The Chaos and the Clutter

Crafts and Activities

Easy Snowflake Craft for Kids to Make

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Many of our Christmas crafts have been ones that I have given the kids a clear set of instructions on. Although there is always leeway and ways for them to express their creativity, this time, I wanted to give them a project that was more open-ended. I set out a variety of supplies and gave no instructions other than to create snowflakes. The results of this easy snowflake craft were amazing!

Invitation to create snowflake ornaments. An easy Christmas snowflake craft for kids.I created a little craft station on the kitchen table for the kids. I set out white and blue paint, both regular and jumbo popsicle sticks, craft glue, glitter, glitter glue, white feathers, gems, large snowflake confetti, permanent markers, and sequins.

creating Christmas snowflakes craftIt’s always interesting to sit back and watch my kids create. The girls went right away for the larger popsicle sticks while the boys chose the skinnier ones. I suspect it’s because the large ones allowed the girls to add a lot more STUFF, but I’m not sure!

None of my kids chose to paint their sticks blue, which is also interesting. Once their white paint was dry, they glued their sticks into a snowflake shape and began to add embellishments. The boys went for simple (i.e.: permanent markers and/or glitter glue) while the girls really planned theirs out.

The girls placed items down on their sticks without adhering them at first to see what they would look like. They experimented with different patterns and a variety of looks before deciding which they liked best. They were very proud of their finished ornaments!

snowflake craft using simple craft supplies at home or in schoolHow to Make a Snowflake Craft:

This snowflake craft is simple to set up and easy for kids of all ages to create. From toddlers to preschoolers to Kindergarten and beyond, this seasonal activity can be adapted for anyone.

Materials needed:

  • regular or jumbo popsicle sticks (3 per snowflake)
  • blue and white paint
  • gems
  • sequins
  • craft glue
  • large snowflake confetti
  • feathers
  • glitter glue
  • permanent pens
  • ribbon to hang (we used a sparkly blue wrapping ribbon, but any ribbon or string will do)
  1. Set out the craft supplies, glue and paint.
  2. Allow the kids to be creative in planning out their snowflake craft.
  3. If they want to paint the popsicle sticks, you will need to allow the paint to dry before continuing on to the decorating. For younger kids, you may want to start them off with the popsicle sticks already painted and glued together.
  4. Give your students time to create snowflakes however they want to.
  5. Once the glue has dried, you can attach a ribbon to the back of the snowflakes with tape or hot glue to hang it on the Christmas tree.

I love the uniqueness of each of the finished snowflakes. The sparkles of the gems and glitter catch the lights of the Christmas tree well. The ones with the feathers look lovely as well.

Adapting this snowflake craft for preschoolers and toddlers:

Paint the craft sticks ahead and allow them to dry. Glue them together into a snowflake. Use paper plates or small squares of tin foil to pour a bit of white glue for each child. Set out the supplies to decorate the snowflakes.

Let the kids use their creativity to create their own snowflake ornaments.

Edited to note: Thank you to everyone who has sent me pictures of this snowflake craft that you have made with your own kids, students or kids in your Sunday School or art class after seeing ours on Pinterest. It has been so neat to see how this simple craft idea has spread!

Here are some other simple Christmas crafts you may enjoy:

Snowflake Crafts and Activities for Kids

Ornaments made from Christmas CardsNativity Chalk Silhouette

Washi Tape Mitten Ornaments

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Of all the Christmas ornaments we’ve made this year, these washi tape mitten ornaments have got to be my favourite! They are so cute!

These washi tape Christmas mitten ornaments are adorable and no two 'pairs' are alike. They also make cute gift tags.My girls are really into washi tape this year so I picked up four rolls of holiday washi tape when I saw it at the dollar store, knowing that we would find lots of things to create with it. We used it to decorate Christmas gift bags, embellish cards and to make these adorable mitten ornaments.

Washi Tape Mitten OrnamentsMaterials needed: 

Stick washi tape on a piece of card stock. You can keep the lines straight or overlapping and haphazard. On some of our papers, I created patterns and on others, it was more random. There are so many variations to washi tape that no two sets of these mittens will be alike. You can also use some solid coloured washi tape in the mix to add even more options.

