Christmas Thumbprint Craft for Kids

We are into the fourth week of the Savvy Sassy Moms Holiday Blog Hop, and I'm a host along with these lovelies:

Amy Gene at O'Leary Love
Angela at Playing with Words
Carrie Beth and Jen at Magnolia Mamas
Sara at Running from the Law

The topic for this week? Holiday Crafts for Kids. RIGHT UP MY ALLEY, so let's get to it and be sure to link up at the end of this post with your own ideas.

One of the easiest crafts I've done with my kids is the 'thumbprints as Christmas lights' idea you'll see all over Pinterest. I have done many-a-thumbprint crafts each year for grandparent gifts and let's just say that some of them have not turned out as great as this one. I think simple is better, and my little Picassos always need some guidance with these if I want them to resemble anything like the original Pinterest inspiration.

So here you go, a string of lights composed of those cherished little finger prints:

We've made these a few times, but my best pictures are from our first round a few years ago. I have a lot of extra 4x6" photo paper laying around, so I decided to use that for this project (easy to make it fit in a frame!). We used acrylic paints that you can find in any craft store (my favorite is Michaels!)


I let Truman dip his fingers into the paints and spread out four photo papers for him to use. We got a little wild at first, quite 'abstract' if you will.


I found that we had the best luck if I helped guide his finger down into a specific path, like a wavy line of lights. Then I drew the actual string and the little bases of the lights, added his name and the date, and voila! The grandparents can set this out with their holiday decor for a festive and personalized gift. I should have made myself a copy, perhaps I will this year!

Other ideas (a.k.a. Thank you, Pinterest!):

Christmas Wreaths: just glued the photo paper onto Christmas scrapbooking paper.


Christmas Scene (warning, this was quite involved. I used actual ink pads and got decent results but meh).


Thumbprint 'love from afar': I love this one! I cut out little states that I found online for free, then used the remaining paper as my actual template. So the kids were fingerprinting right up against the border of the paper from my state cut out (does this make sense?). I had the kids each use two colors and created a little key below the states to show whose adorable finger print is whose. The hearts are paper punches and our long-distance brothers love these in a frame for a gift.



I need some fresh ideas for our 'crafty' gifts this year, and Pinterest is showing me a lot of the same old stuff so far. So now it's your turn to share your ideas with our link up, and I can't wait to see your posts!

Readers need to:

• Link up their favorite holiday craft for kids by putting the URL and name of their blog post into the InLinkz widget below.
• Visit 3-5 other blogs in the Holiday Blog Hop and leave a comment on their posts.
• Share this Holiday Blog Hop with your friends and readers on social media using the #SavvySassyHoliday hashtag.
• Come back next week for the Holiday Drinks theme!
  
  

An InLinkz Link-up

Cecelia Says

A few things I never want to forget about our firecracker, at age 3.5:



Questions about Jesus, while clutching her new prayer box that she made at Sunday School:

-Are you sure Jesus sees us?
-Is God scary?
-Are monsters real?
-I want to see Jesus's house, can we go there? Like on Saturday? We'll have to fly there, I guess.
-Does Jesus have a dog?
-Is Jesus a princess?
-Are there really princesses? (Can we see the real princess in England sometime?)
-God doesn't like when we say 'Oh my god,' he likes when we say 'oh my gosh.' Like that, yeah, like that.
-Dear God, thank you for my clock, my iPod, and my blanket. And for Truman. And butterflies. Amen.



After learning a song in Spanish (apparently) for their Christmas program at church, I was telling CC and Truman about how Nate and I lived in Spain during college.

C: "Is college fun?"
Me: (after pausing, smiling to myself, thinking of a million memories) "Yes, college is super fun."
C: "Do they have Legos there? Or just toys?"





One night after dinner I hear Cecelia yelling, 'Come here, Rebecca!! REBECCA! Get over here!' She was yelling this over and over and Porter was squealing in delight, because he was 'Rebecca.' We don't know any Rebeccas, so this is especially random.



Yes, Cecelia, you are far more than just your curls (although those are pretty spectacular, too).


You love chapsticks, your baby dolls, coloring with markers, candy, and stalling at bedtime. You are fearless, you are tough, and you are still somehow delicate and full of such charisma it's scary.





We love the heck out of you and hope you always know it. You are the best source of entertainment we know.

Countdown to Christmas Paper Link Chain

I really enjoy DIY crafting projects, as most of you probably already know if you've been reading this blog for more than a day. Savvy Sassy Moms has their Holiday Blog Hop set to the tune of 'Dazzling DIY' this week. I'm not hosting it, so you'll have to link up with one of the hosts (Life Anchored, O'Leary Love, Simply Girly, The Nashville Mom, and Mainely Mama). But I had to jump on board to the DIY party with this one, since I just made one of my annual favorites the other night.

Paper link chains are my favorite way to help little ones conceptualize time, and they seem to make waiting for an exciting event slightly more tolerable. Sure, sometimes my kids might fight over who gets to tear off one of the links but overall I think these are great. Instead of asking, 'Is Christmas tomorrow?' Cecelia now says, 'Christmas is when all of those links are gone.' So far she hasn't torn off every single link in one sitting yet, but only time will tell. They love to run downstairs and tear off the daily link right away and I have yet to solidify our routine (taking turns each day, one tears off and one throws away, simultaneous teamwork?).

This is really easy to make, maybe 30 minutes start to finish.

How To:

1. You'll need some sort of print out for the base, which I guess is optional, and the paper links could stand alone. This makes it more 'finished' in my opinion. My 'countdown to Christmas' print was a free printable online, and since it's two years old I cannot find it anywhere. But there are about a billion similar versions, this blog has several that I like.



I printed this, then cut it out and used scrapbooking sticky tabs to glue it on a printed paper for extra color. One year I punched holes and tied this paper onto a yarn-wrapped wreath that I made. The other years this DIY craft has donned our walls I've strung ribbon through my two holes at the top and then hung it up on a nail. Super easy, I swear. I added one little piece of paper to the bottom of my square to secure the entire chain. I'm no engineer but for some reason I thought this was necessary.

2. Printed Christmas paper time! I have a pack from Michaels that is by K&Company, but pick any papers you like. I'm a big fan of a pack of papers like this though, since this is an easy way to have Christmas paper on hand for many projects!


3. My papers are about 6"x9" so when cutting strips for the links, I get about three strips per paper. I use a template once I decide how thick I want to go, but I do not worry about perfection here. It really doesn't matter, but the thicker the strips the more compact the chain will be. If you go long and skinny for your strips, you'll have a very long paper chain which might be harder to keep on the wall without it dragging on the ground in early December.



Yes, beer is usually a necessity with this and any DIY craft;)


Cut the strips:


4. Then start stapling them together. I just put one staple on either side.




Continue the links until you have 25 of them, assuming you let the kids start tearing off on December 1st.

Awww, baby Truman helping me three years ago (when he had a black eye, poor guy).


My first paper chain for Christmas had skinnier links, I see.

Then last year, for my second paper chain, I went a little thicker. Also the kids are so stinking young here!!

And this year! They are more excited than they look, and yes I know I'm missing a child here.


Ta Da!




Easy and quick, but effective! I think the printed Christmas papers make the project more fun and I'm sure I could let the kids 'help' me with this at some point. I guess! Let the countdown begin...