Art for little ones – making Christmas gifts promotes creativity

Young children want to receive lots of Christmas presents – but they also desperately want to give beautiful Christmas presents . To Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, their siblings and best friends, their favorite teachers and godmother, and many, many more people.

When kids eventually realize how many people they want to give gifts to, they can start to feel a little desperate.

Now it's up to you as parents – in more ways than one. First and foremost, you should make it clear to your children that their pocket money for the next few years doesn't need to be earmarked for these gifts, and then of course explain why that is and how wonderful gifts can be created with minimal cost – namely, through crafting.

You usually don't need to persuade younger children to do crafts for long, but they are not yet able to do quite as much and are often afraid that they won't be able to produce a presentable result.

So you should have a few good suggestions on hand for what your child could make – for whom, is usually much clearer.

Here are a few suggestions that use inexpensive ingredients and can enable your child to truly develop their artistic talents:

1. 1. Autumn walks with the children They are meant to be collected, and particularly magnificent leaves are regularly gathered. These can be transformed into beautiful decorations, especially for people who have little interest in kitsch and colorful crafts.

      

       

   2. Dad, for example, is getting some attractive nature pictures for his study windows. They're simply made from beautiful autumn leaves laminated in foil and then carefully cut out (leaving a small border, of course). These pictures also work well as coasters for his coffee cup on his desk.
   3. The next coveted collectible is chestnuts , and these can be used to craft wonderful fantasy animals that both grandmothers can use to decorate their kitchen windowsills. Each will, of course, get an animal family made up of her favorite creatures, and the best part is that neither grandmother can think she received the nicer gift.
   4. Grandma Charlotte is getting a family of ducks. Basically, each duck is made from one large and one small chestnut, which are stuck together. Then, two pistachio shells are glued on for beaks, and toothpicks are used to make wings and tails. The toothpicks and pistachio shells can then be painted. Grandma Regina especially likes hedgehogs, which can be easily made from chestnuts and lots and lots of toothpicks; two peppercorns are glued on for eyes. If it's just one animal, for someone who likes slightly quirky decorations, a centipede can be made from lots of chestnuts, with many pieces of pipe cleaner for legs. That way, they'll be nice and furry.

Video tutorial: Crafting with chestnuts

Video slideshow: Crafting with chestnuts: Gnomes, little men and mythical creatures

Video: Crafting with chestnuts – 2 craft ideas for autumn

Hopefully, there are a few stones in the forest that will make Christmas presents for the grandfathers. Everyone will get their own particularly beautiful and brightly painted stone. It can be used as a paperweight, a memo holder, or to keep the newspaper from blowing off the garden table.

Each grandfather gets "his own picture"; Grandpa Clemens was just on a cruise, so he gets a stone with his cruise ship on it. Grandpa Michael is a passionate mushroom collector, and his stone will also feature mushrooms, perhaps with a cute rabbit and a hint of a forest next to it.

For this project, it is best to first prime the stones with white acrylic paint, then the actual motif can be applied much more expressively with colorful craft paints.

If your child complains that they will never be able to recreate this design, you could either persuade them to take artistic liberties (this approach usually produces unique results), or you could find a template online from which they can trace the outline.

Often, simply filling in these outlines creatively is enough to create a unique work of art. Here too, once the paint has dried, at least one coat of clear varnish should be applied to protect the picture from abrasion.

1. Mom is still missing, and she simply loves beautiful pictures. These are created by the child first drawing a picture consisting only of outlines. This should be practiced on a few sheets of paper beforehand, before being transferred to a surface that can be decorated, such as a blank canvas. Then the outlines are covered with found objects from the forest (apply a really thick, transparent glue), so that gradually a very unusual picture emerges. Moss and leaf fragments, small twigs, and dry leaves can be used here. The finished picture is later coated several times with clear spray varnish to prevent it from "flaking.".
2. Most grandmothers love houseplants , and younger children can beautifully decorate flowerpots for them, which can then be given as Christmas gifts along with a plant. The pots can be painted, decorated with cut-out decorations from self-adhesive foil, or adorned using decoupage (with Mom's help).
3. Even the leftover materials from the forest finds can be transformed into gifts – namely, an imaginative Christmas and winter table decoration that can bring coziness to the homes of many loved ones. The base is a kind of wooden tray. You can actually use a tray, but also a wooden board or even thick cardboard, which can be painted or wrapped in red fabric. Then, the available materials for the table decoration are reviewed and perhaps supplemented with a few more items at the local craft store.

   

   Finally, you have chestnuts and bare branches in front of you, moss and golden-yellow leaves, artificial mushrooms and real ripe cranberries, spruce needle bushes, and a wonderfully bizarrely shaped dry root. Add to that a kilogram of small stones from the hardware store and many meters of beautiful ribbon, matching the fabric of your base.

   All these found objects are now arranged into an extraordinary table decoration and attached with glue, pins, or ribbon. Finally, they are sprinkled with tiny gold stars or gold dust (then it's time for another coat of clear varnish).

4. If grandparents or godparents find such colorful table decorations rather kitschy, there's another way: Take a stainless steel plate and stylishly arrange just one type of forest find on it with some battery-operated LED string lights. This creates an almost futuristic-looking wall or table decoration. However, this is probably not a craft project for small children, who usually prefer something a bit more colorful.

In any case, with these artistically inspired gifts killed two birds with one stone: The recipients are delighted with truly personal Christmas presents , and the kids have had the opportunity to “learn a little more creativity” .

Lina Sahne

Passionate author with a keen interest in art

www.kunstplaza.de