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Welcome to Day 15 of the Creative Christmas Countdown! I hope you enjoy making these simple ornaments with your kids!
I drew up some simple ornaments for the kids to color, printed them out, and handed them over. They traced the lines through onto the back of the printer paper so they could color both sides. Then we punched a hole in each ornament and added a bit of yarn to hang them on our tree. Very simple, and perfect for our very casually-decorated tree! We could have fancied them up with paint, glitter glue, or stickers, but the kids were happy with them as they were. We may still make some fancier ones between now and Christmas! I considered laminating them, but decided against it. If these tear, we’ll make some new ones.
The kids wanted to do some sewing as well, so I cut out some tree shapes from green felt, and handed them each a needle and thread. I had originally planned to have them stitch around the edges and stuff the middle, but decided two layers of felt were plenty thick – and, more importantly, if we weren’t stuffing, they could stitch wherever they liked! Can you guess which tree was sewn by which child?
They are all very proud of their ornaments – both the sewn ones and the colored ones. I added a loop of embroidery floss at the top of each sewn ornament, so they could hang from the tree. If I were doing this project with older children, I would probably give them beads or buttons to add as ornaments on their felt tree.
It was fun to watch each child deliberate over where to place their ornaments on the tree! The felt trees have stayed put, but Lily loves to move the paper ones around – and take them off the tree to carry around the house.
Want to make some of your own? Download the ornaments template!
Ornaments to Color or Sew
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Emma looks so lovely and grown-up with her hair pulled back.
I’m going to guess that Emma went around the edges, Johnny sewed a big gets-the-job-done X, and Lily enthusiastically decorated her tree in pink! :)
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maryanne Reply:
December 2nd, 2011 at 8:39 am
You know my kids pretty well! =)
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I love what they did with the felt ornaments, and I love that smocked dress.
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I love this idea! I might have to give it a try.
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Cute idea! It never occurred to me to give my kid’s a needle and thread but I think they’d have fun doing this. I love they were meticulous about where the ornaments were to go.
My daughter needs to make an ornament for school and this would be perfect. :)
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Awesome activity…the sewing made me smile…they do better than me!
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We do so many different art mediums but we’ve never used needle and thread. I don’t know why not! We are going to do this. Thank you for the idea. I like how each one of the children took a different approach.
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Cute! Emma’s dress is so pretty! I just love smocking. It’s hard to find after size 6x though.
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maryanne Reply:
December 3rd, 2011 at 10:11 am
I love smocking! I want to learn how to do it – and there’s a fabulous tutorial on ikatbag.com…
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I LOVE handmade ornaments on the Christmas tree!
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What a wonderful idea. I would love it if you would share it at my sharing party at http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2011/12/sharing-saturday-8.html. I’m your newest GFC follower.
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The ornaments turned out beautiful! Thank you for sharing your ideas with us on The Sunday Showcase
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l love this simple sewing idea that even Lily could do. Do you have a special needle for her?
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maryanne Reply:
December 3rd, 2011 at 10:25 pm
I usually have her use a dull-tip embroidery needle. I let her use a normal one this time, though, and she didn’t have any trouble.
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Very cute. Our tree is beginning to be filled with mostly ornaments the kids make.
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Thank you for sharing at Crafty Mom Share’s Sharing Saturday!
Visit Carrie … More Salt Dough Ornaments
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I have been feeling very behind this year and I think making things too hard on myself. I know ER would be just as happy with color and cut out ornaments. I think I’m going to do that with her tomorrow. Then I’ll feel better about doing something holidayish with her.
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Saw your linky at the Sunday Showcase, so wanted to pop by to say hello. Neat ornaments! Looks like fun!
Hope that you will come by my blog, Sunrise Learning Lab, and see what we are up to this week.
Colleen:)
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I love those felt trees. I am always on the look out for new sewing activties for my little one:)
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[...] Mama Smiles has a download of some ornaments to colour or for older children to sew, download the sheet and then cut up for colouring or cut up and draw onto felt for older children to cut up and sew to make some more ornaments for the tree. Snowflakes for the window made from Coffee Filter Papers [...]
[...] {Super Simple DIY Ornaments} [...]
What kind of needle do you let Lily use? Is it a duller needle, or has she just learned to be careful. (Wondering how to introduce sewing to my 3 year old – he does lacing now.)
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MaryAnne Reply:
December 18th, 2012 at 6:35 pm
I use a regular needle, and have never had a problem – zero pricked fingers. We do have a couple rules: you have to sit right next to mom, and you have to SIT the entire time you use it. If you get up or want to move around, you have to put your needle in your fabric and stick everything in a safe place FIRST. I feel like it’s actually safer than a blunt needle if you are using proper fabric – a blunt needle would require more pressure to push through fabric, and therefore there would be more pressure if it went into, say, an eye. Blunt needles are best for plastic canvas or the very loose weave that is used for cross stitch.
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Its a nice idea. We made ornaments with recycled plastic and that was a big hit too.
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MaryAnne Reply:
December 15th, 2012 at 9:22 pm
That’s a great idea!
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So cute. I love how they can sew!
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How cute! Admittedly we don’t have anything kid-made on our tree :( But our son did enjoy putting the ornaments up and adding his little knick knack toys on the tree afterwards haha.
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[...] 15 ~ Keep it simple with these Color and Sew Ornaments by Mama [...]