Budget friendly Christmas Craft for kids

I try to do an art or craft project with my son (Zac) every day, sometimes they are as simple as drawing with pencils/painting and other days we make collages with things like leaves or different items from our craft kit. I absolutely love craft (probably more so than my son) but not the “adult kinds” like scrapbooking etc. because I am far too messy to make anything that is actually presentable or even remotely artistic. Craft is a brilliant activity to do with your children, even just once a week or whenever you have time. It allows them to explore their imagination, learn new skills and ideas, develop their fine motor skills and it also gives them valuable quality time with you.

For Zacs birthday I made him a “craft box” I simply bought small bits and pieces (mainly from cheap shops like “Crazy Clarks”) like paints, feathers, sequins, glue, texta’s, paddle pop sticks, googly eyes and anything else I could find. It didn’t cost much and it’s a great gift for family and friends to “build on” for your child’s birthdays and Christmas. We have built his “craft box” up over the last year and a half and it now takes up an entire 55 litre plastic container (and gives us hours of enjoyment). But you don’t have to have a lot of craft supplies to be able to make amazing creations.

We ended up finding these nifty little cases for quite cheap at Super Cheap Auto so we bought two of them to house the “collage items”. These cases make the items far easier for Zac to look over and make his own choice about what he would like to work with. They are a great way to organise your child’s craft supplies.

Today we decided on some “Christmas craft”, we decided to make our own Christmas decorations. I googled recipes for dough that could be cooked (and solidified) then painted and it came back with this recipe:

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons oil

4 tablespoons cream of tarter

1 cup of water

We threw it all in together (adding extra flour or water when needed) mixed it up, rolled it out and then ‘went to town’ with our cookie cutters! Once Zac had cut out all the shapes he wanted, we poked holes in them (for the ribbon) and put them on a baking tray in the oven set to 180 degrees until they were brown/solid.

We then painted them all with beautiful colours and decorated them with glitter and sequins in the Christmas colours, then added the ribbon. Try to excuse the white "glue marks" all over them as I took this photo before they had dried completely. We are going to send these out with Zacs framed Santa photo to Zac’s grandparents and aunts and uncles. They are a simple, cheap gift that you could give out straight from your child! My sons  only three but I am sure that your older children could do alot more intricate designs and you could always seal them with a quick spray of clear coat to make them last for a long time.

The decorations pictured above are some we made a few weeks ago, they are simple and very budget friendly. All we did was paint pictures using mostly Christmas colours, let the paintings dry then cut out Christmas ornament shapes. We then glued glitter and sequins on and used a sparkly pipe cleaner to hang them. You could use chopped up bits of paper from magazines/packaging etc to decorate them and leftover ribbon to hang them.

Another budget friendly craft project we did recently was this nature collage. We “made a day” out of this one by spending part of the day walking through gardens and bushlands near a local park, collecting leaves, gumnuts and dirt. We then went home and cut out the backboard from the side of a Froot Loops box, we covered the cardboard with PVA glue and Zac stuck all the different nature items onto the page (while we talked about where they came from and what they were).

Another of our budget friendly craft projects involves a lot of cardboard boxes. I collect EVERY cardboard box (all shapes and sizes) from any grocery items, tissues, toilet rolls, egg cartons, gifts etc. then once we have a big collection we will spend one day assembling (with masking tape) robots, cars and anything else we think of. The next day we will paint them all. Then on the third day when they are all dry my son will spend the majority of an entire day playing with them. That’s three days worth of exciting activities for the cost of a little conscious recycling!

Children can learn so much from simple craft projects and there are so many different ways to enjoy these activities with your child. There is a craft activity for every budget!

When I stop matching and I let some colour into my life.

Ive always been a big fan of "matching" outfits perfectly. I like to make sure everything flows perfectly. I was basically anal about it. This included jewellery being the same colour/pattern etc and even small accessories like belts and things had to mesh with the outfit perfectly.

Since we began our trip around Australia I have relaxed a LOT, not just generally relaxed (because, yes, this trip has given me alot of opportunities to relax and do nothing) but actually relaxed my own views on things. Ive also relaxed my stress levels a hell of a lot.

Take some time to relax and remember who you are. You may feel like you're meeting yourself for the first time.

Ive notice that slowly but surely my clothing regime has relaxed too... my matching isnt so full on anymore. I was thinking about this today because my mother in law bought me a Pandora bracelet, for my 25th birthday. I looked at the myriad of different beads witht heir alternate coloured metals, resins, diamantes, etc. I thought "What theme will I choose"?. Then I decided on none. So today for my birthday my husband bought me a blue charm, for christmas I'd like a purple charm, I already have a couple of silver charms and my sister has bought me a gold one for christmas.

(This isnt my bracelt, I'm only upto five beads so far!)

This kind of non-matching-ness would have caused me... incredible amounts of stress in the past - to the point of me not even bothering to wear the very expensive gift. However now I look at the beautiful mixture of colours and metals and I feel happy. They are like a rainbow of heart warming trinkets in soul lifting rainbow colours.

You could add a little colour or alot of colour.

Colour makes me so happy these days. I understand why "hippy-esque" people surround themselves in tonnes of different colours and patterns, it makes you happy. It's as though the colours can actually lift your mood, ,which can genuinely change your level of positivity and thus can have a phenominal effect on your day. Its unreal. A colour injection is almost like a positivity injection.

Even hanging a few of these babies around your patio with twinkling candles (or battery operate candles) inside them, would add a colourful touch.

injecting a little colour into your surroundings, your life, your wardrobe or even your jewellery can really have a mood lifting effect. I think thats why I feel so cheerful when my christmas decorations go up. I know theres the notion of the "christma spirit" which is meant to sort of "click in" when the jolly time arrives, however I put my decorations up on the first of November (eager beaver). The second they went up I felt cheerful. Every time I walk out into the annex (especially at night with the multicoloured twinkling star-lights I put up) I feel cheerful and breezy and relaxed.

Beautiful colours..

There are so many wonderful ways to inject a little colour into your life. You could even just switch up the wardrobe you already have to wear different things together. You could "craft" up your own ornaments or decorations to go up in your home (christmassy or non), pick some colourful flowers from your garden or pinch them from your neighbours (just kidding!). If all else fails - go to the opshop and buy one of those crazy technicolour/multicolour tye dyed satchel bags you see frequenting the Byron Bay region. They are cheap and I can guarantee all you have to do is hang the thing from the corner of your bedroom door and looking at it will ignite a little spark, even if you dont have the lady-balls to wear it up-town.