Christmas season is ramping up! It can be so challenging to find something for your kids to make as their own little gifts that aren’t way over their levels, too messy, or too basic. This one hit the sweet spot for both my littles, ages 3 and 6.
On this particular day, I was working with my three year old assistant/chaos creator. She is definitely a free spirit that loves getting messy, and even she was able to stay pretty darn clean for this one. You also need very little for this project. You can make it with either salt dough or modeling clay. I chose to use modeling clay because I was feeling too lazy to make my own, it was on sale, and it’s also a much lighter weight material to hang off a Christmas tree limb. For this project, you will need:
1. Modeling clay (or salt dough of your choice)
2. Washable paint in green and at least 4 other colors
3. A paintbrush and several Q-tips
4. Christmas Tree cookie cutter
5. A touch of glitter (optional!)
6. Pipe cleaners, cut in half, to hang the ornament with
Start by rolling out your clay or dough to about one half inch thick. It may feel like this is too thick, but you want your kids to be able to press their thumbs in deep enough to leave a visible impression later.
Use your cookie cutter to cut your tree shapes!
Help or guide your child as they press their thumb into the clay at the top. Make sure you leave enough space at the point of your tree to make a small hole with a round toothpick as well.
Continue to guide your child as they press 4 to 5 more thumbprints into the tree, trying to keep them somewhat evenly spaced. Allow the tree to dry and harden over several hours or overnight if time permits.
Paint the entire tree green with a large brush and allow time for it to dry, especially in the thumbprint depressions. Make sure you paint the edges, but you can leave the back unpainted.
Now it’s time to paint the ‘ornaments’. I have found that what works best for little hands is to use a q-tip, because it gets into all the curves of the thumbprint. Go head and help your child paint each of the thumbprints a color. Before the colors dry, you can sprinkle a little (or a lot) of glitter onto the tree if you’d like your ornament to shine!
Once the entire thing is dry, you can cut pipe cleaners in half and thread them through the hole you made at the top of the tree. Wrap the ends around each other to make a closed loop.
Don’t forget to have your littles sign the back of their work for their adoring fans!
How did this one work out for you? I hope it was a blast!
