Day 12: Truth in the Tinsel Advent Experience

On Day 12 we did a cute 'I spy jar' relating to the census where Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem to be counted.  I thought it was a really excellent connection between subject and craft the rice grains being the many people and Mary and Joseph being amongst them.  Ours turned out rather hilarious but fun none the less :)

Their treats were Woolies eggs.  Andy got the dinosaur egg which to his delight contained the skeleton of a T-rex's skull and a small packet of sweeties and Jane got a Hello Kitty one with a hair clip and sweeties inside :) 

Jane asking for hers to be opened...

 

Andy coloring the rice in a bag with gel food coloring and a bit of hand sterilizer cause we didn't have rubbing alcohol, which I thought was an excellent tip given in the book.

Feeling the rice before setting it down to dry...

In the mean time Andy took all our pipe cleaners out of our craft box and made rings out of them then using the lid of the craft box he went around selling his wares...

I of course bought some because who could resist such beautiful jewelry...

Our supplies for Mary and Joseph were rather unusual.  I of course couldn't find the permanent marker when I need it so we opted for thin black tape.  For the heads we used a bunch of plastic balloons from the cake shop.

We cut pieces of tape for the faces... told you ours came out hilarious...

Our i spy container on the tree...

Days 9, 10 and 11: Truth in the Tinsel Experience

We seem to form a patteren of not getting the time or oppertunity to do our advent crafts over the weekend.  Which is understandable seeing that weekends are always jam packed with family fun :)  But we did however make the time to have our advent treats.  On Sunday Andy pulled our a slip of paper out of the stocking on which I drew a gingerbread man indicating that we will be baking gingerbread men as his treat for the day.  He was so excited and had great fun decorating them.  I did most of the baking of coarse because the kids prefer to eat cookie dough while occationally helping.  The icing part though was done very enthusiastically by all (including Mommy). :)

So Monday is a crafty goodness day of catch up.  This morning we made Joseph for Day 9.  I didn't have the correct shaped peg called for in the instructions so we used craft sticks for the legs and a round Christmas ornament for the head. I glued it with hot glue...

Joseph with Mary and a felt heart on our tree...

Day 10 was about Joseph's dream so Andy made this pillow stuffed with cotton wool.  I inserted an eyelet for easy hanging and we glued the bottom shut with fabric glue...

This Mommy is a decluttering Mommy so unfortunately we didn't have magazines lying around to cut up.  I did however have scrapbook paper which we cut some letters from.  I didn't like the lowercase j in the front of the name of Jesus so I just filled in a capital J with a marker :) 

We glued a pipe cleaner to the back to hang it...

We had so much fun this morning!  My lounge floor needs a good sweeping now cause Jane has to join in on the crafting fun by 'sorting' through our craft box while we are busy and Andy loves cutting up the little bits of left over materials into tiny pieces :)

Andy is really happy cause it's school holidays so the neighbour kids are all at home.  He's busy right now having a lovely morning picnic under the shade of a big tree with 2 of his friends.  I so fondly remember my own carefree summer holidays!  Okay enough day dreaming... got to go do those dishes... and sweep the floor :)

Day 8: Truth in the Tinsel Advent Experience

Andy's reaction to today's treat... Wow, sugar-free lollipops :-)

Luckly the kids see the sugar free lollipops I buy from the health shop as a treat and seeing that it contains no artificial ingredients or sugar there is no Mommy guilt attached to giving them. :-)

The craft for today was to make a sun so we cut out a sun from the template given in the book using fun foam and Andy 'painted' glue onto it...

While Jane tried to get up to have a better 'look' (somehow toddlers, glue and glitter don't make a very friendly combination - don't ask me how I know that)! ...

He then sprinkled golden glitter all over his sun...

We inserted a brad and proudly pegged it onto our tree...

Day 7: Truth in the Tinsel Advent Experience

The little stocking for Day 7 contained a map and following the directions Andy discovered a beach sand castle mould bucket with a rake, sand sieve, spade, sand mould and 2 packets of soft gum sweets shaped like sea animals.  Jane played with her packet of sweeties for a while and then was allowed to eat half a sweet :-)

Now Andy wants to go to one of his favourite places... the beach :-)

Day 7's scripture reading, discussion and craft was about Mary singing so we had to decorate a CD.  Andy wanted to do sand art so we collected the supplies including some shiny paper to cover the back of the CD.

Andy doing his sand art...

The finished ornament...

And the shiny back...

Day 6: Truth in the Tinsel Advent Experience

Enjoying Advent calendar treats in our pj's (but after breakfast - cause even this mommy doesn't bend the rules too much in the festive season)!

After getting dressed, on to crafty goodness. Andy painting Mary and Elizabeth...

And Jane plays with play dough...

While Mary and Elizabeth dries Andy joins in the fun...

Andy cut the paper dolls and their clothes out and assembled them.  I decided to pin them up cause our little Christmas tree is getting rather full with all this festive craftiness and there are still many more days (and ornament crafts) till Christmas!

DIY Pin board

I've been wanting to get Andy a pin board to display some of his art work at his school desk but couldn't get it over my heart to spend R200+ on one so I've been thinking about how to make my own.  We recently had to buy a new microwave so when I opened up the box and saw the square slab of Styrofoam my mind started working.  While I was buying craft supplies yesterday I saw a large sheet of cork and it was settled.

I took the styrofoam and cork sheet...

and using the foam as a template I traced a line with a pencil and cut out the cork...

I then rolled some glue onto the top surface of the foam... 

Stuck the cork on, weighed it face down with some books for a while and then air dried it outside...

When it was dried I displayed some of Andy's mosaic art as well as his latest two Christmas ornaments.  I also put up some letters that I decoupaged with scrapbook paper...

A fresh look for his 'school' corner and the pin board cost me all of R8 to make... can't beat that!!!

I linked this up to...

Day 5: Truth in the Tinsel Advent Experience

Day 5 was Hello Kitty treats and a Mary craft. 

Jane is a bit too small for so many treats so I let her open it and then she shares it with me :-)  

We made a Mary ornament out of a peg...

When we finished our scripture reading and discussion we played with Gabriel and Mary, acting out the scene...