Friday, October 25, 2013

Christmas Block Countdown

How onto are we ... it's October and we have already completed our first Christmas craft. OK because I am so honest I will confess we started these not last year but the year before and simply ran out of time to finish them. I packed them away and only found them over the school break. 



Now I have scheduled (yes I am a scheduler ... I tried going freestyle and it was awful but that's for a whole other blog post) Fridays as our creative day. We spend the day doing a shared reading, poetry, music, arts and crafts. Because we have a few UFOs (unfinished objects) laying about I have decided that these must be finished first before we tackle any further big art projects. This Mama is as bad as the kids and it's really not a good habit to get into, so I am endeavouring to either finish it or get rid of it for someone else to enjoy doing.  

Now for this project we ...



1. First up cut some wood. We cut two small cubes from a 4" x 4" and then a third piece that was just a little bit longer than the two small pieces of block.


They grow up so fast.
2. Sand the pieces so there are no rough sides.



3. We painted the blocks in an acrylic paint. We used some enamel house paint for the white and purchased a small tin of tester paint for the green and red. You could simply varnish them or even decoupage them if you wanted to.




4. The girls chose a Santa picture / clip art (The Fashionista wanted modern and Agent Smelly old fashioned) and I printed off their labels (a bit smaller than the side of the largest block) on the PC and then simply laminated them. You could use stencil, stickers, or even hand paint them. I hot glued their labels onto one side of their largest blocks.



5. They then painted the numbers onto the blocks. You could use a stencil (the girls used me to sketch them on for them), or even foam numbers or stickers.
      - One block needs to have the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
         and block two need to have 0, 1, 2, 6 (which also serves as 9), 7 and 8.


Sadly the girls are already using their blocks to count down the days to Christmas, which is causing me heart palpitations ... who knew Christmas was so close!!!!
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3 comments :

  1. Christmas count down? Oh no! Where has the year gone? I'd better get moving. I want to finish the Christmas shopping before Advent starts. I don't suppose I will. I've never managed to before!

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    Replies
    1. When I lived in town I used to do really well but these days I really seem to struggle. I can't be bothered driving into the city to shop. Especially with the nieces and nephews in Aussie and I am not sure what they are into as they get older. Might have to send money this year ... lol

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    2. Lisa,

      I struggle with going to the shops too, especially as our shopping centre is fairly small and I can never find what I'm looking for. This year, I'm doing most of my shopping online. A few clicks and the postman will deliver everything to our door! I'm going to order books probably from the Book Depository. They deliver to any address free, so I don't even have to post some of my gifts. I usually buy iTunes gift cards for my older nephews. They didn't really appreciate the time and effort I spent looking for something more imaginative. But I think money is a great idea too. Who doesn't like a bit of money to spend on oneself?

      I'm supposed to be working but couldn't help stopping for a chat when I saw you'd answered my comments. Love talking to you! Have a great day.

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