Homemade Christmas Ornaments: Budget and Eco Friendly

Each year money gets tighter and tighter. The holidays can be depressing when you want to have fun and spoil the kids, but continue to cut back and tighten the budget. Rather than splurging this year on decking the halls, or the Christmas tree for that matter, here are some fun budget and eco-friendly easy ideas.

This year I came up with a great idea, thanks to a date who showed me how to make my Starbucks sleeve into a heart! (Don't worry I told him I was going to steal his idea for some sort of crafting project.) There is a fold guide between the logo and the post consumer information. I glued the center of where the heart meets on the inside and decided to let the kids dip the edges in holiday colored craft glitter to make ornaments out of them. (see photo)

Being that I am lost without my daily ritual of Starbucks and their lovely cheese and fruit dish, I found this a great way to recycle and make some decorations that were easy for the kids to make.

For the last two years I have found a great way to let the kids have some fun, while making lasting ornaments that are easy to store in a small container or box.

One great way, that is super kid friendly, is to make colored pipe cleaner into single layered shapes of Christmas ornaments, angels, teddy bears, presents, trains, and other season inspired goodies. You then glue them onto a sheet of paper and allow them to dry. Once they are dried, lay out several small containers of different colored glitters. Have the kids draw, in pencil (on the paper), eyes, nose, buttons and toes for the teddy bears, lines on the presents, windows on the trains, and zig-zags and polka dots on Christmas ornaments. You then outline, or fill in all the penciled in areas with glue; let the kids pour the glitter on and dump the excess back in the containers. Allow to dry. You can either make small hangers from remaining pipe cleaner and glue it to the back of the dried ornaments, or find a secure place to attach ornament hooks around existing pipe cleaner edges to hang on the tree. Also while doing this, it's a great idea to lay down painters drop cloth or cut open trash bags to catch droppings of glue and glitter.

These are easy to make ideas that allow you to spend time as a family, doing something fun and practical. Great for kids of all ages. These are easy to store, as they do not break or tear. The glue hardens the paper , making them durable. I have even given these as gifts to grandparents and their a hit! My mom still has hers three years later, and has the kids come over to help decorate her tree with their decorations every year.

If you are going to give them as gifts to family, you can cover old shoe boxes in wrapping paper so that they already come in a storing container for after the holidays.

By https://www.lrisy.com