craft diy: winter wonderland

Me n' the girls made a craft for school today.
I'm a little unsure of how this craft fits in with their astronomy and history, but... whatever. Does it have to correlate?
Anyway, Mrs. Hoover introduced me to Craftgawker when I was at her house last week, and I'm addicted to it.
I'm not a crafty person, but Craftgawker has easy crafts. Easy... not to be confused with difficult. And I'm the queen of easy street so this website is like, totally da bomb.com.

This photo from Craftgawker inspired our totally crafty craft today...

Photo courtesy of Momtastic

Cute, huh?
But then I went crazy and decided to add a little more to it.
Why stop with cute pinecones when you can have the whole wide world?

Here it is...

It's a winter wonderland!
If you want to make one for your four nieces that you homeschool too, here's what you'll need:

You'll also need foil and toothpicks for the stars on top. I forgot to get a picture of those.

1.  Spray paint the pinecones and cardboard
2.  Put a little glue on the (now dry) pinecone edges. Sprinkle with glitter. The girls used forty million colors of glitter for this part.
3.  Glue the pompoms here and there. Insert forty million colors again.
4.  Cut out stars and hot glue them to a piece of toothpick. Hot glue to top of tree. I suggest finding someone who knows how to cut star shapes. I don't. My stars have 3 points. I don't know how that happens.
5.  Make little people. Use whatever. Crayons. Markers. Glitter. Pieces of ribbon for scarves.
6.  Stick the little people in the clothespins (clothespins that are already slathered in glue and glitter).
7.  Hot glue ripped up cottonballs to cardboard.
8.  Hot glue trees to cardboard.
9.  And the clothespins/people.
10.  And the reindeer buttons.

That's all.
Pretty easy. And time consuming. But lots of fun.
And here's a great tip for buying the supplies for this craft:
Go to the Micheal's website and print off about 10 of those 50% off coupons. Note that the coupons say only one coupon per customer, per transaction, per day. Go to Micheal's with your mom. Send her thru the line with a coupon. Go thru the line yourself. Then go back thru the line again and again until you have everything you need, using one coupon at a time. If you do this on Black Friday, they'll never notice what you're up to. If they expect me to pay $7.99 for that little can of spray paint, they can think again.
Living by the rules, that's how I roll.

Wait... did you say we needed to wipe our glittery glue smeared hands on the towel?

Not the carpet or our jean clad legs?

Oh. We forgot.

Wait... did you say not to put the hot glue gun on the carpet?

Oh. We forgot.

Wait... did you tell us not to spill hot chocolate on the white tablecloth?

Oh. We forgot.

Wait... did you say not to cut myself bangs with the sissors?

Oh. I forgot.

Don't they look so innocent and undevilish?

I love Craftgawker. Next time we're making something with toilet paper rolls. I'll let you know how it turns out.
I love Emma. Today she told me, emphatically, that I'm the best aunt in the whole wide world. Twice.
I love Leah. She didn't need a speck of help with her craft and she got a 91% on her history test today. Even though I rushed thru the lesson because I was super excited to get started on that winter wonderland.
I love Hannah. She got in trouble four times for bringing her chips and hot chocolate into the living room today and smiled the whole time. (Actually, that just made me want to smack her even more, but at least she's happy.)
I love Lucy. She made her little person with glasses (just like herself) and frosted them... because you know how my glasses always fog up when I go outside in the cold? I want to make it like, real life.
I love all four of the girls because they all told me that my yellow tights are the epitome of fashion. A bunch of times. They all want to be me.

I'm thankful for this day.
For crafts with the girls.
School with the girls.
Hot chocolate and popcorn with the girls.
Old Gary Cooper movie, Friendly Persuasion, with the girls.
Pandora Christmas carols with the girls.

And especially the girls.