October 5, 2018 – joyful parenting

Twig Stars (10).JPG

There is a beautiful, yuletide feel to these stars, although here we are crafting them in October! Make them now, or set the idea aside for the upcoming Christmas season.

For each star, you’ll need 5 sticks that are roughly the same thickness and length; break any to the proper size if they are too long.

Twig Stars (1)

I hot glued the stars together, then set Travis up with tidbits to decorate them – berries, pine needles, a bowl of glue, and a bowl of glitter. Little pinecones would look sweet, too.

Twig Stars (2)

First dunk the berries in the glue, then immediately transfer to the glitter. He loved this part!

Twig Stars (3)

If you like, dunk in the tips of your pine needles, too, or any other nature finds you have to add to your stars. Let dry completely.

Twig Stars (5)

The next morning, we dabbed glue all over the stick stars, and added our berries and other treasures.

Twig Stars (6)

Travis got a bit impish and loved smearing glue over the leftover glitter on our work surface, too. Good thing I had things covered with a layer of foil!

Twig Stars (7)

Hang the resulting stars from twine, indoors or out.

Twig Stars (9)

As mentioned, these would be beautiful at Christmas, but will light up a windowsill or other area of your home any time!

Twig Stars (8)

Grasshopper (6)

We were invaded by an army of grasshopper this morning! Okay, perhaps not really, but you only need a few materials to make a whole batch of these buggy friends, and Travis loved having lots to play with.

First, color clothespins with green marker (or use green paint, in a pinch).

Grasshopper (1)

For the legs, cut green pipe cleaners in half. Insert one half towards the front, and one half in back, then bend down to shape the legs.

Grasshopper (2)

I had to wrap the back leg pipe cleaner around the clothespin to secure it in place, since it wasn’t pinched, which resulted in slightly crooked critters; cut the front pipe cleaner shorter if you want to offset this imbalance!

Travis was so eager to play with one that I drew on eyes with marker.

Grasshopper (4)