Make a calico gingerbread person for the Christmas tree...

        To sew these cute stuffed gingerbread people your will need the following supplies: white embroidery floss, white yarn, white ribbon, white beads for the eyes, a white button, white eyelet lace, scrapes of brown calico, cotton batting and a needle with both brown and white spools of thread.

Above on the left, is our gingerbread boy sporting a button shaped belly button and a
straight stitched bow tie. On the right, is our girl version using the same pattern
with an eyelet lace skirt and a tiny flower trim at her neck.

       The pattern for the gingerbread ornaments can be downloaded from this post. Cut out the pattern and trace around it using a pencil. With the right sides facing together sew around two pieces of calico leaving a one inch opening to turn your gingerbread person inside out. Stuff a bit of batting inside the opening and then whip stitch it closed. 

       Using your embroidery floss and needle, stitch straight seams around the outside of the gingerbread person to accentuate his or her cookie body-shape. Then give your person a broad smile and other accents. Sew on the white beads for your person's eyes and also trim the outside edges with a bit of white yarn and needle with white thread. Add more faux "icing" if you like! These fun homespun ornaments are both "child" and "pet" proof, so hang them lowest on your Christmas tree branches...

Make a gumball ornament with kids...

The finished gumball machine ornament
for kids to cut, color and glue together.

    To make a simple cardboard ornament like this one with your kids you will need the following art supplies: colored pencils, cardboard, pom-poms, a recycled metal spout from a salt box, white school glue, hot glue gun and glue, the pattern to trace around (it is located here.), a wire hook for hanging the finished gumball machine ornament.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Download and print out the pattern with a template for the gumball machine.
2. Cut out the gumball pattern and trace around it on top of a nice piece of cardboard using a soft lead pencil.
3. Cut out the cardboard background and draw in the rest of the design lightly to look just like the photo of our gumball Christmas ornament on the right.
4. Color in the globe with a pale blue pencil and color in the stand for the gumball machine with a bright red pencil.
5. Now glue in colorful pom-poms to act as "gumballs" for your candy machine.
6. Ask an adult to help you hot glue on the metal salt spout and then glue another pom-pom inside of this at last.
7. Poke a hole at the top of the gumball machine and work a wire hanger through it for hanging on the tree.

More Gumball Machine Crafts:

• Craft a Small Wooden Gumball Machine
• A Gumball Machine Provides More Than One Cent of Fun

       "Would we know the joy of Christ on Christmas Day? That joy and delight springs forever from the feeling that we are doing good, loving and living and giving happiness to others with no thought of the self.'' by Lucille Browne, Age 16

See our family's micca dusted cardboard houses from Japan...

Although these houses sparkle a bit more under the lighted tree, their micca dusted roof-tops are not a self-evident in the following photos.

Above is the largest "glitter" house in our collection that was mass-produced in Japan after WWII.
It looks much like the trending Mid-Century Modern homes of America at that time.
It has a simple sloped roof and a few bottle brush trees trim it's edges.

     

This tiny house is a bit peculiar in that it looks something like a platform for a train station instead
of a house. It's slanted and also has a hole in the back for a tiny Christmas tree light to shine through;
 all of these examples have holes like these.

Here we have a 'barn' shaped cottage with a gambrel roof and fancy arched windows.
This house is painted a Christmas red. Because these homes are very light weight,
they are most frequently hung on the feather trees in our home during the holidays.

Last, but not least favored is the blue house, with a gable and double front door.
It is probably one of the most popular shapes for glitter house ornaments of it's era.

Find More Authentic Japanese Designs Here:

• "Papa Ted's Place!" - History of the "Dimestore Christmas Village Houses"
• Merry The's Christmas Collection: Village & Houses

Glitter houses from Japan in a train display, 

both slides and video at the end.

By FlyerJazz

Make an igloo home for a peanut penguin...

The finished igloo ornament hangs on fir branches.
Older children will enjoy the challenge of this project.
I will include a 3-D igloo project on our blog later.
Go here to download a penguin pattern for your 
classroom crafts at Thrifty Scissors.

   Here is my first penguin project for our giant Christmas ornament craft collection. Several of our readers have requested him this year...

Supply List:

• narrow wooden craft sticks
• clamps for craft process
• white school glue
• hot glue gun and hot glue
• one peanut with shell
• tiny bit of craft foam sheet (for feet)
• acrylic paints: black, white, blue and grey
• one toothpick (for beak)
• two tiny google eyes
• Mod Podge
• twine for hanging
• heavy cardboard
• Igloo template (below)

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut out the igloo template and place it on top of a heavy piece of cardboard to trace around.
2. Cut out the igloo from the cardboard.
3. Use clamps and white school glue for the next steps. Measure and cut each craft stick as you line them up for gluing directly onto the cardboard igloo cut-out. (see photos below) Clamp these down as they dry to prevent the cardboard from warping.
4. Keep going until the outer part of the igloo design is finished. The inner part of the igloo which represents the front opening to the ice block home, is crafted with cardboard cut-outs. These are cut one by one and stacked several pieces thick. The 'door' opening is left without dimension and painted black.
5. After the igloo has been constructed, hot glue your penguin, which is a peanut, in front of the door.
6. Next glue on his eyes, and then cut a small slice from a toothpick for his beak and glue it on. Attach a pair of feet cut from a small piece of craft foam in the shape of a heart.
7. Using a pencil, draw the ice bricks onto the igloo and paint these in shades of grey, ivory, blue and white. I used a dry brush technique for mine.
8. Paint also the penguin using black for his backside and white for his front. 

