Seasonal - Sandpiper Creatives

Window Ornament Sun-Catchers

Here is a fun family craft that knows no age limit and isn’t messy. We each made our own ornament to display on our back door. The tree is window crayon, but you can completely skip that part if you prefer, and just “hang” your pretty ornaments or lights alone. These really took on a three-dimensional appearance, and they look pretty at night-time! This activity would also be fun to use on another holiday – think Easter eggs, shamrocks, hearts, stars, etc. And if you do all the prep work, this project would be perfect for very little children, and could make a great Sunday School project simply by adding a message about Christ or by making a cross.

Make ‘n’ Bake Christmas Ornament Recipe

After making our Autumn and Thanksgiving Decoration, we used the same Baker’s Clay recipe (below) to make Christmas ornaments. The clay is super simple to make (we only made a quarter of the amount in the recipe). After mixing our dough, we used a cookie cutter to cut it, and we used a toothpick to make the hole through which we later strung some hemp cord, but ribbon would be pretty, too. We left our ornaments with a natural look and only sugar sprinkles baked into the top, but if preferred, paint the ornaments with acrylic paints after baking for some beautiful color! (We really like metallic acrylic paints for some extra pizazz.)

Autumn Inspired Necklace

Ava and I made this pretty going-away-present for her Grandma. Ava picked up the acorn from our backyard and I made it into a bead using a little bit of cord wrapped around the stem and then secured with some krazy glue. We used the same cording and some pretty wooden beads to complete the necklace.

The two ends have a bead tied to them and are secured with more krazy glue. Putting one of the beads on a small loop, makes it possible to close the necklace by simply pushing the other bead through the loop, and allowing gravity to do the rest. Very simple.

Yes, that’s one of our painted autumn paper sacks which we used to present the necklace.

by Kimberly Farmer

Leaf Rubbing

Our eagerness for fall colors and cooler temperatures is continuing. Ava keeps asking if the leaves are going to change colors today. So, today we changed the colors of the leaves ourselves (at least on paper).

by Kimberly Farmer

Autumn Paper Sack

Autumn will be here soon (Yay!), and since we were in the mood for cooler weather on this scorching August day, Ava, Tim, and I painted Autumn with homemade stamps in the shapes of leaves. I made the leaf stamps using the tried-and-true method of cutting one out of a sponge, and carving the other out of half a potato. We painted on plain paper sacks (instead of art paper), so we can use them later for lunch sacks, putting an LED light inside for evening decoration, or to hold candy or cookies and give someone special. I must say, Tim rather impressed me… his work is the middle paper sack.

Our Supplies:

Paper bags

Tempera paint

Paper towels (for cleanup and for blotting)

Empty egg cartons (to hold paint)

Sponge & scissors (to make leaf stamp)

Potato & knife (to make leaf stamp)

by Kimberly Farmer

Autumn Napkin Rings

Ava and I made these autumn napkin rings together this week. Beads and raffia are all we needed. The project was fun, easy, cheap, clean, and turned out really cute. Plus, we will be able to reuse them over the years and talk about how we made them when she was little. Sometimes Ava strung the beads, and sometimes she handed me the colors I asked for as I strung them.

If you are unable to be with family this Thanksgiving, these would be sweet tied together with raffia and a card and mailed to your family to use for Thanksgiving. It will be a reminder at their dinner that you are thinking of them and wish you could be there, too.

Other Ideas:

Christmas – Trade the autumn-colored, natural-textured beads for sparkling, Christmas-colored ones and let your child go Christmas crazy.
Table Decoration – Instead of forming napkin rings, create one really long strand to wind around the yummy food dishes at your holiday table.
Bracelets – Instead of using raffia to string the beads, use stretchy string to make bracelets.
Place Cards – The napkin rings can do double-duty as place cards. Write each guest’s name on appropriately colored heavy paper and attach each one to a napkin ring with raffia or ribbon.