Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Friday, 6 December 2013

Christmas Crafts and Cards for Seniors

Hello blogland! It has been soooo long since my last post! I have not been blogging as much this Fall. {I've been busy painting my craft room and I am in the final stages of re organizing it! I did a post last year ...yes , last year! ... about Craft Room Chaos and I am finally gettin' er done!} 

Here are some craft ideas for Christmas.  My Guides made a couple of crafts last week and again this week. {They LOVE making crafts! so I am just going with the flow here}.  We were also busy tonight making cards for seniors.  We will be delivering the cards and singing carols for seniors at a local Nursing Home in two weeks.  We practiced singing tonight after the crafting was cleaned up! I like to get the girls involved in the clean up ...many hands make light work! plus most of  the girls like to be helpful!

This little snowman idea was found on Pinterest by our mom helper Melissa.  It is made with a battery operated Tea Light.


Another craft idea from Mom helper Melissa {She rocks! Melissa was once our Spark and Brownie leader but unfortunately does not have time to committ to being a Guider this year}. This is a Girl Guide Christmas ball.  You can see a little scroll inside which has the Guide Promise printed on it...Melissa premade computer printed scrolls but I forgot to get one from her so I made one and hand printed on it.  I did not get a pic before I put it in the glass ball though...I tried and tried to get it out with tweezers but gave up on that! LOL
I printed out these pics for the girls to add to the ball...we also added blue glitter {to represent the spirit of Guiding} and more sequins and curly ribbon in the colours of Guiding. {Mental Note:  Glitter is messy ...Glitter is messy...Glitter is messy...but it is so darn pretty I just have to use it! It was all over our meeting room!}
This simple little craft is a crowd fav LOL.  I had made this craft with Guides and Brownies over the years and they seem to like it every time.  It is a Wishing Spool. {I think the original idea was found in Pac-o-Fun magazine back in 2000}.  I found the wooden spools at a dollar store. We did not opt for painting the spools because we had many other things to do.  The idea of the "Wishing Spool" is to write a few things that you wish for Christmas and put the year on it so that you can see what you wished for every Christmas.  You could list "Peace" , "Happiness" etc., or materialistic things.
I had a bunch of these little wooden tags and santas/angels in my stash for ages and found them while I was re organizing my craft room...so I thought i'd take them to Guides.  The girls liked making these...probably because they were easy to make and self explanatory.

I can not remember where I found this card idea...but I used this idea at Guides a few times.  Again, another simple craft for kids.  The inside says "Warm Wishes".  {Some of our Guides made up their own saying...such as "Cold hands, Warm Heart"...which I thought was cute.}. They got to choose the colour of felt and yarn.  I provided a pattern for the mittens {I recommend making patterns to save you from assisting with cutting.  The girls are capable of doing it themselves}.  It is neat to see how the girls like to express themselves when crafting...even if it is just a choice in colours.

Another cute idea found on Pinterest! I ♥ Pinterest!  This simple card was made with red cardstock, black ribbon with a pop can tab for the buckle and some dollarama bling.  The ribbon was attached with tape.  The inside says "Believe".  The inspiration card is larger with shiny black buttons and a picture of Santa on the side but this is my version.  Work with what you have ladies!
Below are some of the cards that our Guides made for the Seniors...we used cardstock and my stash of Christmas cards from last year.  A great way to reuse those Greeting Cards {so remember to save them for next year! I ask my mother to save her cards too}.


The girls made up their own sentiments to go inside the cards {which was fun to read as you can imagine!}. It is a good idea to write out some generic sentiments such as Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings etc so that you do not spend all night repeatedly spelling out the words!

All of these crafts were easy to make...they did not require assistance from the leaders..once I had explained the directions then the Guides got down to business and did a whole-lot-a craftin'!

So that is all for today folks!  I so enjoy doing Christmas crafts.  I am glad that over the years 99% of my Girl Guides like to do crafting!

One last thing...but this is not Girl Guide related...I got 14 inches cut off my hair the other day!  I am going to donate my locks to A Child's Voice Foundation Angel Hair for Kids. This will be the third time that I cut my hair for wigs.  {My Mother is a breast cancer survivor and she had to wear a wig for a while so the least I can do is donate my hair for someone in need}.
Before
And the after pic...14 inches off...my hairdresser Donna curled it! She is awesome! It took a ton of hairspray and Volumizing Powder to get it to look like this...as you can see in the before pic my hair is dreadfully naturally straight.  No more getting my hair caught in the car door or seatbelt now LOL !
If I don't get a chance to do a post before the big guy gets here....
Have a Merry Christmas and 
Happy New Year!  