Once the paper is covered in washi tape, place a mitten shaped cookie cutter on top and trace it. Flip the cookie cutter over and trace another one facing the opposite direction.

creating washi tape mitten ornamentsCut the mitten shapes out. Place the mitten pieces back to back so that the washi tape side is facing out and glue them together. Make another mitten in the same way to create a pair.

Wait for the glue to dry and then hole punch both of the mitten and string them together. We used a red and white string but wool would be a nice touch for this craft.

Washi Tape Mitten OrnamentsThese ornaments are so cute hung on the tree!

If you want to create unique gift tags, you could make single sided paper mittens and write on the backs of them.

Check out some of our other easy Christmas ornaments for kids to make:

Kid Made Photo Ornaments

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One year when my parents were away on a business trip, my grandma came to stay with us. She made felt stocking ornaments with us and also these photo ornaments. I have such good memories of that week with her and I wanted to re-create some of those memories with my kids. Last year, we made the felt stocking ornaments and this year, we made the photo ornaments.

Kid Made Photo Ornaments...such a cute gift idea for grandparents!My kids completely LOVED making these. We chose pictures of them from a few years ago because I had copies of those on hand and they went on and on about how cute they were. I was using older pictures for convenience reasons, but it ended up having a positive effect because the kids felt freer to comment on how cute they were. I saw them light up about the compliments they were getting from each other. I feel like it actually was a good self-esteem builder.

When they hung their completed ornaments on the tree, they were beaming with pride and they all loved having their faces so prominently displayed in with the other precious ornaments we’ve collected over the years to commemorate special occasions and holidays.

Easy Kid Made Photo OrnamentsMaterials needed:

Choose a picture that has a face that will fit well within the center of the doily. Cut a circle around the face. You can do this either by using a cup to draw around the face and then cut out or using a circle cutter or large circle punch.

Place the cut photo on the center of the doily and carefully place a piece of contact paper over top. Press down to adhere the photo to the doily. Cut around the edges of the doily. Hole punch the doily near the top and string a thin ribbon or thread through. Hang the photo ornament on the Christmas tree.

easy kid made photo ornamentsThese photo ornaments are easy enough for even young children to make on their own (though they may need some help with the cutting) and make perfect grandparent gifts. They look so pretty on a lit-up Christmas tree!


Snowflake Crafts and Activities for Kids

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We live in an area where snowflakes are not exactly a novelty but I have always been fascinated by their unique details. I remember making snowflake crafts when I was younger so every year, the kids and I make a different twist on that idea. I’ve compiled a list of really neat and creative snowflake crafts that we’ve done as well as ideas from others to share with you. These will hopefully give you some inspiration when you are creating your own.

Snowflake crafts and activities for kids or for classroomsPaper Straw Snowflakes from I Heart Crafty Things (pictured)

Invitation to Create Snowflakes from here on The Chaos and The Clutter (pictured)

Name Snowflakes from Childhood 101 (pictured)

Homemade Snowflake Ornaments from Coffee Cups and Crayons (pictured)

Snowflake Sensory Bottle from here on The Chaos and The Clutter

Scented Snowflake Soup from And Next Comes L

Star Wars Snowflakes from The Joys of Boys

14797310_10154258565209900_96490118_nRainbow Snowflake Window Art from TwoDaloo (pictured)

Snow Playdough and Invitation to Play from here on The Chaos and The Clutter

Puzzle Piece Snowflakes from Red Ted Art (pictured)

3D Paper Snowflakes from Feels Like Home (pictured)

Snowflake Slime from Teaching Mama

Winter Watercolour Resist Art from Fun at Home with Kids (pictured)

Tape Resist Snowflake Painting from Little Bins for Little Hands

Q-tip Snowflakes from Playdough to Plato (pictured)

Cardboard Tube Snowflakes from Tinkerlab

White Clay Snowflake Ornaments from The Imagination Tree (pictured)

Snowflake Crafts and Activities for KidsBeaded Snowflake Ornaments from Happiness is Homemade (pictured)

Pipe Cleaner Snowflake Ornament for Kids from Living Life and Learning

Snowflake Suncatcher Garland from Homegrown Friends (pictured)

Puffy Snowflake Painting from Inner Child Fun (pictured)

Beaded Snowflake Ornament from Housing a Forest

Snowflake Craft for Toddlers from No Time For Flash Cards

Easy Snowflakes from Hands on as We Grow

Our daughter used some of these craft ideas to add supplies to her babysitting kit and make them with the kids she babysits. She’s made the 3D snowflakes so often that she doesn’t need to look up the tutorial anymore. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have!

