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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Gift Giving

Marshall and I think it's important for our girls to feel the joy of giving during the holidays since they both receive so much. So, this year Brynn and I crafted some ornaments for her to give to the special people in her life. I got the idea from Disney's Family Fun website. It was a process, but Brynn was able to participate in each step. And the best part is that they turned out great, too!

First we had to cut or rip up construction paper into small pieces. One piece of 8.5 x 11 paper per ornament that you want.

The small pieces go directly into the blender because the second step is to allow the paper to soak in very hot water for 5 minutes prior to pulsing into a pulp.

Once you have the pulp ready, you spoon it into cookie cutter shapes and sprinkle with glitter. Press the pulp down to squeeze out any excess water and to pack in the shape. Once it is pressed, place onto cookie sheet for baking. It took a couple of hours in the oven before the ornaments were dry.
(Note to self, it's time to clean the oven!)

We attached a variety of Christmas ribbon to the ornaments with Elmer's style glue. I added a tab of paper once the glue began to dry as a way of keeping the ends of the ribbon more flat - and it made a nice spot to label that they were made by Brynn in 2011.
Brynn is pretty excited to give out her ornament gifts this Christmas. She's really proud of having made them herself and is looking forward to the surprise for everyone. I recommend this project for anyone, any age. We both got a lot of enjoyment out of the process and have a pretty nice ornament to hang on our tree. Merry Christmas!










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