Wednesday, 26 December 2012

Owl and Toadstool Ornaments

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 
from Owl & Toadstool  !
Here are pics of my owl and toadstool ornaments on my Christmas tree and also from around my house. Most of my owls were gifts from my sister over the past few years...some new this year!  As you can see I like Owls and Toadstools! I have always liked owls and toadstools but I really started to like them even more when I was Brown Owl for Brownies.
This jeweled Owl is gorgeous!
A gift from my niece Rebecca this year...
6 in the pack ...Love them!
I bought 12 of  these Toadstools at Walmart this week
I made this wreath last year...
100 sandwich baggies tied to a coat hanger

These are Stephen's skates from the early 1970's
Dollarama tree and toadstools...Owls from yardsale
Although not an Owl nor a Toadstool this ornament is a Girl Guide ornament...Girl Guides Angel from the former GGC Nova Scotia store...a gift from my mother a few years ago.
I hope to blog about Girl Guide activities soon!  I have a few more Lapbook activities to share!  Enjoy the rest of the Holiday Season! 

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Community Service Fun


The Guides were busy last week making these cards for seniors...100 in Total!
We also crafted these mini Wreaths to give out to the local Seniors. {I created this craft idea a few years ago when I was Brown Owl} We used the plastic blue ring from a 4L water jug... wrapped it with a Chenille pipe cleaner ...then glued on a bow. There are many colour combinations as you can see.  Such a fun, quick and easy craft...and feasible!


The Guides joined the Brownies for a visit to the RK MacDonald Nursing Home in Antigonish.  They sang carols together, enjoyed a snack together, and then handed out the cards and wreaths to the residents.  {The Brownies had painted plaster ornaments to give to the residents but I do not have a photo}. It was nice to see how much the residents and Girl Guides enjoyed mingling together.  We all had a really good time! I could hear comments such as "its so nice to hear the children singing".  

A few of the residents had told us that they too were once a Girl Guide or a Girl Guide Leader many years ago. One lady was once a Guider in New Brunswick in the 1940's.  Another woman said she was an Antigonish Guide Leader in 1938! She had taken the Guides to New Glasgow for the Royal Visit back in the late 1930's...and the Queen stopped to talk to her! That was a great honour and she will never forget the experience.

Girl Guide history lies deep within our Communities for over 100 years.  Many woman were/are involved with Guiding and had/have daughters/nieces/granddaughters/sisters/mothers/aunts, as members of Girl Guides.  Providing community service such as visiting Nursing Homes not only offers a sense of community involvement and giving, but an opportunity for our Girl Guides to interact with members of long ago and to learn first hand of local stories from Girl Guides past!

Monday, 10 December 2012

More Christmas Crafts...

Angel: Wood Plug for Head, fabric dress, 
bead halo,ribbon bow and wings
Beaded Star made by my Niece Chelsea
Cinnamon Stick painted Santa
Santa: Peg Clothespin, embroidery floss, 
cotton ball belly, half Popsicle stick arms
{update 26 July 2013: I found the instruction sheet 
for this Clothespin Santa if anyone is interested}
Santa: Crochet? Knitted? I can never tell!
Angel:  Wooden Bell body, moss hair, wood heart wings, feathers
Pin Cushion: baby food jar, fabric, potpourri, stuffing, ribbon
Mini wooden Chalkboard:  Paint

Festive stick people: paint, add a face
Lee Ann & Stephen S'mores! made by 
my nephew Jonathan from fun foam shapes
Gingerbread Man: Plastic Canvas, yarn, mini pompoms
Frosty:  Snowman wood shape, paint Made by Stephen
Snowman:  Wood spool, wood block, paint, fabric scrap, snow
Christmas Mouse:  a gift from Aunt- in -Law Joan
Birdhouse:  1" dowel, wood scraps, plastic bird, paint, glitter
More to come once I dig them out of the Christmas storage bin!

Thursday, 29 November 2012

Pine Cone Skier Craft


This is the craft my Guides had made at tonight's meeting ... they loved making these!  

I found this idea on Pinterest but as usual it has taken on it's own look.  Crafts always seem to turn out differently from the original inspiration pic... the look depends on what supplies I have available.

The pine cones were closed and frozen on the ground but I put them in the oven so they would thaw and open. {Thank you to my hubby Stephen and his co worker friend Craig for collecting pine cones the day before the meeting...There are huge Pine trees at work!} I put them on a foil lined cookie sheet for several hours on about 85 degrees C.  It took a while for them to dry out ,warm up and open!  {tons of seeds fell out ...they are interesting looking...like tiny fairy wings...hmm what can I make with those??}

Here are some of the Skiers that the had Guides made...so cute and easy to make!

The hats and scarves are the fingers of a glove, the head is a mini Styrofoam ball, the ski poles are tooth picks with fabric snowflakes....pipe cleaner arms, mini Popsicle sticks for the skis...and google eyes.  We used a low temp hot glue gun as opposed to white glue.  Then they painted their Skier with silver glitter glue.  All supplies {except for the mini Popsicle sticks from Walmart} were from the Dollarama!