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Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts

Advent Week 4: Love


Before I begin this post's content, I want to share that I just updated my Winter Solstice post with the best book to read!! We did not receive it from the library before the original post. The addition is towards the end of the post. Now onto our Advent post.


This is the fourth week of Advent. We light our final purple candle. As you light each candle you remember how Jesus brought us hope, peace, joy and now love. Some Advent wreaths have a white candle in the middle. This candle is for Christ and is lit either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Now love is such an important theme. There are so many Bible scriptures you can think of to go with love..."...The greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13. We included God Gave Us Love by Lisa Tawn Bergren in our books to read today. I feel this is a perfect book to read to explain the theme.


For those that do not know this series of books, Little Cub learns about God from different people in her family. In this one, she is with her grandfather. They talk about how God wants us to love everyone. They also talk about how there are different kinds of love and the greatest love comes from God. And yes, they mention God sending is only Son to us. 


When we did our clay ornaments last week, we also made some love ones.  We used love rubber stamps to get the words on them. 



The other craft is to make heart ornaments from pipe cleaners and tri-beads. They are very easy. Put the beads in whatever pattern (or no pattern) onto the pipe cleaner. Then bend and twist the ends of the pipe cleaner to make a heart. Now you can add a ribbon or just hang it as we did.

Update on our Advent Calendar Crafts:

Donkey Ornament


Hazel was working on the wisemen today. I did the camel with the wisemen while she made the wisemen. I also glued the stable together for her. I like how they are coming out and think she is doing a wonderful job. We added some white wool to the sheep and the shepherds. Hazel decided the wisemen needed gold and silver and used glitter glue. She has been really enjoying this year's Advent calendar. 

How did you celebrate Advent this year?

For more on our Advent:

Advent Week 3: Joy

Have you entered my current giveaway yet? Last day to enter is the 16th at midnight!




We are beginning the third week of Advent. The theme for this week is Joy. The joy Jesus brings the world. Now this week is special because it has the pink candle. Now last year I did a little research on Advent and Advent wreaths and discovered how the pink candle became pink. At one time Advent was a more solemn time similar to Lent. The Pope decided to lighten the mood on the third Sunday of Advent and passed out pink roses to his congregation. This became a tradition and eventually the candle was changed to pink to take on the rose tradition. (Source)




Our craft for the week of Joy is some clay ornaments. Since we had not made the Peace ornaments yet, we did those too. We also made some clay Hope ornaments (and Love) with the leftover clay. For Joy we used a star and used a "joy" rubber stamp. We used Sculpey polymer clay and had to bake them. I have my parents old toaster oven to bake polymer clay in since you should not use the same oven as you cook food in due to the fumes. 


For Peace we used our dove cookie cutter. Since we do not have a "peace" rubber stamp, we had to write it ourselves. We used one of the tools from Hazel's scratch paper. (We used this tool for the holes to hang the ornaments as well.)



I let Hazel write "Peace" herself.  Her spacing was off, but she did a good job. I guess my toaster oven burned the white clay a bit since they came out an orangy brown. I baked them on the correct temperature and for less time. Oh, well.

For Hope we used the star again. We also attempted to swirl the two colors together and was more successful than we had been for the Joy ones. We again had to write Hope ourselves and Hazel did her own. I am happy with how they came out. Now I need to add strings so we can hang them.



So now we get to light the third candle--the pink one. With each candle we remember the past themes. We have been leaving one of our ornaments by the candle to remind us.




I loving having them there! What are you doing to celebrate Advent?

For more on Advent check out:




Christmas Crafts Round-Up from 2011 - 2013





Last week I did a round-up of some of our favorite Christmas books that really share the story of Christmas or the giving spirit. This week I thought I would share a round-up of the Christmas crafts we have done since Crafty Moms Share started. But before we share our past crafts here is a clip angel we made for one of Hazel's angel crafts from her Advent calendar this year. I was inspired by the Easy Paperclip Angel Ornament on Crafty Journal that I saw on Pinterest.


We used glittery pipe cleaners instead of ribbon and wooden beads instead of pearls.
I think the pipe cleaner made it easier for Hazel to do on her own. We made two before breakfast one morning. Now as I was going through my Christmas crafts of the past, I discovered I had too many for just one collage (Picmonkey wouldn't let me put them in one), so I made four. Two are general Christmas crafts, one is nativity crafts and one is "gingerbread" house crafts.



