Handicraft Idea: Sequin Ornament Balls

Grace has inspired me to also pull some ideas from the Oriental Trading company magazine. One that caught my eye in particular, which we are now working on, are creating sequin covered ornament balls for Christmas. The entire process is so Montessori-ish that I couldn't resist. So on my latest Walmart trip I purchased a bunch of white foam balls, colored pins and colored sequins.

The entire activity only requires a steady hand (good for Jack) and concentration as you fill the entire surface area of the ball with sequins by sticking a decorative pin through the sequin hole to hold in place. It is time consuming, but it is one of those projects that they can sit down and do for a little while and then come back to. And NO glue!!!

Handicraft Idea: Embossing

This afternoon while Jack was still asleep, I decided to let Grace take a stab at learning how to emboss with embossing powder, rubber stamps, and a small dryer.

The powders and stamps were left over from 4 years back when I had the crazy idea of making 200+ homemade Christmas cards for our clients (never again).

It turns out, this is a process that can be very fun for young ones. Grace immediately took to the three step process of stamping with embossing ink, sprinkling on the powder, and then using the heating element to melt the powder and emboss. When Jack woke up, Grace gave the full tour, gently explaining how the process of embossing worked.

After 1 1/2 hours, Grace had built a frame out of strips of paper with embossed art along it (all her idea) and a hand drawn picture in the middle. Jack was a hoot as I could hear him turn on the dryer and shout to Grace after 3 seconds "Is this long enough!?". Their faces were both covered in shimmer when they came to dinner.