DIY Angel or Elf Ornaments

 

This year my Facebook newsfeed is full of these adorable angel ornaments for sale. I think they are adorable but cannot imagine buying them. I looked at them and said I can make those. I bought some white fleece to begin with to figure out a pattern. I played with paper to come up with patterns. I started with a semicircle but found I cut the circle quite a bit. I also experimented with hair and more.

5 Little Angels Review with Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I am working with The Children's Book Review and Kathleen T. Pelley to participate in this Virtual Book Tour. I was sent a digital copy of the book for the review and will receive a small stipend. All opinions are my own. 

Today I am sharing a new picture book with you from Kathleen T. Pelley. It is a sweet, religious picture book. It is Five Little Angels. After my review I will share some angel crafts to go with this book and there is a giveaway as part of the blog tour!

Coffee Cup Angel

I know I've been a bit MIA lately. Sorry. I spent the day working on my resume. I am going to apply for a part time job at Hazel's school. We also have a bunch of family activities planned the next week or so, therefore I may be MIA a bit more. 

So I saw this great idea on Our Life in a Click using Starbucks cups. Now I have to admit I'm addicted to chai lattes and I love Starbucks, so we have a few cups floating around. In fact when Hazel first started speaking she called Starbucks "Chai". She also has several empty cups floating around so she can pretend to drink a chai as well. Therefore, this craft was right up our alley.

I made a few changes. I did not have the wooden discs so I used the plastic cover. I cut the circle and added the face. To make it stand I used one of the green drink sticks they now have so your drink does not spill in the car. I poked it through the bottom of the cup and put glue on it and around it and glued the cover circle on it. I blocked it in the back with some yarn hair. Then I used a glittery pipe cleaner for the halo.

I honestly did this craft with Hazel in about 10 minutes. Tomorrow we are going to use different size cups to make an angel family. I'm also thinking maybe a Christmas tree. I have an idea in my head. I'll share it tomorrow if we do it. Have you done any recycled crafts lately? Any other creative ideas for using your coffee cups and its various parts?

Virtual Book Club for Kids: Tomie dePaola

Sharing Saturday is still open if you would like to share your child-oriented crafts and activities or be inspired by the amazing ones already shared!

Today I thank God for a week with very few plans so hopefully I can get the rest I need!

Today is the kick off of November's Virtual Book Club for Kids Blog Hop. As you may know I have joined a wonderful group of bloggers to do this book club. Each month we feature an author and each of us picks a book to blog about and do some craft or activity with it. Then we invite you to join us by choosing a book by the author of the month and sharing in our blog hop. I join the following wonderful blogs to bring this to you each month.

Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids -
 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo -  The Educators' Spin On It -  
Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - 
Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom -  Mommy and Me Book Club -  No Twiddle Twaddle - 
The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - 
Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas -  
Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - 
Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls -  
Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles -  
Train Up a Child - Smile Play Learn

This month's author is Tomie dePaolo. Now he has many books to choose from that appeal to different ages. This week we will talk about two of his books.

Angels, Angels Everywhere is a sweet little book for younger children. It goes through each page with different angels and they are labeled things like "Kitchen Angel" or "Play Angel". You can guess from the pictures what their role is as well.

Pascual and the Kitchen Angels is a book telling the life of Pascual, the patron saint of the kitchen. Pascual goes to a monastery to join the monks, but when the monks see all the food he brings from his family they ask him to cook. Not wanting to be sent away he goes to the kitchen and begins to pray since poor Pascual does not know how to cook or for that matter boil water. The angels come and cook while Pascual prays and prepare a wonderful feast. The monks are so impressed with his cooking they make Pascual their cook.


Since both of these books involve angels, we are sharing both of them today. For Pascual and the Kitchen Angels, we made wooden spoon kitchen angels.

I bought some wooden spoons at the Dollar Tree. We put a googly eye on each and then used felt for hair, dress and wings and a pipe cleaner for the halos. This craft can also work for Angels, Angels Everywhere since it also mentions kitchen angels.

We also made some lollipop angels. We are still working on using up our Halloween candy!

For these we used tissue paper, coffee filter dresses, cupcake liners (for wings) and pipe cleaner halos.

Then we made some paper plate angels. I think these are pretty self explanatory.

Then after Hazel went to bed, I made her an angel mobile. In Angels, Angels Everywhere we talk about the Bedtime Angel who tucks the children into bed and we always add that she stays and keeps them safe so they are not alone. I thought it would be fun to have a mobile of angels with one representing the Bedtime Angel. I put three angels on it to represent the Bedtime Angel, the Wake Up Angel, and the Guarding Angel. My plan is to hang it above Hazel's bed so she will see the angels looking over her each night.

These angels are made with a pipe cleaner, wooden bead, scraps of yarn and felt for clothes. I used the pipe cleaner halo and a I cut a silver poinsettia I got at the Dollar Tree for wings. Then I strung them and hung them on a circle of floral wire. My balance is  not perfect yet, but I will work on it.

For even more angel crafts you can check out all the ones we did last year for the angel swap we participated in. 

Every time we read Angels, Angels Everywhere Hazel tells me she really likes it! What Tomie dePaola books have you been reading lately? I hope you will join us in our blog hop! Next week we will be sharing another Tomie dePaola book and craft/activity. I hope you will join us again!

Lazy Monday with a sick Hazel

Hazel definitely has a cold or some bug. She still has her runny nose and slight fever. I took her to the doctor's since I just got over strep, but the initial test was negative. So it has been a needy day with my toddler. However, I did get a bit of sewing done finally. I promised Steve awhile ago I would make new valances for our kitchen from some fabric I had. Since it was old fabric I had to make do with what I had, so this is how they came out. Steve decided awhile ago we needed new kitchen curtains and we decided on these yellow ones that I bought at KMart (I think).

My other surprise today was I got my last angel in the angel swap. Here is a picture of all the angels Hazel and I received in the swap.

So my other thought of the week, if you won a million dollars what would you do with the money? As I was thinking about this, I realized that a million dollars does not go very far anymore. The top things on my list were pay off our mortgage and buy my sister a house and pay off my other sister's mortgage and put some away for Hazel's schooling (both K-12 and college) and some for my nephew's college fund. I'm sure I would be over a million by then, but I would also want to donate some to church which needs a new roof, new kitchen, etc. It is a never ending list. So what would you do if you won a million dollars?

Angels, Angels Everywhere

Today I went to the doctor and found out I don't just have a cold like I thought. Instead I have strep throat. Guess my idea of ignoring it and it will go away won't work.

Angels with a Toddler

Our nature craft from school yesterday

Today I'm going to share some of the angels we have been making for the Angel Swap. These are the ones that Hazel will be sending out. Later I will share the ones I'm sending. Hazel is swapping with a four-year-old girl in California. Needless to say I helped Hazel quite a bit, but we had fun doing these.

More Turkeys (and Thanksgiving Books) and Some Angels

We had one of those long days that involved a migraine for me and no nap for Hazel. UGH!! Plus I tutored and the drive there and back was not worth the time I spent with the student. Oh, well. Since we did not have a nap, we did some crafts finally!!