ok, so i'm totally late on this...u may (or may not) have wanted to make these for a holiday craft...but hey, better late than never...there's always next year, right?! ;0)
my kiddos made these mainly for teacher/after-school daycare worker gifts...but we also gave them to friends & fam...they're very simple & i've seen em around prob a billion times over the years - but the kiddos enjoy making them & i think it's the personal touches & how they decorate em that make em so special!
first, u start out with different size craft sticks (popsicle sticks)...u can buy assorted sizes, but i also cut some up with a good pair of scissors to get the tiny pieces...lay a full sized, long one down as the tree trunk...then let the kiddos arrange the different sizes to create a tree...good sorting practice too, huh? ;0)
while they're doing that, u can get out ur hot glue gun & get busy...glue, glue, glue until u have as many trees as u need (btw - even with all these trees, we didn't have any left over for our own tree...guess we'll be making more next year!)
also, this is a good time to go ahead & glue a loop of ribbon or string on, so u can hang ur ornaments later...and have the kids write their names/date on the back of the trunk if u'd likenext, get out some green acrylic paint & let the kiddos go to town
after they paint their trees (& while they're still wet), sprinkled some multi-colored glitter on em for a little extra shimmer
let the trees dry...then get out a bunch of goodies for the kiddos to decorate their trees with...i had some craft felt balls, tiny jewels & some star sequins...but the sky is the limit really - b creative! give them each some q-tips & a blob of craft glue (it's easier to glue tiny pieces down this way, rather than having them squirt big globs of glue directly on the trees) & let em go to town decorating!
& viola!u can give the ornaments away as is...or attach em to a gift or goodie...
we chose to give away tins of caramel corn with our ornaments...
& not just any caramel corn...it's called My Amish Friend's Caramel Corn & it's sooooo stinkin' good! it turns out crunchy & crisp, not ooey gooey & chewy (u know, the kind that sticks in ur teeth)...go check out the link & give it a try!
& i took ours one step further...after trying the Cub Scouts new version of caramel corn this year, i had the idea to add chocolate on ours too...i just melted some semi-sweet chips & added a bit of gulf wax to thin it out (if u're worried about ingesting paraffin wax, read this)...then drizzled it over the corn as it was cooling
once cool, break it up & put it in decorated baggies or tins as gifts...or just save it all for urself & enjoy...but b careful - it's SUPER ADDICTIVE!!! just ask Curt - i've made 4 or 5 batches of this stuff so far...mostly for gifts - but also because i can't keep him out of it! ;0)
& i took ours one step further...after trying the Cub Scouts new version of caramel corn this year, i had the idea to add chocolate on ours too...i just melted some semi-sweet chips & added a bit of gulf wax to thin it out (if u're worried about ingesting paraffin wax, read this)...then drizzled it over the corn as it was cooling
once cool, break it up & put it in decorated baggies or tins as gifts...or just save it all for urself & enjoy...but b careful - it's SUPER ADDICTIVE!!! just ask Curt - i've made 4 or 5 batches of this stuff so far...mostly for gifts - but also because i can't keep him out of it! ;0)
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