1) Felt  Peace Dove (Advent Week 2: Peace)
2) Paper Star Bag (Christmas Prep)
3) Felt Covered Ornaments
4) More Felt Covered Ornaments (Simple Christmas Ornaments/Decorations)
5) Snow Globes (apparently I didn't share these before, but they have liquid in them)
6) Painted Wooden Ornaments
7)  Painted Cardboard/Paper Mache Ornaments
8) Paper Advent Wreath
9) Coffee Cup Christmas Tree
10) Coffee Cup Angel
11) Kenyan-inspired Clay Ornaments
12) Kenyan-inspired Wire Ornament
13) Simple Christmas Cards (Operation Christmas)
14) Felt St. Nicholas
15) Felt Candy Cane Mouse (Holiday Stroll)
16)  Hope Ornament (Hope--First Week of Advent)




1) Felt Sheep
2) Our Salt Dough Ornaments
3) Angels, Angels Everywhere and Angels with a Toddler and  Some Angels
4) Pasta Wreath
5) Pasta Tree
6) Needle Felted Dala Horse
7) Needle Felted Elf
8)  Mini Advent Wreath (Advent Calendars -- Start of Advent)
9) Popsicle Stick & Button Trees
10) Button Tree Card
11) Straw Christmas Tree (Christmas Crafts for Kids ebook Review)
12) Snow Globes (Busy Day Getting Ready for Christmas)
13) Jingle Bell Crafts
14) Punched Paper Chain
15) Felt Ornaments
16) Fruit Candy Cane (Christmas Crafts for Kids ebook Review)
17) Toddler Fun Tongue Depressor Elf
18) Stick Reindeer (A Lovely Visit)
19) Christmas Book Ornaments (A Lovely Visit)
20) Beaded Wreath Pin
21) Winter Flower Fairies
22) Poinsettia Fairy
23) Painted Pine Cones
24) Applesauce and Cinnamon Ornaments
25) More Salt Dough Ornaments


Foam Trees and Gingerbread Men

Beaded Candy Canes


Beaded Candy Canes







Nativity Crafts

1)  Nativity Bracelet (Oriental Trading Christmas Craft Kit Review)
2) Foam Nativity Kit
3) Cloth Nativity
4) Toilet Paper Roll Nativity (Focus on the Nativity and
5) Wooden Nativity Pieces (Advent Week 2: Peace and Advent Calendars--Start of Advent)
6) Craft Stick & Felt Nativity (Focus on the Nativity and Busy Weekend)
7) Felt Nativity Ornament
8) Needle Felted Nativity (Sharing Christmas and Needle Felting)
9) Treble Clef Savior (Hope--First Week of Advent)
10) Gingerbread Graham Cracker Creche (Hope--First Week of Advent)
11) Wooden Nativity Craft (Oriental Trading Christmas Craft Kit Review)
12) Nativity Earrings (Oriental Trading Christmas Craft Kit Review)
13) Colored Wooden Nativity (Operation Christmas)
14) Nativity Story Stones
15) Printable Nativity (Focus on the Nativity and Sharing Saturday with Free Printables)



1) Toddler "Gingerbread" House
2) Valentine's Day Gingerbread House
3) Valentine's Day Gingerbread House
4) Gingerbread Train
5) Christmas Prep 2012
6) Post Christmas Gingerbread House
7) Mortimer's Gingerbread House (Virtual Book Club for Kids: Mortimer's Christmas Manger)

Advent Week 2: Peace




Supplies
Yesterday was the second Sunday of Advent and we celebrate it as Peace. In Hazel's Advent calendar yesterday she opened to find a piece of white wool felt, white glitter clay and the word peace. I pulled out our dove cookie cutter to make these crafts. Since we had a bit of a crazy weekend, we have not finished them all, but did one this morning. We took the white felt, and I traced the cookie cutter in two pieces (the body and the wing). Then I attempted to write "Peace" on it, but it is not too clear. We glued the wing on and eventually will glue a ribbon on it.

For now we have put our Advent ornaments near the candles on the Advent wreath.



It helps remind us what each candle is for. We are planning on making a clay dove as well and I'm hoping to have Hazel try to "write" on it. We just have not had time yet to do this.


Hazel is loving the craft Advent calendar. She really is enjoying painting the wooden figures. We are a bit behind because of all the preparation I was doing at church for our Night in Bethlehem which went really well.  We still need to make our donkey ornament.


If you are looking for some other peace craft ideas or Advent craft ideas, check out Oriental Trading today and tomorrow they are running a special of free Shipping on Any Order PLUS a $10 eGift card with orders of $59 or more through 11:59 p.m. December 10, 2013 with the code FW50FS. (They have the same next Monday and Tuesday with the code FW51FW, and the 21st is the last day for ground shipping delivery by Christmas.)  Here is a search for Advent on their site. 


