Sequined Snowflake Ornaments that Preschoolers Can Make

Back when I was pregnant with Allie and on bedrest, Grace and I made all kinds of Christmas ornament crafts.

Grace was 3 ½ at the time, and I posted them on this page of Christmas Ornaments that Preschoolers Can Make.

Last week, I went back through the 31,364 photos in my iPhoto library looking for one from that December, and I found some ornaments that we'd made but I had never posted.

So I'm going to post them this week.

These are really simple crafts that even a cooperative toddler could make. (I don't see Allie being cooperative, but Grace would have been able to do these long before she was 3.)

These aren't the most Pinterest-worthy stylish ornaments, but they are easy to make with little ones. If you go with the flow and have fun, you will make great memories with your small person.

The first year, we hung all of Grace's ornaments on a tree in her bedroom, and she was really proud of them.

In subsequent years, we've hung them on the living room Christmas tree.

Sequined Snowflakes

The first new ornament craft is this sequined snowflake. You can make any shape that you can fashion from popsicle sticks - a manger, a tree, a snowflake, a star, a triangle, a square, a house. That's all I can think of, but your kids can probably come up with others.

Materials

• Popsicle sticks
• Paint - We used sparkly dot markers because they are much less messy than paint and a paint brush, and I was working on a lap desk while lying down.
• Tacky glue
• A big bag of sequins

Instructions

1. The first step is to paint the popsicle sticks.
   
2. Grace only half painted the popsicle sticks. I don't usually touch up her work, but in this case, I thought it was important that the sticks be thoroughly painted.
   
3. The next step is to glue the popsicle sticks into the shape you want. We made a snowflake, a star, and a tree. Somehow, I didn't get a picture of the star, but here's the snowflake and the tree is in the next step.
   
4. The next step is to glue the sequins down on one side of the ornament. I didn't restrict Grace at all - she used jack-o-lanterns and snowflakes and flowers and seashells and Hello Kitty sequins. She carefully sifted through the sequins, picking just the ones that were perfect.
   
5. Let the glue dry for a few hours. If you try to flip the ornament over and glue the sequins on the other side while the first side is still wet, the sequins will all get glued to your work surface.
   Ask me how I know.
6. When it's completely dry, flip the ornament over and glue sequins on the other side. I guess you could skip this step, but I figure the ornament is gaudy to begin with, why not go overboard?
   
7. When both sides are good and dry, tie a string or a piece of yarn around it somewhere and hang it on the tree. The finished ornament is rather fragile; the sequins pop off with a wee bit of harassment. They shouldn't come off if it's just hanging on the tree, but if your preschooler decides to peel the sequins off, she won't have any trouble doing it.
   Again, ask me how I know.

 Check out the rest of the Christmas Ornaments Preschoolers Can Make