Easy ornaments kids can make by coloring or sewing felt.
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This week’s Virtual Book Club for Kids read is Merry Christmas Mouse! We love this series by Laura Numeroff. This particular book focuses on counting as Mouse adds ornaments to the tree. We are in the middle of a big move, so I thought it would be fun to share this old post featuring simple ornaments kids can make. These ornaments can be sewn or colored. You don’t even really need to know what you are doing to sew them! Older children can experiment with sewing beads on as ornaments to make the activity a bit more challenging.
Ornaments Kids Can Make
I drew up some simple ornaments for the kids to color, printed them out, and handed them over. They traced the lines through onto the back of the printer paper so they could color both sides. Then we punched a hole in each ornament and added a bit of yarn to hang them on our tree. Very simple, and perfect for our very casually-decorated tree! We could have fancied them up with paint, glitter glue, or stickers, but the kids were happy with them as they were. We may still make some fancier ones between now and Christmas! I considered laminating them, but decided against it. If these tear, we’ll make some new ones.
The kids wanted to do some sewing as well, so I cut out some tree shapes from green felt, and handed them each a needle and thread. I had originally planned to have them stitch around the edges and stuff the middle, but decided two layers of felt were plenty thick – and, more importantly, if we weren’t stuffing, they could stitch wherever they liked! Can you guess which tree was sewn by which child?
They are all very proud of their ornaments – both the sewn ones and the colored ones. I added a loop of embroidery floss at the top of each sewn ornament, so they could hang from the tree. If I were doing this project with older children, I would probably give them beads or buttons to add as ornaments on their felt tree.
It was fun to watch each child deliberate over where to place their ornaments on the tree! The felt trees have stayed put, but Lily loves to move the paper ones around – and take them off the tree to carry around the house.
Want to make some of your own? Download the ornaments template!
More Activities for Merry Christmas Mouse!
Here are more fun ornaments kids can make!
- Polymer Clay Snowman Ornaments
- Model Magic Christmas Ornaments
- Favorite Kid Made Ornaments
- Torn Paper Tree Ornaments
- Salt Dough Christmas Tree Ornaments
- Washi Tape Christmas Baubles
- Solar System Christmas Ornaments
- Paint Explosion Ornaments
- Peppermint Cream Mice
- Paper Advent Countdown for Kids
- Mouse Themed Fingerprint Ornament
- Candy Cane Spool Ornament
We would love to see if you make some of these ornaments in your house! You can share on my Facebook page. You can always tag me on Instagram, too.
MaryAnne lives in Silicon Valley with her Stanford professor husband Mike and their four children. She is passionate about parenting through education, creativity, and play. Mama Smiles - Joyful Parenting is a space to share crafts, activities, and family outings that enrich lives and bring families together.
Jaimie says
I love what they did with the felt ornaments, and I love that smocked dress.
Ticia says
I love this idea! I might have to give it a try.
Elisa | blissfulE says
Emma looks so lovely and grown-up with her hair pulled back.
I’m going to guess that Emma went around the edges, Johnny sewed a big gets-the-job-done X, and Lily enthusiastically decorated her tree in pink! :)
maryanne says
You know my kids pretty well! =)
sherri says
Awesome activity…the sewing made me smile…they do better than me!
Grumpy Grateful Mom says
Cute idea! It never occurred to me to give my kid’s a needle and thread but I think they’d have fun doing this. I love they were meticulous about where the ornaments were to go.
My daughter needs to make an ornament for school and this would be perfect. :)
jeannine: waddlee-ah-chaa says
We do so many different art mediums but we’ve never used needle and thread. I don’t know why not! We are going to do this. Thank you for the idea. I like how each one of the children took a different approach.
Jenny says
Cute! Emma’s dress is so pretty! I just love smocking. It’s hard to find after size 6x though.
maryanne says
I love smocking! I want to learn how to do it – and there’s a fabulous tutorial on ikatbag.com…
Jen says
I LOVE handmade ornaments on the Christmas tree!
Carrie says
What a wonderful idea. I would love it if you would share it at my sharing party at http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2011/12/sharing-saturday-8.html. I’m your newest GFC follower.
Natalie says
l love this simple sewing idea that even Lily could do. Do you have a special needle for her?
maryanne says
I usually have her use a dull-tip embroidery needle. I let her use a normal one this time, though, and she didn’t have any trouble.
Aimee says
The ornaments turned out beautiful!
Kelly says
Very cute. Our tree is beginning to be filled with mostly ornaments the kids make.
Carrie says
Thank you for sharing at Crafty Mom Share’s Sharing Saturday!
Katie says
I have been feeling very behind this year and I think making things too hard on myself. I know ER would be just as happy with color and cut out ornaments. I think I’m going to do that with her tomorrow. Then I’ll feel better about doing something holidayish with her.
Colleen @F5th @pinterestmama says
Saw your linky at the Sunday Showcase, so wanted to pop by to say hello. Neat ornaments! Looks like fun!
Hope that you will come by my blog, Sunrise Learning Lab, and see what we are up to this week.
Colleen:)
Roopa says
I love those felt trees. I am always on the look out for new sewing activties for my little one:)
Trisha @ Inspiration Laboratories says
What kind of needle do you let Lily use? Is it a duller needle, or has she just learned to be careful. (Wondering how to introduce sewing to my 3 year old – he does lacing now.)
MaryAnne says
I use a regular needle, and have never had a problem – zero pricked fingers. We do have a couple rules: you have to sit right next to mom, and you have to SIT the entire time you use it. If you get up or want to move around, you have to put your needle in your fabric and stick everything in a safe place FIRST. I feel like it’s actually safer than a blunt needle if you are using proper fabric – a blunt needle would require more pressure to push through fabric, and therefore there would be more pressure if it went into, say, an eye. Blunt needles are best for plastic canvas or the very loose weave that is used for cross stitch.
Kimira says
Its a nice idea. We made ornaments with recycled plastic and that was a big hit too.
MaryAnne says
That’s a great idea!
PragmaticMom says
So cute. I love how they can sew!
Nina says
How cute! Admittedly we don’t have anything kid-made on our tree :( But our son did enjoy putting the ornaments up and adding his little knick knack toys on the tree afterwards haha.
Ticia says
I love the sewn ornaments! Those are super cute! We’ve got some kid made ornaments, but not a whole lot.
Mia Wenjen says
What beautiful ornaments. Can’t wait to hear about your new home!
handmade by amalia says
I love the simplicity of them. They allow even the smallest ones to join the fun.
Amalia
xo