Time to Get Crafty

Now that Christmas is rapidly approaching and Miss is getting to the age of being able to do crafts, I have been in a majorly crafty kind of mood. Two days ago I went nuts in the craft section of Target, buying pipe cleaners and construction paper and sparkly pom-poms and regular pom-poms and glue and googly eyes and all sorts of other stuff. Yesterday was a dreary day, perfect for pulling out these newly acquired treasures and getting into some crafting. I decided that we would make gift bags for Christmas gifts. I have tons of paper bags that I have saved over the past year (I used other ones last year, but not decorated nicely), so I pulled them out and informed Miss that we would be making the bags pretty.

She was quite intrigued buy this idea. She was even more interested when I got out the craft stuff I planned for us to use. I told her we would be making a Christmas tree on the bag and she was so excited.

I was quite excited too. I has sparkly pipe cleaners to glue on for garland and sparkly pom-poms for ornaments. Miss had a "ball" picking out the ornaments she wanted to use. I put glue on them and she stuck them on. The only problem was that they wouldn't stick. I couldn't get the glue to hold the pipe cleaners or the pom-poms in place. I tried and tried, but to no avail. I haven't crafted in so long, and really who knows the last time I used pipe cleaners and pom-poms for anything (Monday school crafting in LP??), so I had no idea they wouldn't stick. Maybe they would have if I'd been able to hold them in place until they started to dry, and then allow them to sit motionless while the glue dried completely. As if that was going to happen with a toddler eager to stick on the next fluffy and sparkly ornament.

So, we switched to plan B. I cut paper to make garland and ornaments. Miss stuck them on. And then, to her delight, I got out the most important component of any holiday crafting project. What, you ask?? Why, glitter of course!! Miss went to town sprinkling it all over the tree, where it stuck in the spots I had squirted glue on the garland and ornaments.

Naturally, it stuck to more than just the tree.

Happily, we finished the project and got it cleaned up. Though it didn't turn out the way I thought it would, we had fun, and Miss was very proud of her finished Christmas tree bag, which is currently holding a gift for her Daddy, ready to give on Christmas.

Next up - More bags with Santas, Snowmen, and maybe a reindeer, though I'm not sure if that falls within my artistic ability, a paper garland, more cookies and who knows what else??