Making a Tree Topper

Clio and I have been reading Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas, in which Nancy accidentally breaks the tree-topper she bought during the summer with all of her birthday money ("it's never too early to start planning for Christmas!"), and her grandfather helps her make a new one from paper plates and pipe cleaners, telling her that she can pass it down to her children some day. Clio is, naturally, obsessed with this "heirloom" tree topper, and has been begging me to make one of her very own. She has observed that most tree toppers are either angels or stars, and determined that this year she would like an angel--and next year she will make a star.

The girls are lucky enough to have their very own silver and pink tinsel tree in their room--my mom spotted it in a store window when she met Clio and I to see Enchanted in the Highland movie theater last week (the theater my mom used to walk to for films when she was a girl), and she brought us in after the movie and asked Clio to pick a color. I know, it's shocking that she chose pink.


At Target this weekend I let them each choose an ornament from the $2 bin. Eleri chose a Christmas Tree and Clio chose a stocking (or, as she has been saying, a sock or a socking.)


Tonight after school we went about making an angel for said tree with craft foam and craft "jewels." I must say, I'm getting a TON of mileage out of this craft foam that I bought--and did not use--for a project for Clio's birthday party last summer.

First, I drew a half-circle on yellow foam (Clio's chosen color) for the skirt, and Clio cut it out.


Then I cut two torsos from sparkly blue foam that has a sticky back, and wings from non-sticky green foam. Clio decorated the wings with the letter R, and I sandwiched it altogether while Clio was decorating the skirt with bits and shapes of glitter foam that she cut herself. I cut a white oval for the face, and used green glitter foam for the halo, again sandwiching two pieces sticky-side together to remain glue-free. Clio drew a face, and added some jewels to the front of the wings.


Next I looped the decorated half circle into a cone around this body, stapling it at the back. Clio cut a piece of green grosgrain ribbon for a belt, and we used a dot of glue at the back to secure it.



How cute is that?

I have to say, I am proud of myself (probably more than I should be) for letting Clio do this on her own without me interfering to make it look for "perfect" and polished. This is about 100% Clio, and I think it looks fabulous.

Plus, she was so proud putting it up on top of her little tree.

Mosaics

The girls woke up a bit under the weather yesterday, with Clio's fever clocking in at 102. Combined with the icy roads advisory in effect all morning, it was clearly time for some house-bound activities.

Clio had recently noticed a small city beautification project on the way to school: a number of decorative tile mosaics embedded along a curb. I told her they were called mosaics, that we could look at pictures of more of them online, and that maybe we could even make some. I thought I'd pick up a kit at Michael's, but necessity being the mother of invention and all, I realized I had everything I needed to make my own kit.
We started with a pile of glittery craft foam with sticky backs, and cut them into long strips and then crosswise into small squares. Clio and Eleri did a great job of sorting them into tupperware cups. Then we got to work.


In planning our designs, I tried to show Clio some examples online, but she was pretty sure that she knew what to do and therefore did not need such instruction/ inspiration. Sure enough, she dove right in with this strong graphic line across the paper.
She added some flowers,
And decided she would "cover every part of the black," ending up with a sculptural effect in the corner.

Eleri, meanwhile, made some play-doh worms.
All of this kept the girls occupied through until lunch, and Clio even needed to put on some finishing touches after we ate.





As for me, well, here's mine. Dave said "Honey, did you make some stylized flowers?"

I guess he does read this blog after all.

All those little stickers produce quite a pile of little squares of white paper. They would make excellent confetti, should you have a use for such a thing. I considered saving ours for just such a purpose, but quickly determined this was crazy, then considered using it on the spot, but knowing what the cleanup would entail, I decided this was insane.


We'll just enjoy our mosaics without the accompanying confetti celebration.