Make an ornament out of clothespins: Snowmen
Directions from Amanda Formaro of Familycorner.com
You will need
wooden clothespins
1 1/8″ wood circles
3/4″ x 5/8″ wooden spools
craft wire
ribbon or material scrap
acrylic paint in black*, white, and orange
white craft glue
small foil Christmas tree or other embellishment
* You can use a black marker instead of paint if you prefer.
What you do
Paint the clothespin with white acrylic paint. Allow to dry and repeat for a second coat. Glue the spool to the center of the wood circle. Paint the spool and circle black. Glue the dry black hat to the top of the dry white clothespin.
Cut a piece of craft wire long enough to form a hanger for your ornament (approx 6″-8″). Wrap the ends of the craft wire around the “neck” of the clothespin, creating a loop. With the wire loop at the back, wrap a scrap of material or ribbon around the neck and tie for a scarf, covering any exposed craft wire.
Using a small paintbrush, or even a toothpick, dot on eyes, mouth and buttons with black paint. Use orange for the nose and glue foil tree to the hat.
=========variations==========
You could adapt these directions to make a nativity of ornaments for the tree. Before the “great crash” of our early collection of ornaments, I had a “Jesse tree” theme- all my ornaments served in some way to represent Christ and the religious symbolism of the season.
I still have the felt and stick shepherd decorations of that time…. and clothespin crafts could serve as a base for a set of ornaments that tell the Christmas story.
Through the years my tree has ornaments of sentimental nature and not all of them are religious. There are snowmen and an elf or two, if the children made them; sparkly ones, just for show, and the famous duct tape ornament for “the Handyman”.
I still like the idea of a Jesse tree …let’s see if that turns up later in this Advent calendar blog.
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For today’s devotional, sing the carols, ‘Away in a manger’, ‘The First Noel’, ‘Bring a Torch, Jeanette isabella‘
Read the scriptures of the nativity.
Discuss the aspects of peace- peace that God has all situations in His control, the message of peace to mankind- that God is pleased to dwell among us, the peace of mind that Mary had during very trying circumstances. Pray that our own minds would be prepared to rest in God’s grace and love for us, no matter what.
