Winter Crafts For Kids

The Christmas stocking is a holiday staple for families with children. Kids love to get up on Christmas morning and see what kinds of goodies Santa has left them! Small stockings are also great for decoration, and they're ideal for holding small gifts to give to your friends and family.

Making felt stockings is very easy, and it's a great family project. Here's how to do it:

What You Need

* Felt
* Cardboard or card stock
* Marker
* Scissors
* Straight pins
* Needle and thread
* White faux fur and other embellishments

Instructions

1. Draw a stocking shape of the desired size on a piece of cardboard or card stock. Cut out.

2. Place the cardboard shape on the felt, trace around it, and cut out. Make two pieces for each stocking.

3. If you want to sew buttons, fabric or other embellishments on the stocking, it will be much easier to do so before you sew it together. Just make sure to sew them onto the side that will be facing outward.

4. Pin the pieces of felt together, wrong sides facing out, and sew around the edges with a sewing machine or by hand. Be sure not to sew the top closed.

5. Turn the stocking inside out so that the seams are now on the inside. Decorate the outside using fabric paint, glitter, beads, or anything else you like. Sew a strip of faux fur to the top if desired.

6. Cut a strip of felt an inch or so wide and 3 or 4 inches long. Fold it in half to make a loop and sew it to the top left corner of the stocking.

Letting the kids decorate their own stockings gives them an opportunity to express themselves. They could add charms that reflect their interests and hobbies, make pictures with beads, or use finger paint to add handprints. Tubes of fabric paint or glitter glue make it easy for them to write messages to Santa and add their names.

Scraps of holiday fabric are great for adding a decorative touch to stockings. You could cut out shapes such as Christmas trees, angels, or reindeer and sew or glue them to the front of the stocking. If you want a different look, you could even use a sturdy fabric such as canvas instead of felt to make the body of the stocking.

Making and decorating your own Christmas stockings is lots of fun, and it's very inexpensive. Whether you're making them to hang on the tree, fill with gifts for friends, or place on the mantle for Santa to stuff, it's a wonderful way to get the family creative together during the holidays.

Fun Craft of the Month Clubs

Winter is a wonderful time for scrapbooking. It's a great activity for those cold days when you and the kids are curled up next to the fire. And with all the snowy fun and holiday festivities going on, you and the kids should have plenty of pictures to work with.

Coming up with great winter layouts can be a bit of a challenge, though. The bright colors you used in the spring and summer don't quite fit, nor do many of the nature-inspired embellishments you would use in other seasons. But there is inspiration to be found. Here are some layout theme ideas to get you going:

* Snowmen - The snowman is a popular winter figure that adds a whimsical touch to your scrapbooking. You could create an adorable layout by cutting pictures into circles of three different sizes and stacking them on top of one another like a snowman. A border featuring snowmen also makes a nice frame for photos of winter fun.

* Snowflakes - They say that no two snowflakes are exactly alike, so a snowflake layout is anything but boring. Why not make some paper snowflakes (or have your child make them), arrange them on the page, and place photos in the middle of them?

* Candy canes - The candy cane stripe pattern is symbolic of winter and the holidays. Using it as a backdrop or in borders makes for a fun page. How about making a heart-shaped photo frame with two candy cane die cuts?

* Christmas lights - For Christmas pictures, a border featuring a string of Christmas lights looks nice and festive.

* Wreaths - A holiday wreath makes a perfect frame for a Christmas photo. A simple wreath with a bow makes its presence known without overpowering the photo.

* Poinsettias - If you adore floral layouts, poinsettias can keep you from suffering withdrawal in the winter. A poinsettia-patterned paper makes a lovely backdrop for your page. It's also easy to make paper poinsettias to use as embellishments.

* Winter scenes - A nice winter scene is great for the background of a scrapbook page. It expresses the beauty of the season without taking the attention away from your photos. A beautiful and easy way to create such a layout is to use photo editing software to fade and soften a picture of a winter landscape, then print it onto a piece of card stock.

Winter scrapbook layouts are often more muted than those of other seasons, but they do not have to be colorless and boring. Splashes of red and green can spruce up pages while maintaining a winter ambiance. Blues and purples are also good choices for the season.

Scrapping your snow-filled memories is a fun way to pass the time during chilly weather. With some fun and creative layouts, you can give your winter photos the beautiful presentation they deserve.