Art for the little ones - Christmas gifts tinker promotes creativity

Smaller children want to receive a lot of Christmas gifts - but they also want to give away beautiful Christmas presents . Mama and dad, to Omi and Opi, to the siblings and the best friends and the favorite teachers and the patentant and many, many more people.

If the kids notice at some point how many people they want to give, there can be a little despair.

Now they are asked as parents - in several ways. You should perhaps make it clear to your children first of all that the pocket money of the next few years does not have to be planned for these gifts, and of course you tell you why this is and how it should work that wonderful gifts are created with little cost - by handicrafts.

You usually don't need much persuasion to get younger children to do crafts, but they can't do as much and are often anxious that they won't produce a presentable result.

So you should have a few good suggestions at hand, which your child could tinker - for whom, it is usually much faster.

Here are a few suggestions that can do with inexpensive ingredients and enable your child to develop real artistic development:

1. 1. Putter walks with the children are there to be collected, and particularly magnificent leaves are regularly collected. These can be transformed into beautiful decorations, especially for people who don't have much interest in kitsch and colorful crafts.

      

       

   2. Dad, for example, gets a few appealing nature pictures for the windows of his study. They consist simply of beautiful autumn leaves laminated in foil and then carefully cut out (with a small border, don't forget). These pictures also make perfect coasters for the coffee cup on his desk.
   3. The next coveted collectible is chestnuts , and you can use them to make wonderful fantasy animals that both grandmas can use to decorate their kitchen windowsills. Each of them, of course, gets an animal family made up of her favorite animals, and the best part is, no grandma will ever think she received the nicer gift.
   4. Grandma Charlotte is getting a family of ducks. The ducks are basically made from a large and a small chestnut, stuck together. Two pistachio shells are glued on for beaks, and toothpicks are used to attach wings and a tail. The toothpicks and pistachio shells can then be colored. Grandma Regina especially likes hedgehogs, which are easy to make from chestnuts and lots and lots of toothpicks. Two peppercorns are glued on for eyes. If you only want one animal, someone who likes a bit of crazy decorations can make a millipede out of lots of chestnuts, with lots of pipe cleaners cut into pieces for legs. They'll then be beautifully hairy.

Video tutorial: Crafting with chestnuts

Video slideshow: Crafting with chestnuts: gnomes, men and mythical creatures

Video: tinkering with chestnuts - 2 craft ideas for autumn

Hopefully, there are a few stones in the forest, too, which will become Christmas presents for the grandpas. Everyone gets their own beautiful, colorfully painted stone. It can be used as a paperweight, a note holder, or as a weight to keep the newspaper from being blown off the garden table.

Every grandpa gets "his picture", Grandpa Clemens was on the cruise, he gets a stone with his cruise ship. Grandpa Michael passes out mushrooms passionately, they can also be found on his stone, perhaps with a pretty rabbit and a hint of forest.

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 would never be able to do this design, you could either persuade them to take some artistic liberty (this option usually produces unique results), or you could find a template from the Internet from which they can copy the outlines.

Usually the creative filling of these outlines is enough to produce an unmistakable work of art. Again, after drying the colors, at least one layer of clear coat from the can should be put over the picture to protect it from abrasion.

1. Mom is still missing, and she simply loves adorable pictures. These are created by the child first drawing a picture consisting only of outlines. This should be tested on a few sheets of paper before transferring it to a surface that can be glued, such as a blank canvas. Then the outlines are covered with objects found in the forest (apply really thick, transparent glue), so that little by little 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 varnish from a spray can to prevent it from "crumbleing."
2. Most grandmas love houseplants , and younger children can beautifully decorate flower pots for them, which can be given as Christmas gifts. The pots can be painted, decorated with decorations cut from self-adhesive foil, or decorated with decoupage (and with help from mom).
3. Even the leftovers from the forest finds can be turned 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 use any tray, but you can also use a wooden board or even a thick piece of cardboard, painted accordingly or wrapped in red fabric. Then you can sort through the available ingredients for the table decoration and perhaps add a few more at the nearest craft store.

   

   After all, they have chestnuts and naked branches in front of them, moss and gold -yellow -colored leaves, artificial mushrooms and real mature cranberries, spruce needle bushes and a wonderfully bizarre shaped dry root. In addition, there was a kilogram of stones, from the hardware store, and many meters of beautiful loop tape, matching the fabric of its base plate.

   All these finds are then arranged into an extraordinary table decoration and secured with glue, pins, or ribbon. Finally, they are sprinkled with tiny gold stars or gold dust (then it's time for the clear varnish again).

4. If grandparents or godmothers find such colorful table decorations rather kitsch, there's another way: Take a stainless steel plate and stylishly arrange just one kind of forest find with a few battery-operated LED fairy lights. This creates an almost futuristic-looking wall or table decoration. But it's not really suitable for crafting with small children, who usually prefer something a little more colorful.

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