Tin Can Luminaries

Tin Can Luminaries

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Making tin can luminaries requires a bit more planning than our usual projects, but the results were worth it. This is a great project for older kids, tweens and teens. 

This was a neat activity for our kids because it allowed them to use materials that they thought were cool and do things they don’t get to do everyday like hammer nails and light matches. Teaching your kids these types of skills is important and teaching them in the context of a project allows for it to be an organic learning opportunity.

We made these tin can luminaries with five of our kids who range in age from 9 to 13 and they were all able to do it. Some of them needed more help from us than others did, but they all were able to do the majority of it themselves.

Tin can luminaries are a great project for older kids, tweens or teens.How to Make Tin Can Luminaries

Materials needed:

Please note that this activity requires adult supervision both because of the use of hammers and the optional lighting of candles. 

Making tin can luminaries requires some planning. The first step of course is gathering some empty tin cans. You can use any size. It is important that the cans were opened with the type of can opener that doesn’t leave any jagged edges. Wash the cans out.

The night before you plan to make the luminaries, fill the cans with water to a little more than 3/4 full and stand them upright in the freezer. Overnight, the water in the cans will freeze. This is an important step because if you don’t, the walls of the can won’t be strong enough to hold their shape while the nails are being hammered in.

creating tin can luminariesUse a permanent marker to draw dots in the places you want to create holes. You can do this randomly or you can create patterns or images with the dots.

Using a hammer, nail into each of the dots one at a time, removing the nail once the can is fully pierced through. If you want, you can make the holes different sizes by using different thicknesses of nails. When you have finished nailing holes into each one of the dots, dump the ice from the cans into the sink.

Place a tea light candle in the bottom of the can and light it. You can use a flameless tea light that is lit by battery or you can use a real tea light.

Tin Can LuminariesThe candle light will show through the holes in the tin can and the pattern created will show through. They are really quite beautiful.

You may also be interested in these kids’ activities:

Cheerios Self Portrait

Cheerios artwork

Pretend Cotton Candy

Nativity Chalk Silhouette

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This Christmas craft can be adapted for kids of all ages. The kids and I have been doing all kinds of holiday projects the past two weeks but I really wanted to think of one we could do that would bring us back to focusing on the reason there is a Christmas in the first place. We created this nativity chalk silhouette craft.

Nativity Chalk Silhouette Christmas Craft for KidsThe process was simple but it lent itself to all kinds of variations. I love projects that let the kids explore their creativity and put their own spin on things. I set out both white and coloured chalks for this purpose.

Materials needed:

I didn’t see any point at reinventing the wheel (and my artist skills are lacking!) so I found a great nativity silhouette that is free to print at Meaningful Mama. While you’re over there, you can also look at the gorgeous stained glass craft she made with the same silhouette and maybe you can make both.

How to make a Nativity Chalk Silhouette:

  1. Print the nativity silhouette on card stock.
  2. Cut it out. I used scissors for most of this step but did use a blade (an exacto knife would be best) for the small cutouts.
  3. Place the silhouette on the black paper and hold in place with one hand while outlining it with chalk with the other hand.
  4. Continue to hold the silhouette in place and use a cotton ball to spread out the chalk.
  5. If you want to seal the picture, place it on newsprint and spray it with sealant.

creating a nativity silhouette

I enjoyed watching the kids put their own interpretations on this craft. Some wanted to outline it all in white while others chose for the star to be outlined in yellow and others chose to use many colours. A few of the kids wanted to continue to spread the chalk after they removed the outline and made the colours spread quite far on their page while others preferred to have more of the original outline showing.

Nativity Chalk SilhouetteRegardless of which style they chose, all of them were absolutely beautiful! One of the kids wrote the word “Jesus” in chalk to his and added some embellishments to the star. I had to cut those out in the pictures because in them he had also written his full name. My kids of course don’t sign their artwork with their blog pseudonyms!

I hope that you will enjoy making this Christmas Nativity Chalk Silhouette as much as we did!

Here are some more Nativity holiday ideas:

Nativity Crafts and Activities to celebrate the season of Christmas