Left, you can see how I lined up the wooden craft sticks and cut these to fit in a row.
Right, here you can see how I clamped these down during drying time.
This helps prevent warping.

Left, the peanut in it's shell is hot glued in place and the ice bricks are drawn directly on the
wooden craft sticks. Right, everything has been painted.

Templates for several Christmas ornament crafts coming soon.
Above are the patterns for the igloo, thus far.

The Unknown Giver...

Cuddle Baby Jesus.

        Dear Grace or dear Robert, if you and I can remember how many people there are in the world who are working for us every day, though we do not know it, that will be a good Christmas memory for you and me. Not only on Christmas morning, but every morning, our daily bread comes to us because a thousand brave men and a thousand brave women are at work in the world trying to do God's will here as it is done everywhere else in His heaven. We will not forget this as we meet at Christmas, on this blessed Christmas Day.

       Christmas sets one careening back a little, to look at that mysterious connection of Rome with Christianity, which has held on so steadily since the first Christmas got itself put on historical record by a Roman census maker. Humanly speaking, it is nothing more nor less than a Roman census which makes the word Bethlehem to be a sacred word over all the world today. To any person who sees the humorous contrasts of history there is reason for a bit of a smile when he thinks of the way this census came into being, and then remembers what came of it. Here was a consummate movement of Augustus, who would fain have the statistics of his empire. Such excellent things are statistics. So Augustus orders his census, and his census is taken. This Quirinus, or Quirinius, pro-consul of Syria, was the first man who took it there, says the Bible. Doubtless it was a great staff achievement of Quirinus, and made much talk in its time. And it is so well condensed at last, and put into tables with indexes and averages, as to be very creditable, I will not doubt, to the census bureau. But alas! as time rolls on, things change, so that this very Quirinus, who, with all a pro-consul's power, took such pains to record for us the number of people there were in Bethlehem and in Judah, would have been clean forgotten himself, and his census, too, but that things turned bottom upward. The meanest child born in Bethlehem when this census business was going on happened to prove to be the King of the World. It happened that he overthrew the dynasty of Caesar Augustus, and his temples, and his empire. It happened that everything which was then established tottered and fell, as the star of this child arose. And the child's star did rise.

Mary and Joseph. 2020

Make a giraffe ornament using recycled cork...

My finished cork giraffe is very light weight.

        Save your left over wine corks for this light weight tree ornament representing a long-necked giraffe.

Supply List:

• two long wine corks and three shorter wine corks
• hot glue gun and hot glue
• brown and yellow yarn
• acrylic paints: yellow, browns, black and white
• two thumb tacks with bead tips
• two scales from a pine cone
• white school glue
  

Step-by-Step Instructions: 

1. Hot glue the recycled wine corks in the order shown in the photograph, just right. After the glue cures for a few hours the cork is ready for painting. Parents may choose to do this part of the craft ahead of time so that kids aren't handling the glue gun.
2. Paint the entire giraffe body a golden yellow.
3. Paint the hooves of the giraffe black.
   
4. Paint on the spots of the giraffe.
5. Tie the giraffes mane by cutting one long piece of yarn that measures the length that you need. Now tie shorter strands of yarn in alternating colors, yellow and brown down the length of the longer strand. Trim the mane to a short length and hot glue it to the neck of the giraffe.
6. Hot glue two scales to each side of the cork head to make the giraffe ears. see photo.
   
7. Squeeze out a bit of white school glue onto the tips of the beaded thumb tacks. Gently push these into the top of the head between the ears of the giraffe, these are the short hairy horns of the animal.
8. Paint the horns brown.
9. Paint the smile and eyes of the giraffe next.
10. Hot glue a few strands of yarn onto the back end of the giraffe's body to act as his tail.
    

How wine corks are made...

DIY Velvet Capped Mushrooms

Velvet capped mushroom ornaments. She has yet to sew in 
the ribbons for hanging them.

    These velvet capped mushrooms are the latest additions to my eldest daughter's Christmas tree. She purchased the wooden 'stems' from a dollar store and raided our family sewing basket for the lace trim. The mushrooms are finished with glass seed beads on top of the stuffed caps. 

Supply List:

• hot glue and hot glue gun
• velvet scraps
• lace trim
• cut stick segments or recycled corks
• seed beads 
• batting

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut 4 to 5 inch circles from the velvet for the caps.
2. Gather these around the edges and stuff with just a bit of batting before pulling the thread taunt and sewing them firmly at the top of each wooden stem. (trunk)
3. Use the hot glue to adhere the caps permanently. 
4. Hot glue the lace near the underside of each cap.
5. Sew the beads in random fashion on top of the tufted caps.

More Mushroom Crafts in Our Collections:

• Capturing the veiled lady in cotton...
• Grandpa's Wooden Morels
• DIY Cotton Batting Mushroom/Toadstool Christmas Ornaments