Santa’s Elves Entrance

This was such a fun project to work on with my little boy. He is still in the age where anything that lights up or is special is like magic. I was trying to find something for us to do that was different from making decorations for the tree or the walls. I had a big box left over from when we bought our carpet cleaner and decided to use it instead of sending out to the recycling bin. This project ended up looking so nice that we are using as a center piece in our house layout. When we host Christmas this year the food table will be set up near the elves door way and north pole sign. There are also some snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, and the entire house is lit up in blue LED’s. Anyway the kids will love creating this project and it will remain loads of fun for them while it’s on display. It will also make for a great conversation piece with all your friends and family. You can really decorate the house with whatever material you like and design it so that it fits your Christmas Theme. I worked with some materials that I had extras from other projects.

 

Supplies I Used:

• 1 big box
• 8 sheets of plain red tissue paper
• 2 sheets of red designed tissue paper
• 4 sheets of white tissue paper
• Glitter
• 1 half piece of white construction paper
• Christmas Lights

 

Instructions:

1. Take your box and stand it so it’s the tall way.
2. Then take a scissors and cut out your door, just make sure you don’t cut it all the way off.
3. Then cut out the bottom of the box.
4. Take your roof paper and glue that on to the top of the box.
5. Then glue on the siding
6. The next step is to glue on the paper for the door.
7. With the card board that you cut off earlier cut a strip and fold it a few times to make a square for the chimney and glue that on top of the roof paper
8. Take a smaller strip of card board for the door knob and brush a coat of glue on it
9. glitter your door knob and then set aside to dry.
10. Then with your half sheet of paper make your sign for the door. Ours read Santa’s Elves Only, However yours can say whatever you would like it to say.
11. I decorated our sign with glitter also
12. Then glue on your door handle after its done drying
13. The last step is to finish adding whatever little touches you would like to add to the house. For instance, I added Christmas Tree Lights. If you would like the pattern and instructions for the lights please leave a message for me in the comments section of this post. Thank you

Thats It. Jesse loves this house and plays with it everyday. I really liked the way it turned out and I would be really excited to see how your Santa’s Elves Entrance turns out!!

 

Paper Christmas Tree Sun Catcher

This turned out to actually be a nice looking decoration for the windows during the holiday season, or really anywhere that is well lite. As this project seemed to be a little more detailed and time-consuming then a few of my more recent projects, it was still just as fun!! This is a project where really you can use anything you want to decorate the tree, whether it be little foam stickers, crayons, or paper. The kids will love it!

The whole idea of this project is to make it appear that when the tree is held up to light that the holes where the tissue paper belong act as the tree lights. So then let get started!!

Supplies Needed:

• 1-2 sheets of green paper (depending on how large you want your christmas tree, However just remember you have to get a whole punch around the tree)
• 1 sheet of brown paper
• 1 sheet of yellow or gold paper
• 1 sheet of each color tissue paper you want for your lights
• Scissors
• Glue
• Glitter (For the tree garland, your choice in color. I used gold)

 

Instructions:

1. Take your 2 sheets of green paper and trace of draw 2 identical Christmas Trees.
2. With the brown paper cut a small rectangle for the tree trunk.
3. On the yellow or gold piece of paper  draw or trace a small star.
4. Cut all your pieces out
5. Then take your 2 green trees and line them up so the edges are lined up evenly all the way around.
6. After your edges are lined up take your single hole punch and start punching a few holes scattered in different places around the trees(Make sure your holes line up on both pages). To punch some holes in the middle you will need to lightly fold both pieces of your paper without making a hard crease in the process.
7. After your holes are punched take one of the trees with the pen traced side up and lay it in front of you. (It’s time to put the lights on the tree!)
8. Take your colored tissue paper and cut little squares about 1 inch by 1 inch.
9. After you cut out your tissue paper to the number of holes you put on your tree lay them out they way you want them.
10. When you are done laying out your lights glue them down to the tree. (Warning don’t use a lot of glue when tacking these down the tissue paper will start to dissolve.
11. If you prefer your lights to have a deeper color and a little less light shine through copy the same pattern on the other tree just make sure you put the tissue paper in the right holes so they colors and the tree still line up.
12. After you have glued your tissue paper down to you trees and let them dry a little its time to assemble the tree together. lay you first tree so the tissue side is the up side then glue your brown rectangle at the bottom of the tree for the tree trunk.
13. Then glue on the other tree tissue side on the down side. Make sure when you lay this down all your edges line up so the light will shine through the tissue paper covered holes.
14. Now its time to decorate the tree!!!
15. Take your glue and draw wavy lines across the tree where you want the garland to go across.
16. Then sprinkle your glitter over the glue making sure to cover all the glue areas. Shake off access glitter.
17. Color or stick on your tree ornaments and add anything else you would like for your tree decorations.
18. Now take your yellow or gold star and glue that to the top of the tree.
19. I added some light gold glitter glue that I had left over from a past project to the top of the star for a little extra texture but that’s up to you.

That is it!! Take your tree and hold it up to the window or a light and watch your Christmas Tree Glow. My little one really thought this was a neat decoration, seeing how Christmas lights are one of his most favorite things to look at this time of year.

Please comment back and remember to come back and share your Christmas Tree Sun Catcher Projects.