I’d like to welcome back Stacy, from Stacy Makes Cents.  She has a really quick Christmas craft to show us that is fun and appropriate for young children to do.

Hi – my name is Stacy , Queen of Mess. I am not blessed with craftiness, so I have to try really hard to be crafty. This project, however, is EASY. If I can do this, a 5 year old can do it. I’ve been making these ornaments for a few years and they are really fun to make – and they are a super easy project for children. Are you ready? Let’s mess craft!

 All you need are plastic rings, green pipe cleaners, and mini bows. That’s it. No glue included….and my hands are thankful because they have a love/hate relationship with my hot glue gun. If the hot glue comes out, so do the band-aids. The best part about this project? It’s CHEAP. If I’m anything, I’m frugal…..and this ornament is right up my alley. The green pipe cleaners and mini bows always come from The Dollar Tree.  The plastic rings come from……

 bottles you have at home….which are FREE! Is that exciting or what?! You can come across these rings pretty easily. They’re on soda bottles, medicine bottles, and some vitamin bottles. You just have to pay attention. If you want lots of rings, ask your friends and family to save them for you. You’d be surprised how quickly you can collect a ton of them. You’ll be able to make several different sized wreaths since most of these rings are in various sizes. The hardest part of this project is getting the plastic rings off without breaking them or losing your religion.

 Take a pipe cleaner and begin wrapping it tightly around the ring. The wire inside of the pipe cleaner makes it stay put, eliminating the need for glue – a huge plus for doing this project with your kids….or with an accident-prone girl named Stacy.

 This was a fairly large ring, so I used two pipe cleaners total. How many you use will depend on how tightly you wrap them.

 I always make sure to buy the bows that have the ties on them. That allows me to tie the bows on and eliminate the need for hot glue – are you sensing a theme here? Try to find the smallest bows you can. These are larger than I normally like, but they were the smallest ones I could find this year. The next time I find the smaller ones, I might buy all they have. I’m a bow hog.  Tie your bow onto the wreath in the position that you like. Just twist it on there like a twisty tie.

 Ta da! How cute is that?! I’m just tickled with myself. J You can make a lot of these very quickly. They are good for last minute gifts if you need them….or so I hear from OTHER PEOPLE. Because I would never leave any gifts till the last minute. *Cough*

 You might find several different types of pipe cleaners. Here you can see I made some with a plain type and some with glitter green. I like the glitter best – but my husband has banned glitter from our house – funny that his first child was a daughter…not sure how long that rule will stick.

You can give these in a box as a great homemade gift, or you can use them yourself. We used them on my mom’s tree this year. You can add a ribbon to tie them on the tree or you can just slide them on the tips of the branches. Sometimes I just stick mine on there, letting the sticky needles hold them on.

Merry Christmas!