diy glittery gelt

I know, I know...chocolate gelt is a favorite of the kiddos but why not make your own glittery gelt with some tinfoil, gue, crepe paper streamers and glitter? It won't go stale and can be used for the entire season! 

Glittery Gelt

*tinfoil

*mod podge

*crepe paper streamers or tissue paper

*glitter

*paintbrush

*large circle punch or scissors

Gather up an assortment of crepe paper streamers or tissue paper and let your kiddos go to town tearing or cutting a pile of colorful bits, both will get those small motor skills moving. Place on a tray or plate and set aside.

Tear out a large sheet of tinfoil and set it up in a spallter friendly workspace. Hand your kiddo a paintbrush and a shallow dish of mod podge or watered down glue and let them get to covering up their foil a la tin foil festive. Once they are delighted with the color party hand them a glitter shake and stand back! Set aside to dry.

Once dry, fold a section of foil over itself and punch out a series of circles. If you do not have a punch, trace or draw a series of circles over folded bits of foil about the size of a half dollar and cut out with scissors.

The crimping from the paper punch and/or scissors will lightly hold together the double circles. Gently pry apart and slather on some glue or mod podge, sandwich the foil circles back together and give them another coat of mod podge. Set aside to dry.

 Once your glittery bits are dry, gather them up, grab a dreidel, it's game time! These glittery coins are great for play money or fairy money even. Not the best idea to hand to kiddos under three as they might be too tempted to take a bite or swallow and that would be bad. I'm thinking these glittery bits would also make a nifty garland. In fact, I jsut might do that...stay tuned! 

Homemade Holidays: Tinfoil Festive Hanukkah Cards

 I never grow tired of the dazzle that is tinfoil festive. I was in in need of a Hanukkah card or two so I whipped out some supplies and created these nifty bits. Wanna make yer own set? You may already have the supplies on hand. Let's see...

Materials

*tin foil

*white glue

*cardboard (I used a cereal box)

*scissors or for grown ups only, a straight blade

*crepe paper streamer or colored tissue

*embroidery thread

*glitter, sequins or other flat sparkly bits

Set up your work area by laying out a splat mat or a large sheet of wax paper. Have your kiddo cut or tear a bunch of colored tissue (I used crepe paper streamers), other thin papers and embroidery thread or yarn. Place them on a plate or nearby for easy access.

 Lay out a large sheet of tinfoil (size is up to you). Poor a blob of glue onto your tinfoil and have your kiddo spread the sticky mess all over using a paintbrush, damp sponge or sponge brush.

Brush on or flatten on bits of tissue paper. The more you play around with them, the wetter they get which causes bunching and tearing. Add snipped bits of thread, yarn or string and then more tissue for a layered look. While the glue is still wet, dazzle it up even more with a shakey shake of glitter or salt. Set aside to dry.

While the festive fun is drying, grab some cardboard boxes (cereal and cracker boxes work great, I think I used a yogurt box) and cut into manageable, card-sized rectangles.

Create a stencil for your kiddos of whatever shape you like. I cut a triangle from a magazine insert to create the Star of David. The dreidel was drawn free-form. Flip your rectangles over so the blank side faces down and have your kiddos trace the shape onto the printed side using a dark colored marker.

Cut out the shape your kiddos traced. This part is for the grown-ups only as blades are involved.

 Once your tinfoil fun is all dry and the tack is gone, smother the printed side of your cardboard cards with white glue and have your kiddo place the cards, sticky side down on top of the foil fun. Repeat until all your cut pieces are camping out onto the foil. Lay a sheet of wax paper on top and stack a pile of books on top of that to flatten out the cardboard and give the glue a chance to stick. If you have chosen to cut your foil first, then use paperclips or clothespins to hold the edges places.

Once everything is dry, cut around cardboard with scissors and write a happy message on the back. Happy Holidays!

Revisiting Tinfoil Festive

 Many thanks and homemade cookies to blogger bethany actually for repurposing tin foil festive into Holiday Cards! Check out her blog for some fabulous pictures. What a great idea, I wish I had thought of it! Anyone else doing something extra spiffy for the holidays?

More Holiday fun coming tomorrow! (I misplaced the book that jump started my circle frenzy so that will be coming in January. Sheesh, where has all the time gone?)