On the seventh day of Christmas...

my true love gave to me, seven swans a swimming,

six geese a laying,

FIVE GO-OLD RINGS...

four calling birds,

three French hens,

two turtle doves,

and a partridge in a pear tree

(The swans are based on the ducks/geese in 'Make Your Own Zoo'. One egg carton is enough for about four swans, which is pretty good.
 But the challenge is getting harder now.. )

On the sixth day of Christmas...

my true love gave to me, six geese a laying,

FIVE GO-OLD RINGS...

four calling birds,

three French hens,

two turtle doves,

and a partridge in a pear tree

(Instructions for the geese and nests can be found in 'Make Your Own Farm Animals'. Though to be fair, they're ducks in the book... think they pass as geese? All the projects are easy enough to adapt, which is handy!

On the fifth day of Christmas...

my true love gave to me,

FIVE GO-OLD RINGS..

four calling birds,

three French hens,

two turtle doves,

and a partridge in a pear tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas...

..my true love gave to me, four calling birds,

three French hens,

two turtle doves,

and a partridge in a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas...

... my true love gave to me, three French hens,

two turtle doves,

and a partridge in a pear tree

(instructions for the hens are also in Make Your Own Farm Animals)

On the second day of Christmas...

...my true love gave to me, two turtle doves 

 and a partridge in a pear tree.

Instructions for the little doves and the dovecote can be found in Make Your Own Farm Animals.

On the first day of Christmas.....

...my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree

(attempting to make all 12 days out of the recycling....though could be setting myself up for a fall, as have no idea how I'm going to do 'maids a milking' or 'lords a leaping'..

The partridge in a pear tree is based on the Bird In The Tree project.

Christmas tree decorations - Christmas crafts

Christmas tree decorations this time, and they're not that different from the sparkly birds.

You'll need:
egg box/carton
pencil
paint
plastic bottle top
sheet of newspaper
fine paintbrush
craft glue
strong all-purpose glue
glitter (optional!)
Sequins and other shiny bits
needle and thread
Nail scissors (to make holes - adult supervision needed)

1. Roughly cut a whole cone from the egg carton

2. Draw a rough pencil line all the way around the cone, just above the bumpy card join at the bottom, and cut along the line. Neaten up the edges so the sides are even and the cone sits flat.

3. Paint the cone green (if it's green already you could leave it). When the paint's dry, use the nail scissors to pierce a hole through the top (if there isn't one there already) - keep the scissors closed, press down and twist from side to side.

4. Thread a needle with a good length of thread - we used gold thread, but use whatever you have - and push the needle up through the cone and through the hole, then back down through the hole, leaving a loop for hanging your tree. Use sticky tape to stick down the two strands of thread inside the tube. Trim the ends of the thread.

5. Brush glue inside the cone and push in a scrunched up piece of newspaper. Don't fill it completely - leave a small space at the top.

6 Put a layer of strong all-purpose glue (like UHU or Bostik) on the newspaper and put some on the rim of your bottle top too. Stick the bottle top onto the newspaper and leave to dry upright.

7. When the glue's dry, brush some craft glue in a spiral, around your tree for the tinsel, then sprinkle over some glitter. Shake off the excess. A good way to save glitter is to do the sprinkling over a paper plate, then bend the plate in the middle to catch the glitter in the fold, and funnel most of it back into a container.

8. Have fun gluing on sequins or any shiny bits you have. You could also scrunch up small balls of coloured tissue paper to make baubles.

9. For the star on top, we used two identical stars from a pack of Christmas confetti, brushed glue on the back of one and stuck it onto the thread, just above the top of the tree. Then we stuck the other star to it, sandwiching the thread between them. Fiddly to get the stars to line up, but looks good when they do.

Next time Christmas fairies!

Sparkly bird decorations - Christmas crafts

We've been trying out some new Christmas decoration ideas, and I thought I'd share a couple of our favourites over the next few weeks. We'll make glittery birds, Christmas trees and fairies to hang on the tree - and they all use the cone part from the middle of an egg box. As you've probably noticed these crop up quite a lot... they play a leading role in the Nativity we made last time, which is a really fun project because you can keep adding to the scene - does seem to help keep kids interested. Certainly worked with mine!

Glittery birds first, and this is very similar to a previous project - just a few tweaks here and there. It's also a slightly adapted version of the Love birds in Make Your Own Zoo.

You'll need:
egg box/carton
kids' craft scissors
pencil
paint
fine paintbrush
glue
feathers
glitter (optional!)
fine black felt-tip or gel pen
needle and thread
sticky tape
Nail scissors (to make holes - adult supervision needed)

1. Roughly cut a whole cone from the egg carton.

2. Decide how big you want your bird to be and draw a pencil line all the way around the sides of the cone.

3. Cut up two adjacent corners to the line, bend this flap back and cut it off. It's now easier to cut along the rest of the line. Neaten up the edges so the sides are even and the cone sits flat.

4. Paint the cone any colour you like. When it's dry, use the nail scissors to pierce a hole through the top (if there isn't one there already) - keep the scissors closed, press down and twist from side to side. Make another hole about a third of the way up one side (for the tail feathers).

5. Thread a needle with a good length of thread - we used gold, but use whatever you have - and push the needle up through the cone and through the hole, then back down through the hole, leaving a loop for hanging your bird. Use sticky tape to stick down the two strands of thread inside the cone (just make sure not to stick it to the side with the tail feather hole). Trim the thread ends.

6. On the side opposite the tail feather hole, use the fine black pen to draw eyes near the top of the cone. Keep them small and quite close together.

7. Brush some glue inside the cone behind the two holes and choose your feathers - big and showy for the the tail feathers, use several if you want - and short and fluffy for the head plume.

8 Brush a little glue on the sides and stick down two similar sized feathers for the wings. If your feathers are too big, trim them or cut the top off larger ones to get two pieces that look the same, before gluing them on.

9. For the beak, use a fine paintbrush to dab a small blob of yellow paint just below the eyes.

8 For some sparkle, brush glue on the front of your bird and sprinkle over some glitter. Shake off the excess. A good way to save glitter is to do the sprinkling over a paper plate, then bend the plate in the middle to catch the glitter in the fold, and funnel it back into a container.

Next time Christmas trees!

Joining in with the lovely Happiness is Homemade link party.