Budget gifts kids can make for parents?

[torinsmom]

I babysit for a 4 year old and would love to help him make gifts for his parents to put under the tree. Anyone have any good ideas? Doesn't have to be free, but under $20 would be nice.

Marsha

 

[jacksmomma]

I particularly like hand print/footprint crafts. I would choose a print craft (you can make Christmas trees with hand prints, reindeer with feet and hands, Santa with hands, or angels with feet and hands) and create it on 12x12 card stock. You could then accent it with ribbons and/or a picture and put it in a scrapbook frame. It is easy and I am sure the parents would love it. Plus, Michael's craft store has the frames on sale this week for $4.99!

There is an example of this on my blog (mine is a turkey). You can see it at:
http://toadallyjackamomma.blogspot.com/

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

I love the foot print/hand print idea...
Also, anything you can paint, glitter, be messy with and fun!
How sweet of this 4 year old! You should be able to find plenty to do under $20...Micheals, Hobby Lobby, AC Moore all have kits of some sort.

 

[momxx5]

As said, my fav is the angel made with footprint and handprints. Use gold glittler paint and paint the foot(not putting foot into paint - to much). You can make a simple wall hanging or a pillow.

 

[Crystal0608]

I love ornaments with pics in them but my kids favorite is cinnamon applesauce ornaments-super easy and makes the house smell awesome.

 

[crisi]

One of my favorites from that age involves tracing their hand out on brown fun foam. Cut it out. Put the fingers pointing down and you have four legs and a head. Punch a hole near the head and add pipe cleaner "antlers" and a little tiny red puff ball "nose" and one googly eye. Punch a hole in the back to hang from the tree and add a ribbon.

You might need to do the tracing, cutting and punching, they can do the gluing and antler creating.

 

[serene56]

my favorite==
toilet paper roll.
coffee filter
small strofoam ball.
colored yarn..

make an angel as a tree topper.

I ha my kids mak me one of these when they were cub scouts== my youngest is now 25. and it still has a place of honor on the top of my tree.

another-- cut out a hand print and make a turkey out of it. color each finger.. and make an ornament out of it.

 

[mommapea]

My dd's babysitter helped her make a snowman ornament. She used tons of Elmer's glue, and poured it over wax paper. She used twigs from her yard for the arms, and a string to hang it. She also poured glitter into the glue before it dried. Last, they made a face out of little foam circles and a carrot nose, also cut out of the foam. It was inexpensive, but is one of my favorite, and cutest, ornaments.

Let me know if you want a picture...I can try and PM or email it to you. I'm still trying to figure out how to post a picture on this...sorry.

 

[mommomtoJoseph]

Something both my kids did around 3-4 years old gave me an ornament to treasure. Their teachers took a brush and painted white paint on their fingers. Then the children "held" one of those inexpensive solid colored glass ornaments upside down (so the hook end was on the bottom) to transfer the paint. Once the paint dried they made each fingerprint into a little snowman with dotted eyes and tiny carrot noses. Their tiny fingerprints show just how small their hands were at that time it was done.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

As the mom of a four-year-old, I highly recommend anything with hand or footprints.

Here are some I've seen recently:

Trace hand on green cardstock and cut out lots of them. Glue them together in a circle with fingers pointing out to make a wreath. Glue on little red circles (like holly berries). You can also do this on a 12x12 piece of paper with actual green handprints (get washable paint at Michaels and paint the paint onto the kid's hand with a foam brush rather than dipping it).

Trace foot with shoe on on brown paper. Glue it down with toes end pointing down. Accessorize into Rudolph (black antlers (could be pipecleaners or paper), googly eyes, red nose).

Angels with handprints described in previous post.

Honestly, this is a great idea you have and anything that involves the child in the making will be LOVED!

 

[torinsmom]

Something both my kids did around 3-4 years old gave me an ornament to treasure. Their teachers took a brush and painted white paint on their fingers. Then the children "held" one of those inexpensive solid colored glass ornaments upside down (so the hook end was on the bottom) to transfer the paint. Once the paint dried they made each fingerprint into a little snowman with dotted eyes and tiny carrot noses. Their tiny fingerprints show just how small their hands were at that time it was done.

So, hold the ornament, as in with all five fingers? So there would be five snowmen to decorate? I am trying to get a visual of this.....

Marsha

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

mommomtojoseph--I love that snowman ornament idea. I'm going to do that for the grandparents!

Is each little segment of finger (between knuckles) a section of the snowman?

 

[torinsmom]

Okay, found the answer to my own question, LOL. Here are instructions for the snowman ornament with pictures!

http://outsidetheblue.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/snowmen-ornaments/#comment-76

I can see this being a hit with his parents. Wonder if I could figure out how to make it penguins instead They are his favorites.

Marsha

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

thanks torinsmom! I am totally in love with these!

 

[torinsmom]

Well, I didn't suggest it, you know! It was mommontojoseph.

Here is the poem to go with the ornament. I think we will do 2 each in red and blue.

These aren't just 5 snowmen,
As anyone can see.
I made them with my hand,
Which is a part of me.
Now each year when you trim your tree,
You'll look back and recall
Christmas of 2001
When my hand was just this small!

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I've always loved anything with my boys' pictures - especially pictures that I've never seen before. You could go to a craft store and get a small wooden plaque or cut out. You can even find unfinished wooden ornaments at this time of year. Cut out scraps of wrapping paper in various shapes (no bigger than 1" by 1"). Glue the paper scraps all over the wooden shape and then cover it with a coat of Modge Podge (or any glossy overcoating). Then glue the child's picture in the middle. These come out really cute and the child can place all of the paper scraps his own way. Just cut around the edges to even it out if any of the pieces hang over the sides.

 

[tzolkin]

We're going to make some magnets with clear stones on top. We're going to use some drawings and some pictures of the kids faces. My dad and MIL can use them in their offices year round.

Here's the idea... I swear I saw these in the magazine last year with photos, but I can't find it on the website.

http://familyfun.go.com/christmas/h...as-gifts-for-teacher/emoticon-magnets-663515/

 

[dizneechic]

You can also make soap snowmen.
Take a bar of white soap and shred it with a cheese grater. Then put just a little bit of water into the shreds to make it a little sticky and make 3 balls (sm, md, lg) and build a snow man with them (flatten the bottom of the biggest one a little so it stands). If needed you can use a toothpick to help the balls balance on one another but we've never needed to. Then we use little buttons, sequins, beads etc to make the mouth, eyes, and buttons and you can even use a little fabric scrap to make a scarf. We just did this with our preschool craft group and they all came out super cute.

 

[clearyds]

At my kid's preschool they alwasy came up with ways to document what the kids had to say. Either interview, or just make a list of why Mom and Dad are the best. the things kids will say are always priceless!