Day 5: Popsicle stick crafts

Day 5: Popsicle stick sleds ornaments.

It's difficult to do the prep work for a surprise craft for the kids while they are at school, if they don't actually go to school. Two were home sick yesterday and are home sick, again, today. I had planned to pre-make some popsicle stick sleds like these ones I found at tidbits. But I didn't get the chance. I had finally found some popsicle sticks at WalMart. (They had restocked, because I was there the other day and no luck!) I had to choose between buying a box of 1000 regular sized ones or a bag of 75 jumbo ones. I decided to get the jumbo ones. For two reasons: #1 What the heck am I going to do with 1000 popsicle sticks?! #2 The jumbo ones were half the price. Not per unit, obviously, but 75 will still last me quite a while!

So, there I was last night, wondering what am I going to do now? I decided to consult my best friend, Google. She's always there for me. :) I googled "popsicle stick sled ornaments" to see if it was possible to still get it done or if the kids could do it on their own and I found this great, simple idea. Popsicle stick ornaments! No sleds, just turn the sticks into cute ornaments with paint and scraps! And, it was a perfect craft for jumbo sized popsicle sticks. I already had brand new craft paint for when we're going to paint Christmas bird houses. And googly eyes, because who doesn't have googly eyes! I painted a quick example, I mean Clyde made one really quick to have in the morning. And while it dried, he crocheted a simple scarf to finish it off. He is such a talented elf!

He "hid" on the tree, because where else would you hide with an ornament craft? But he left all the supplies for the kids on the dining room table.

The kids were very excited to get to work. We spread out some newspaper. Okay, it was a Best Buy flier, but it did the trick! Those Black Friday/Cyber Monday adds are thick! Not joking, it was 40 pages long! They were half -pages, but still!

 Excited! 

 Sick kid bed head. Waiting for the paint to dry.

Clyde left 3 popsicle sticks for each kid. They made a snowman one first. I had the idea of making an elf one, too. A few tips: I used a toothpick to apply the glue for the googly eyes. I didn't have brown paint for the elf's hair, so I mixed a little orange with a little green and added one drop of red. It was the perfect brown! I also used a toothpick for the thin, white stripe on the gift the elf is holding. And we used a sharpie for the smile on the snowman and the elf. Also for the black line creating the split between the elf legs.

By the way, we didn't add a string to our popsicle stick ornaments. We just leaned them against some branches. It worked just fine! But you could easily add a piece of yarn if you wanted to.

Matthew's Snowman

Katie's snowman. It's a girl. See the lips. :)

 

Their cool mom might crochet some scarves for the little snowmen. But they look good without one, too. 

 

If you're a little sick of crafts, don't worry. Tomorrow's activity is going to play at the park. We have a great park less than a 1/2 mile away, but we don't go very often. The kids will be very happy that Clyde says we have to go to the park. That way, I can't say no. :)