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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

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Original poster

any ideas for homemade xmas cards to do with a 2 year old?

17 replies

thewaffler · 15/10/2011 00:10

I like the idea of making our Christmas cards this year and to get dd involved who is nearly 2 - is this doable or perhaps a bit ambitious?

Was thinking that i'll need to start early! Has anybody got any tried and tested designs which are extremely simple but effective? My first thought is an Xmas tree, if I do a green triangle before hand (thought could attempt a potatoe shape stamp which makes me ridiculously excited!) Then once I've got a stack of dry, ready ones, encourage dd to do the baubles by few finger paint prints. How likely she is to assist, or how good they will look is debatable, so would love to hear any successful alternatives people have previously made

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GrownUpZombieKiller · 15/10/2011 00:22

Hand print reindeer?

Original poster

thewaffler · 15/10/2011 00:26

Oooh hand print reindeer sounds intriguing - what is one?! Can you expand a bit....guessing the fingers would be the antlers, how would you go about the face in the middle? Art is not my strong point!

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Original poster

thewaffler · 15/10/2011 00:27

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Original poster

thewaffler · 15/10/2011 00:27

Sorry, pressed twice Bloody phone......

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StarryEyedMama · 15/10/2011 00:32

Have got some great ideas off websites. Will post in the morning for you!

Mammonite · 15/10/2011 00:32

my theory with children helping is: you control the colours and shapes and let them add the enthusiasm.

I received a homemade card one year, where the children had obviously had a great time scribbling/painting/glittering/stickering all over some green/gold paper, then mum had cut out 3 little triangles from this "artwork" and stuck them onto card like Christmas trees.

So the DC are making the materials rather than finished art IYSWIM

Original poster

thewaffler · 15/10/2011 14:21

Mammonite, perfect, I do see what you mean exactly, thank you, imagine will be much more fun for her and loads less faffy for me, result!

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girlywhirly · 15/10/2011 14:40

She could stick cottonwool onto a faintly drawn outline of a snowman on a dark coloured card, e.g. red, blue, green. Then stick on black sequins as eyes and buttons, and a small bit of wool as a mouth. You can cut out a hat shape from card or felt and scarf from wool or felt to stick on as well.

You will need to closely supervise her though, and if you need to make a lot of cards I'd suggest saving these ones for Daddy, grandparents and aunts/uncles. It depends on your DD and whether she can concentrate/ sit still for long enough. Mammonites suggestion is a good one.

I did potato prints will DS who was 3 and he decorated them beautifully with sequins etc.

Iggly · 15/10/2011 14:42

DS did the reindeer last year. Footprint for the face, hand prints for the antlers!

Original poster

thewaffler · 15/10/2011 18:01

Thank you for the suggestions, I think that will go with Mammonite suggestion for the general ones and then mix it up a bit for special ones like you say girlywhirly, I'm not sure about her sticking ability, I haven't tried that, am still drawn to potato printing a couple (maybe more for my enjoyment rather than hers!) she also likes hand painting - iggly, did you then add eyes and nose etc to the footprint face, its this part that worries me if I have to add actual arty bits, or does it look enough like a reindeer without?

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JjandtheBeanlovesUnicorns · 15/10/2011 19:10

Last year I had a 2 and 3yo.

We did a mixture, snowmen were potato and carrot prints, I cut out a triangle of orange for nose and let the older one use a chunky black marker for eyes and buttons then the did glue spots and silver glitter for snow.

Robbins-potatoe again just round then when dried smaller round of red, stick on features again.

Hand print reindeer and a large round potato print for head and carrot for red nose

Angel, foot for boday, hands for wings, carrot for head.

Also did some cut outs, so fold card in half and make a star/tree shaped window, let dcs glue scribble etc on paper and stick inside in a book formation iyswim so there art is unedited, does that make sense?

JjandtheBeanlovesUnicorns · 15/10/2011 19:10

*body ofc!

chrisrobin · 15/10/2011 20:17

I did the reindeer with DS2 last year, you need to draw on some eyes, but that's just black dots, and we added a red pom-pom on the tip of the nose to finish it off. We also used this poem:

This isn't just a reindeer,
As anyone can see.
I made it with my hands and foot,
Which are a part of me.
So when I'm grown and older,
You'll look back and recall,
The Christmas of 2010,
When I was just this small.

Original poster

thewaffler · 15/10/2011 20:29

Jjandthebeanlovesunicorn, anything with potato prints a winner in my eyes, confused slightly by a carrot print? what am I using to print with? The bigger end of a carrot chopped off and therefore a circle? Sorry for being a bit thick!

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Original poster

thewaffler · 15/10/2011 20:33

Chrisrobin, a super cute poem too, i love love love it, and even I can manage some black dots and a pom pom!

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insanityscratching · 15/10/2011 22:34

Hand print santa? paint fingers white, heel of hand and thumb red and palm pink.Print with four fingers together and thumb sticking out turn card round. Two black dots for eyes and a splodge of white for a pompom on the end of his hat.

MamaPizza · 16/10/2011 08:56

I am so glad you started this thread thewaffler.

Thanks to all the ideas here, I will get started with my DS soon.

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