altered fun

When I was a kidlet, my most favorite part of Christmas, other than falling asleep in the living room with the lights on the tree twinkling away was and still is stockings. Oh how I adore a filled stocking. My mamos was ace in stuffing those things. It is one of my favorite memories and you can read all about it in the kids issue of Mixtape.

Moving along, I love, love, love putting together stockings. I love assembling fun and quirky gifts for people. Things that will make them smile. While I know that a large number of items that go into stockings are "tossable" items, my goal is to really think about those little things I put in. Here is just one simple thing you can do to breathe new life into something your kidlets already may or may not have. I just realized that this post was simply supposed to be about altering party favor kaleidoscopes and somehow it seems to be becoming something else. I will try to get back to the something else later. I won't have pics, but I'll chat about it.

If I know one thing about kidlets, it is that they have a magical ability to acquire. Some things grand and delightful, others, thorns in your side. Why put together another stocking full of things they will carelessly toss about? Stuffing a stocking should be joyful both for the stuffer and the stuffee. A long while ago I bought some mini holiday kaleidoscopes on clearance from a party store. I wrapped them in funky gift wrap and used them as Easter basket gifts. It was a six pack so I still have two left. Let's recover them and if your kidlets have already "outgrown" their last kaleidoscope, snatch it up and recover it so it looks like something incredibly new. Note, some of your kidlets may just be too smart for this so engage them into the covering and have them paint up a nifty picture to use for the covering.

You will need:
*toy kaleidoscope
*glue stick or mod podge if yer brave
*fun paper or your kidlet's artwork (I used origami paper)
*scissors
*pencil and ruler (ruler is optional)
Get to it and scrumdilly-do it!

This is an easy one. Gather your supplies.

Measure your kaleidoscope and mark off the length on your scrap paper. If you're doing this, you can eyeball it, if yer child is doing it, hand them a ruler and teach them the metric system. You may want to adjust your mark so that is an eighth of an inch (Me? I don't know the metric system!) shorter.Cut your paper so you end up with a longish strip. YOu can always trim the strip if you feel it is too long.Slather it with gluestick and wrap it around your kaleidoscope. If you are using mod podge, apply the podge to the kaleidoscope first, then wrap. This gets twisty tricky so don't worry about it being perfect.

Smooth about bubbles and bumps, stuff into that stocking and let yer kidlets enjoy!