The 25 Days of Christmas: 2. tree

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The Christmas List: 10. tree

The tree in our front yard at twilight.

Kid’s Craft: Christmas Decoration Tutorial

And now to confuse my photoblog followers!

DIY Rainbow Ball Christmas Decorations

With Christmas around the corner as a mum I am looking for things that my 3 year old can make with some level of ownership. These Christmas decorations are so easy to make and look pretty effective.

You could also make them larger by using A3 card and could even make them outdoor proof by laminating the card used. You could make them elegant by limiting your colour palette and adding subtle sparkle or design. You could light them by running solar fairy lights onto them. The options are endless. This is the toddler craft version.

Here’s the How To:

First Things First, To make a medium sized ball

You will need:

• 8 strips of card per ball approximately 2cm or 1 inch wide and 20cm or 8 inches long (I used 8 different colours) Note: you can use any width or length strip and any type of card, old Christmas cards would work if you didn’t want to decorate the pieces

• pencils, crayons or textas to decorate the strips
• stickers, glitter etc also to decorate the strips
• 2 split pins per ball
• string
• tinsel
• something to poke a hole, eg stanley knife, scalpel, scissors, skewer etc
• stickytape

Instructions

1. Let your child loose on the strips of card. I asked my 3 year old to first colour in, then stick stickers on the strips. Depending on your child’s capability level you can decorate these in any way you like. If your child is young remember to REMOVE the strips from them before they colour right through the paper or destroy them in another way! (wink)

2. Unfortunately from here the construction is an adult thing. Take the 8 strips of card and arrange them in an order that is pleasing to you in a pile. (don’t do like I did and forget that I had a green on the top AND bottom of the pile so that when they were fanned out they were together!) Using something sharp poke through all eight pieces of card  to make sure that the holes are in the same place. As a guide, about 1cm in from the end and centred from either side. Repeat at the other end.

3. Starting on the coloured in side push a split pin through all eight cards. This is the bottom of your ball. Open the split slightly, but not fully yet.

4. Tie the end of the string tight around the slightly open pin and trim the end.

5. Completely and firmly open the pin over the knot securing it. At this point I cut the string at about 20cm long (a generous allowance, but you could also do it by leaving a long string (half a metre) and tying knots or using clamps at the other end, I will leave that to you.) This tutorial will cover what I did in this instance.

6. Take the new end of string and tie it around the other split pin. This is FIDDLY you may need to tie it, then slip it on and tighten it.

7. Poke the split pin with the knot through the card at the other end starting from the decorated side and push it tight to secure your knot. Then take the string from the first split pin and tie it around the slightly open split in the same way that you did before. This string should now pull taut and the card should form an arc. You can estimate how long you want the string by how you want your arc to look. Once you have tied your knot, completely and firmly open the pin to secure the knot. Trim both loose ends of the two strings neatly. You should now be able to hold your decoration by the hanging string.

8. Fan out the card pieces evenly to form a ball shape. (Note: you may notice as you start to fan that the card forms a teardrop shape, once fully fanned out this will disappear and become a ball.)

9. Take a minute to admire your handywork.

10. To hang the tinsel on the inside, just attach either end with stickytape. Move the card pieces slightly if you can’t fit your hand through and readjust them afterward.

You could also add a hanging ‘tail’ by cutting similar width, but longer strips of crepe paper to blow in the breeze. To do this you would first poke your bottom split pin through the tail before the card strips.

11. Hang them where ever you like. My son liked to watch them spin. I hope your kids do too.

Merry Christmas!

If you make these, consider leaving me a link in the comments to your photo so I can see them.

NOTE: This is the first tutorial I have written. If you have any questions or I have forgotten to add something please let me know so I can update it.

Elemental November: Final Air

I thought I would post the final air photo I took. It was taken Wednesday, but I haven’t got to it until now so although it is technically fire week I am still posting it.

Elemental November: Earth

tree meets earth

Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette AND October Photo Challenge: 26. morning

Beautiful light.

October Photo Challenge: 20. 4o’clock

I was doing homework at 4 o’clock. These were the ones that I took closest to 4 o’clock.

I had to take a minute to photograph this road considering what I was doing. Educating myself in photography (motion photography today) is a journey.

Incredible colour from the tree I was standing under. All I had to do was take the time to look up.

Beauty where you might not think to find it. I loved the colour and texture.

Travel Theme: Foliage

My neighbours yard is quite beautiful this time of year.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Mine

I have always wanted a picket fence. I designed it with its combination of pickets and scallops and it was bulit in exactly the way I wanted it. I love it. I consciously enjoy looking at it everyday…still. I often find myself looking out of the window thinking how much I love its shape. People in our neighbourhood comment on it as they pass and this part I have photographed where it combines with our lovely old tree trunk that I also love is something that I am proud is mine.

Travel Theme: Foliage

I love to hear people’s thoughts or comments so when it was suggested that I give the Travel Theme of Foliage a go I thought, “Sure, why not?!”. It was night at the time, but there is nothing like the present so out I went into the COLD. My neighbours no doubt thought the crazy lady on the corner is out there again with her camera, standing on her front door step pointing the camera up toward the sky. Frame no good…step back..check…frame no good….two steps left, bend top half to the right, cock head to the right slightly, click…frame no good…repeat, 1 step to the front and half a step to the left with a slight knee bend…got it…hooray! All in a dressing gown and Ugg boots that look a lot like Santa’s boots with red laces. Hmmm…the neighbours are used to it now. Probably didn’t even blink.

Our Cedar tree is MESSY! It is just coming to spring and these berries will all fall onto my garden and sprout mini Cedar trees everywhere. My 1 year old likes to eat them, they taste sweet. You can see the beginnings of the flowers starting to bloom. Soon the tree will be covered with tiny white flowers that look like confetti and the spring breeze will make it “snow” in our front yard. The flowers will be replaced with small leaf sprouts that will grow on stems that also fall in Autumn. It is not what you typically think of as foliage, but it is what adorns our tree at the moment and for all its messiness I do love the shade its foliage provides us in Summer. It provides a shady place for the boys to play in the sprinkler or for me to sit and watch them ‘help’ me by watering the garden (themselves!)