For Peace ornaments, they have the peace sign bag tag beaded craft (Steve does not like the peace sign, so we avoid it) and a peace sign ornament kit,  a foam peace ornament, inspirational jar craft (which includes "Christ is born" and "Joy to the world" as well as "Peace"), dove ornament kits (which include peace, love and joy) and I think my favorite is the Peace Prayer bracelet kit. If you want more ideas, you can also visit my Advent Pinterest Board.




For now, may Peace be with you and your family in this very busy season! If you are looking for more Advent ideas you can see our post on Hope last week and our Advent calendar post for this year.


Sharing Saturday 13-47

Have you entered my current giveaway? It is the perfect gift for any doll lover!


Sharing Saturday Button


Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! We had some wonderful ideas shared as always. This week is a bit crazy for me. Tomorrow is our BIG event at church. It is almost all together. I visited a few of last week's posts and we had many snowmen crafts shared, so I'm featuring a few of them and a couple of my other favorites!



1) From Crayon Box Chronicles: Build-A-Snowman Foam Dough

2) From Happy Hooligans: CD Snowman Ornament

3) From Little Wonders' Day: "Frozen" Treat Roll a Snowman Ice Cream in a Bag Game

4) From The Connection We Share: Snowman In A Jar Playdough Kit- Gift Ideas

5) From Keitha's Chaos: Math Activity from Our Elf on the Shelf

6) From Wesens-Art: Dancing Angel Tealights

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

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Featured Button Code:


From Your Hostess:

This week we shared our craft filled Advent calendar, our Hope ornament and Advent Workshop crafts and wreaths, our leather doll clothes giveaway and a round-up of some of our top Christmas books that teach the story of Christmas or the meaning of Christmas. We will share an update on our crafts from our Advent calendar on Sunday as well as what we are making for week 2: Peace!



Don't forget to enter our Giveaway for that magenta leather doll clothes and accessories & a gift certificate for Leather Hide Store (see picture above)!!
 



Now for This Week's Party  
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.
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4) I would love it if you would follow me on FacebookGoogle+, and Pinterest 
 Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest

Must Read Christmas Books!

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

 One of my favorite ways to teach Hazel about Christmas is using books that share the true meaning of Christmas. I have shared some here previously, and I have been pinning them to a special board. Today I am going to share all of them with you. I have divided them into two categories: the ones in Biblical time and the ones in more modern time.

Biblical Times


1) The Christmas Story by Patricia Pingry I love The Story of Mary also by Patricia Pingry as well for this time of year. It has a little more details in it.

2) Asleep in the Stable by Will Hillenbrand is a wonderful story. It describes all the animals sleeping in the stable except the owls. The baby owl notices the baby sleeping in the manger and asks his mother about him. The mother explains who the baby is as well as Mary and Joseph and God.

3) Hare's Christmas Gift by Eleonore Schmid is a tale about a little, shy hare who awakes to see all the animals heading towards him. He begins to follow the crowd to see what is going on. They all surround a stable. Eventually the hare gets enough nerve to go in and see the babe lying in a manger. The baby calms him so much that he curls up and keeps the baby warm while they sleep together.

4) The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola

5) Christmas in a Manger by Nola Buck is a board book about what each animal and person will do for the newborn baby in the stable. It ends with the baby and stating that He is the reason for Christmas Day.

6) The Cobweb Curtain: A Christmas Story by Jenny Koralek, William Barclay, and Pauline Baynes is a tale about a spider at a cave who sees the Holy family hiding from the soldiers and spins a web over the cave opening so they will not be discovered. It is a wonderful tale for the Escape to Egypt part of the story.

7) Three Wise Women by Mary Hoffman is a tale of three women in different places who see the star and drop what they are doing to follow it. Each brings the baby a gift of her own without realizing where they are going or why, but having the faith to know they must go.

8) Voices of Christmas by Nikki Grimes is a tale about the various people in the Christmas story. It has a line about each person and then has what the person might say or think. It even includes a neighbor in Nazareth. It gives lovely perspectives on the story.

9) Who Is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate

10) The Third Gift by Linda Sue Park is the story of myrrh. The tale is told by a young boy whose father is training him to harvest myrrh (sap from a special type of tree). His father lets him remove the biggest tear, as they call them. When they go to market to sell their tears, the spice market merchant calls them in to meet his special guests who have been waiting for them. The special guests are the wisemen. Eventually it is asked who the gifts are for and the young boy wonders why they would bring myrrh to an infant since it is used in funerals. This book answered so many questions I had about myrrh. I really enjoyed reading it and learning from it.

11) Little Owl and the Star by Mary Murphy

12) The Story of the Three Wise Kings by Tomie dePaola

More Modern Christmas Books that Teach the Christmas Message

1) An Early American Christmas by Tomie dePaola

2) God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa Tawn Bergron is another one of her books with Little Cub. I love this series because they explain so much of God and religious ideas in ways children can somewhat understand. This one of course covers Christmas and who invented it. As always there are lessons about how God loves all of us in it.

