Clothespin Garland Christmas Card Holder (Work in Progress)

I decided to work on this for the first couple days of our Christmas crafts.

What you need to make your's like our's:

• about ten clothespins
• paint
• paint brushes
• glue
• pom poms (various colors and sizes)
• google eyes
• craft foam
• pipe cleaners
• long piece of yarn or ribbon

What to do:

The first step is to paint the clothespins.  Natalie went through a phase where she painted a whole package, so I just used the ones we saved.  You could paint the clothespins in Christmas colors.  We have some nice metallic Christmas red and green paint as well as gold and silver.  But, if you are going to put the pom pom figures on them, it really doesn't matter what color they are because barely any will show.

Here will be pictures of each of the figures we made with materials listed below.  Gotta solve that picture storage problem!

I measured the width of our doorway and then added a few feet on to the measurement to give me enough extra for it to drape and to make the knots.  I placed each clothespin about a foot apart.  I tied it on with a double knot, the reenforced it with glue.  (Hot glue gun would probably be best). 

Extensions:

• Most obvious is make Christmas cards!  Not only are there many craft possibilities (i.e. fine motor skills, colors, shapes, textures, art appreciation) with making cards, but you can work on some literacy skills by encouraging your child to write a message or transcribing your child's message.  
• Don't forget the lesson of addressing the envelop!  Scary how many teens in my classes didn't know how to address an envelop!  You can also talk about stamps and even take a trip to the post office.  

• Read and talk about the cards you get with your child.  Treat them like mini books!  Lots of opportunity to talk about family and friends as well as the symbols and traditions of the season.  
• If your child can't get enough of making these you can make more to use as gift tags / bag closers or tree ornaments.