Make It Monday: Tissue Paper Wreaths

This is by no means an original project. In fact, my parents still have one that I made when I was little! The kids and I helped them decorate their Christmas tree last week and we found my wreath. We had a lot of the same recurring conversation that day --

Kids, picking up ornament: "Who made this?"
Me: "I did when I was little."
Kids, picking up another ornament: "Who made this one?"
Me: "I did."
Kids, picking up a different ornament: "Who made this?"
Me: "I made that one, too."

Yes, my mom has kept many, many things that I created as a child. In fact, she recently gave me boxes (yes, boxes, plural) of papers and projects of mine. She also keeps that things that the grandchildren make. My little ones were very excited each time they found one of their own ornaments in the box. "Hey! I made this!" Seeing their own creations from years past brings such a sense of pride.

I thought it would be fun to recreate some of the crafts I made when I was little with my own kids while they're little.

All you need are a paper plate for each person, tissue paper in red and green, glue, scissors, and an invisible pencil. 

Well, a visible pencil would probably work better, but then you'd actually have to remember to put it in the picture of the supplies. Just use whatever works best for you.

And here's a question - who doesn't have regular ol' paper plates in their house? You know, the ones that are flatter and have the ribbed sides and the definite circle in the middle that make it easy to know where to cut.

Apparently we don't. Trust me, I looked. I looked in places that paper plates have no business being. But I was sure we had some. Either way, I had to settle on cutting the raised sides off the ones we did have and making my own circle in the center . . . or the almost-center.

The kids got busy cutting squares out of tissue paper. They cut approximately 3 usable squares, many many scraps of tiny pieces, and handed the scissors and paper to Mommy to finish it off.

 

Then they put the eraser side of a pencil in the center of a tissue paper square and wrapped it up.

Here's another question - totally off topic - Why do my children wear short sleeves and sleeveless shirts in the winter when their mother is all bundled up in sweatshirts and blankets??? They really do own warm clothes - just look back on some posts from the summer. Crazy kids.

They dipped the paper-covered eraser in glue and stuck it to the paper plate. They pulled out the pencil and repeated the process.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Occasionally, they used a red square to look like a holly berry.

These little beauties are hanging on my kitchen window. Now while I'm washing the many dishes throughout the day, I smile as I look upon these creations.

I offered to let them paint the plates green first, knowing that they wouldn't be patient enough to completely cover the plate with the tissue paper, but they were just too eager to get to the gluing part! You could also punch a hole in the top and loop a sting through to hang the wreaths up. You could even glue a construction paper candle to the back of the wreath to shine through the middle.

Or, you could leave them just like this, knowing that years down the road, when the children are grown, you'll all look back on these projects and smile.