3) A Goodnight Christmas by Nola Buck goes through saying "Good night" to all the people and animals in the Christmas story and more as you realize it is a little boy saying it as he goes to bed on Christmas Eve.

4) The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie dePaola is a great story to show what another culture does and a little Christmas magic.

5) Angel Pig and the Hidden Christmas by Jan Waldron gives the true meaning behind Christmas. There is no money for gifts and the pigs are upset, but they learn the lesson that the best gifts do not come from a store.

6) The Birds of Bethlehem oops! That was in the one above!

7) Moritmer's Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson

8) The Sparkle Box by Jill Hardie is my new favorite Christmas book. I won it recently from Teach Beside Me. (She has some amazing giveaways going on still.) This book is about a young boy who sees a sparkly box on their mantle and asks his mother about it. She says it is a gift for all of them that they will add things to it and then open it on Christmas morning together. The boy sees a homeless man while riding in the car and asks his mother about him. He sees him again when they are leaving a store. The boy had picked out a pair of mittens for his class's mitten tree and a piece of candy for himself, but he gives both to the man and yells "Merry Christmas!" as he leaves. On Christmas morning the boy sees the box under the tree. When he opens it, the box is filled with slips of paper. On the paper are the things the family has done for others this Christmas season. The parents explain that this gift is for Jesus. The boy asks how it is for Jesus since it was a gift for others. Needless to say it brings home a wonderful message about charity.  

I also won with this book The First Christmas Night by Keith Christopher. It is another wonderful version of the Christmas story. You can read a review of it at Teach Beside Me: Christmas Books Review and Giveaway.

9) The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg is an amazing story about a candy shop opening up in a small town. A stranger came and bought the shop and no one knew what it would be. One girl bravely knocked and asked if the stranger needed help. She was happy to see the boxes full of candy. Then she saw something she had never seen before, a candy cane. The shop owner tells her about the candy cane. How it looks like the shepherd's hook and a J for Jesus. Basically all the legends I have ever heard about it are in this book. The message however is that the candy cane represents a more important message. How God sent Jesus to save the world. The shopkeeper asks the girl to help him spread the message to everyone.

Now I am sure we will have more to share, but this at  what I have at this point. I am thinking maybe next year we will do a story Advent calendar. Hazel is loving the craft one this year though!

Hope--First Week of Advent


So instead of a fairy tale today, I am going to share our plans for December and our first week of Advent theme which is hope. As I mentioned previously, this week is a bit crazy for me, so my schedule may be a bit off. I'm going to try to stick to it as much as possible, but my main focus is getting ready for our church's Night in Bethlehem. I will share more about that later on.
http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2012/12/annie-and-wild-animals.html

This December there is not a new author for the Virtual Book Club for Kids due to everyone's busy December schedule. Instead we thought we would promote our Jan Brett posts from last December. I shared Annie and the Wild Animals which is still a favorite in my house.
LocationJamaica
Source: By By Rei-artur pt en Rei-artur blog [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 
or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons
For Around the World in 12 Dishes this month we are "visiting" Jamaica! I am very excited about this. We will be focusing on Christmas in Jamaica since I volunteered to do Jamaica for the Multicultural Kid Blogs Christmas in Different Lands on December 23rd. I am really excited because I found someone in Jamaica to help me with recipes and things. She is from Saturday Market: Pieces of Jamaica. This will make the posts much more authentic since I have never been to Jamaica and the closest thing I have is a doll from Jamaica that my grandparents brought me back as a child.


Last night our church had its annual Advent Workshop. Above are the crafts that we made. There were others as well including the always popular wreath making. Now two of the crafts were provided by Oriental Trading since I reviewed them here. A third craft is from them as well, but Hazel made it a little backwards so the Bible scripture is on the back and the treble clef is backwards. We also made a "gingerbread" nativity from graham crackers and gingerbread people, an Advent wreath with a metal form and cut greens and a paper chain Advent calendar. On the chains are questions to ask each day.


Since yesterday's door on Hazel's Advent calendar had the supplies for the mini Advent wreath, today's had the word hope and then we made a hope ornament.

Our first discussion was what does hope mean. Hazel did not know so Steve and I explained it to her. We lit the candles in her mini wreath and our new Advent wreath last night and did the readings on it. We had made some beeswax rolled candles for our normal Advent wreath, but I decided to use the ones with the cut greens this year.


So that is our start of Advent. We also began reading Advent Storybook by Antonie Schneider last night. It contains 24 stories to read before Christmas. My goal this month is to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I hope you will enjoy our journey.