Christmas Countdown - 1

Today's movie is: Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen (picked by me).

Today's Christmas craft is: Santa Handprint Cards (found here)

You will need:
- some card/a card blank
- red paint
- white paint
- pink/skin tone paint
- cotton wool
- glue
- pens

If you are using plain card, fold it down the centre to create a bi-fold.

You have to work quickly with this part to stop the paint from drying before you get chance to print it:
Paint the thumb and section of hand closest to the wrist red.
paint the rest of the palm of the hand pink/skin tone.
paint the 4 fingers white.
Press whole hand firmly down onto your card making sure each finger and the thumb prints clearly.

Allow to dry (if there are any gaps particularly on the pink face part, you can fill this in with a brush)

Once dry, use the pens to add facial features.

Put a line of glue where the red paint meets the pink/skin tone paint. Stick cotton wool to this line.

Put a blob of glue on the tip of the red thumb print and stick a cotton wool ball here. If you are careful, you can also add a small bit of cotton wool for a moustache.

Add Merry Christmas to the front of the card. This can be hand written, stamped or you could print labels out from the PC, cut into strips and glue these on.

That's your Santa finished!

Alexandra is making a whole batch for each family member, each of her teachers and dance instructors, her sunday school teacher and her school bus driver and bus minder. (that's a whole bunch of cards to be made!)

You could take this a few steps further and add some cut out card shapes for holly on the hat, you could fill the gaps between the finger beard with more cotton wool, you could also add some glitter (use red glitter before the paint dries, sprinkle on the red part of the print for a glittery magical Santa hat!)

This could also be adapted for a decoration for the tree: Simply follow the steps above but on firmer card, then cut around the handprint, punch a hole at the top, and thread some ribbon throuh the hole. If you do this, instead of cotton wool on the tip of the thumb, you could punch another hole and use ribbon to attach a jingle bell.

Only 24 more sleeps 'til Christmas!