Holly Jolly Craftmas to you!!
As a mum of two crazy curious and VERY busy little guys, I wanted to come up with a super cool way for you to have your cake and eat it, too. And by Christmas cake, I actually mean Christmas tree. Yes, having a busy little human crawling around the house requires a few minor adjustments on the Christmas decor front. And ye good old Christmas tree is the crowning glory of baby mischief. And no, a playpen around my beautiful tree will not cut it, just encourage two-year-old Super Men - and ain't nobody got time for that!
So I decided to get busy researching ideas. Thank you, Pinterest. Oh and off the record, as we are great friends, and to show you the lengths I went to with my research, google 'baby proof Christmas tree.' You will not be disappointed! Some legend even went to the lengths of hanging it upside down...from the ceiling! Now that is dedication--anyway, enough of that. Let's get crafty and include our littles in the process because that's how we roll!
You will need:
- Sticks
- Paint
- Twine or strong string
- Scissors
- Decorations
- A glue gun
- Branch cutters
- A tiny artist for stick painting
Step One: Go on a bush walk with your kiddies and collect good strong sticks. Children love the chance to get outdoors and go for a nature walk. We took this opportunity to go exploring and made such a nice afternoon out of it.
Step Two: Arrange your sticks to look like a Christmas tree. You may need to cut them so they line up just right.
Step 3: Bust out the paints with your littles and get crazy messy and decorate those sticks! Such fun, we actually did this over two days as there were a few sticks to paint.
Step 4: Once dry, arrange them once more. Take your string and measure it so it is about triple the length of your tree, with room to move. You need a decent length of string.
Step 5: String your tree together. I worked from the bottom left, and secured the string to the first stick by looping my string around it and tying a knot at the top of the stick. I left a small amount of space between the sticks and tied a know where I wanted my next stick to go. I placed the second stick above the knot and then tied the knot on top and repeated the process until I reached the top. I tied my string off. I left enough string to hang, then I repeated the process. I did not cut the string I just worked with plenty and adjusted it at the end.
Step 6: Decorate, super fun! Feel free to hot glue if needed. We hung most of ours on the ends and used the glue for the ornaments in the middle.
Step 7: Hang and enjoy!
The best thing about this project is the together time it promotes. We did the entire project side by side. And the moment anyone visits our house, one very proud two-year-old uses the opportunity to show them the Christmas tree he made.
It's been so fun hanging out with you here for Craftmas! Smocks.on is like my second home on Instagram - speaking of which, if you liked this craft come check out some of the others my little artsy boys and I have created on my Instagram page and brand-new blog.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
xo Heidi
@the_harmony_tree_house
@the_harmony_tree_house
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