Christmas Ornament

I finally got around to making our Christmas ornament this year to give to the grandparents.  I was planning to use an idea a friend had shared last year about putting the kids handprints on a ball and making snowmen out of them, but my creative juices were not flowing enough to think I could create anything out of handprints so I opted for hot glue and dried beans.  I found the idea in a library book (175 Christmas Crafts) and it appealed to me because I had everything I needed already in the house.  I know, lazy of me...

The idea was to cut a heart shape out of poster board and glue beans around the outside, working in until the middle where you glue a bunch of pearl barley.  I didn't think I wanted a heart, and I thought the wreath shape would give us more rounds of beans to glue.  And I had no poster board, so cereal box it was.  Randy and I cut the shape with a bowl for the outside circle and a glass for the inside circle.  Then we painted them green so that would be the color that showed through the beans.  It took several coats of paint to cover enough, but this was the part that Justin helped with so he enjoyed it.

I had a bag of 15-bean soup which worked perfectly!  We sorted the beans into small bowls for ease in gluing.  An awesome toddler activity in itself!  The mix I had was a great combination of small/large and dark/light colors.  I was surprised that it had very few black beans though.  I had to break into another bag to find enough of those for our purposes.  We made three wreaths out of the bag I had and there are plenty left for more ornaments.  Each one is different, which is fun.  Someone suggested putting a picture of the boys in the middle, but that kind of would make it a large picture frame...  Maybe another time...

So after the paint was dry we started gluing.  Travis did this part by himself.  Justin supervised.  I was glue master.  We used a hot glue gun to ensure sufficient stability.  I highly recommend a glue gun.  It worked very well.  Then we just picked our design and glued.  Only put glue in a small section at a time.  Children are not quick in attaching beans given their (the beans) small size.  Otherwise the glue dries too quickly.

When it was dry I cut some ribbon for a loop for hanging and made a bow for the bottom to make sure everyone knew it was supposed to be a wreath.  I would use thicker ribbon next time, but it's what was in my house and available.  Using two thinner ribbons worked just fine.  And the red/green thing helped my identity concern I think.

(Travis was playing pirate, thus the camouflage headscarf.  (?)  Good thing I didn't take the picture later when he had taken off his shirt because "Pirates don't usually wear their shirts, Mom.")

 

I was very impressed with Travis sense of design and color combination.  He picked everything, with a little help from the peanut gallery/supervisor.  I thought the large/small alternating was nice on the outer row.  One more fun Christmas activity, check!  Down to 7 more chains to cut off before Christmas!

P.S.  Nana, I hope you like this ornament...It's yours to claim whenever you come back to see us!