For day twenty-one we decided to revisit the nativity, as I think a few gentle reminders about why people celebrate Christmas are important. We started to make this shepherd as Joseph but there was just something about him that did not look right. I think it was the quality of the material I used being too rich. I think Joseph could be made by using brown material instead. I cheated and simply secured the material with a safety-pin at the back, but you could use hot glue, or even sew it together. Using material to make clothes for people was inspired by Maggy, at RedTedArt. It is such a great idea and I just used some scraps I had lying around (in fact this piece was from Tewkesbury Sewing School. If you have a clothes sort out, especially if say a top has a stain, then pieces can be cut out and not wasted.
Then I used a string from a paper gift bag to secure his head-piece around the top. I’m loving the crepe paper at the moment, and used it for his hair and beard. I just used a felt tip pen for the features. Then I got a bit of twig outside for the shepherd’s crook.
A lot of my Christmas toilet roll holder inspiration and influence comes from by Maggy from RedTedArt. She has the great idea of giving the gift of a craft hamper for Christmas, along with her fantastic book. It has lots of amazing ideas that are good all year around.
The Christmas Sticker & Activity Book The Twelve Days of Christmas
There’s nothing quite like a book with stickers, and now that the children have broken up from school I thought that they would appreciate an activity book with a Christmas theme.
The book is packed with fun-filled activities and over 60 stickers and press-outs. It starts with the traditional 12 days of Christmas song, gives instructions on how to make a dove, has matching games, memory tests, dot-to-dots, making Christmas decorations spot the difference and much more – all based around the song.
I love how this book keeps the children entertained without having to go off and organise lots of things before hand – it is just there, ready for them.
Also in the series is The Night Before Christmas, Santa’s Sleigh and Chilly the Snowman.
ISBN: 978-0-85734-145-7
£4.99