Winter Craft Round Up

Here is a round up of some of my favorite winter crafts from the past couple of years:

Click on the pictures below to learn how to make each craft.   

Felt Christmas Tree

I thought it would be fun to have a large felt tree in the children's section of the library with felt ornaments to trim the it with.  The tree on the book shelf is about 2 1/2 feet tall.  I made a slightly larger one to hang in my Storytime room as well.  The kids will have fun decorating a tree over and over!

 

What you will need:

• Large piece of green felt
• lots of colorful felt for the ornaments (scrap pieces work great for this)
• Permanent markers
• Tape (to adhere felt tree to shelf)
• Scissors
• Pictures of ornaments to trace(optional)

 

Here's the tree all decorated and attached to the side of the shelf. 

The tree is just waiting for little ones to decorate it. 

I made a basket of ornaments for the kids to use.  I will be making a few extra sets incase ornaments get ruined or disappear.  :-) 

Enjoy! 

 

3-D Paper Tree

I found this little guy on Pinterest.  There's an awesome photo tutorial here.  I plan to make this with my teen art club and use them to decorate our gingerbread house display next month.  These are quick and easy to make and you can use all sorts of paper.  My first attempt is below and I made that using regular copier paper.  All you need to do is make sure you start off with a square, fold the paper according to the directions and snip the sides with a pair of scissors. 

Enjoy!

3-D Christmas Tree

I was cleaning out some things in my storage room and came across this craft I did a few years ago.  It's definitely one I want to revisit this year.  There's a bit of prep work involved, but it makes an adorable decoration.  

What you need:

• Foam tree cutouts, I used my Die Cut machine and cut my own.
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun & glue
• old CDs
• Sequins
• Small holiday decorations
• School glue
• Glitter or fake snow

To make the tree take two tree cutouts and using scissors cut half way through the middle of the tree from top to bottom.  On the other tree cut half way through the middle from bottom toward the top.  Fit the two pieces together by placing them snug into the slots you just cut.  

Using your hot glue gun attach the tree to the middle of the CD with the shiny side of the CD facing up.  Once the tree is dried and standing straight up, glue on the other decorations.  I used a small present and a tiny candy cane.  Now it's ready for the kids!

Have the kids use school glue to add sequins for ornaments.  Once the sequins are on, have the kids spread glue all over the CD and put the white glitter or fake snow on top of the CD.

Enjoy!

Winter/Holiday books for Young Adults

After searching for what seemed like days I have found a nice selection of YA books that have either a winter or holiday theme for the season.  I've been working on a display in the Teen Lounge and found enough of these books in my collection to make it look alright.  :-)
Here's what I've come up with.

• Icing on the Lake by Catherine Clark
• Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
• Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater 
• Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn
• The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
• The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean
• Trapped by Michael Northrop
• Winter's End by Jean-Claude Mourlevat
• Let it Snow by John Green
• Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
• Love on the Lifts by Rachel Hawthorne
• Sun & Moon, Ice & Snow by Jessica Day George
• As Simple As Snow by Gregory Galloway
• Kissing Snowflakes by Abby Sher
• Far From You by Lisa Schroeder
• Secret Santa by Sabrina James
• Winter's Kiss by Jennifer Echols
• Winter Town by Stephen Emond
• Snowed In by Rachel Hawthorne
• Mistletoe: Four Holiday Stories by Hailey Abbott

Glitter, glitter everywhere: 3-D Stars

It looks like my desk was bombed by glitter faeries, but I had a lot of fun making this 3-D star.  I know the teens will enjoy them too next Art Club.  Of course, I got the idea for these from Pinterest.  Here is a link to how to make them.  3-D STARS 

The cool think about this is you can have teens or yourself save cereal boxes and cut your stars right out of that or any other cardboard you have on hand.  I save thin cardboard from packages all the time because they come in handy for projects like this.  These stars will sit nicely on a window sill or mantel. You can also add some ribbon when attaching the sides together and make a nice ornament.  The star I made is as about 4 inches tall.

It's a bit hard to tell through all the glitter in this picture but it is 3-D.  

Here is the picture from Pinterest: 

Enjoy!