire up the glue gun!  Remember my rules on crafts: easy, cheap, done in an hour, no trip to Michael’s, and major fabulous.  

Check out my “Where my kids at?” board on Pinterest to peep all of my kid-related finds.

These are winners because you don’t need to read any directions. Who wants to read directions?  Nobody, that’s who. I hate reading directions.  I just wanna look at a picture and get to it!

1. Turkey day banner
I have some burlap placemats that I don’t like so I’m going to cut off the edges and re-purpose for this project. How easy does this look? I’ll use a hole punch to punch holes in the top and then use picture hanging wire to create the hanger.

2.Fall leaf wreath – Say that 10 times fast…fall leaf wreath, fall leath wreath, fall leef wreeef.

My kids love to collect leaves and put into their collection box (aka empty shoe box). For this, make sure you have fresh-ish leaves because the crunchy ones make a mess.

We also used sticker balls (from sweetgum trees) and acorns for variety.

We made a few of these and gave to neighbors and grandmas. Big hit.

3. Wine cork reindeer ornament – Now, I know y’all have some wine corks laying around for all of that de-glazing of pans that you do.

You can do either one of these shown however I prefer the one that uses 1 cork and then sticks for the head, antler, and legs. It looks more rustic and it’s a lot easier!

We have oodles of buttons so we used buttons for the ears and small pom poms for the nose.

You could use construction paper for the nose, pipe cleaners/twine/sticks for the ears, etc. etc.

4. Bottle cap snowman ornament – You can make this even easier by simply gluing some bottle caps (that you have painted white) to a ribbon.

You do not need to double them up like she says on the site I’ve linked to.

You do not need to purchase un-pressed bottle caps on Etsy.

Surely you have some bottle caps you can rustle up at your house?

5. Advent calendar – We have an advent calendar however the problem is that the kids have to take turns each night. 

I used the pencil tool in Adobe Acrobat and personalized with the kids’ names.  

I printed on card stock and used a hole punch to punch holes at the top. Then, I used a wide red satin ribbon to hang it up.

6. Happy Birthday Jesus banner – I love a banner. They are so easy and so festive. I made one for Halloween, too.

Now, this lady is way smarter than me.

Instead of taping the letters onto the ribbon, she punched holes at the top of each letter and threaded ribbon through it. Mama likey.

You can re-use the Happy Birthday part throughout the year.

There you have it, my Smarty friends. Team Bowman tested and Smarty approved!