Easy Christmas Crafts

After being a Girl Guide for 15+ years I tend to have a crafty side but I also like to get my eldest involved even though he's only two and half. I did 2 crafts with him that he had fun making and we could also make extras and give them as gifts. The first one was....

Homemade Gel Air Fresheners
For this craft you will need the following:
a jar or container
gelatine (I used Knox brand)
water
salt
essential oil/ diffuser oil
food coloring (optional)
Tissue paper (optional)
white glue (optional)
paint brush (optional)

For these we decided to use jar as we thought they looked nicer for giving away as gift. We made some in baby food jars and we made a couple larger air fresheners in mason jars.

As these ones were going to be gift this is where we added an extra step. We then took pieces of tissue paper and glued them on the jar. You want to glue them one with watered down white glue (you can use full strength glue but it tends to rip the tissue paper). Once you have covered you jar in tissue paper you want to go over the entire jar white glue just to protect the tissue. You can do one color or get creative with multiple colors. (Kyler my 2 year old glued most of the colors on the jar i had to paint the glue on and then he would stick on the tissue)

Once your jar are dried or you decided to omit that step next thing is to add 1tsp of salt to your jar (this is to prevent mold in your gelatine) 10-30 drops of your essential oil (depending on how strong you would like your scent) and 5-10 drops of your choice of food coloring to your jars. Once you have all of this in your container or jar give it a little stir just to help the salt dissolve better.

Next you have to make you gelatine. I used the Know brand gelatine but any gelatine you find I'm sure will work. For this gelatine one package of Gelatine will turn up to 2 cups of liquid into gel (a standard size mason jar hols 2 cups perfectly). Once you have determined how much liquid you will need you need to dissolve the package(s) of gelatine into half of your water and then add the rest of the water as boiling water. Example, one standard mason jar holds 2 cups of water in it. Combine 1 cup warm water and your gelatine together and mix thoroughly once gelatine starts to dissolve add 1 boiling water and mix altogether.



Once it is all mixed you can put you gelatine mix into your jar and let cool. Gelatine will set at room temperature however for a quicker set time place in the fridge for a couple hours to help set.

There you have it!!! Once set add a lid and done :D. If you want the scent to last longer leave the lid on until you want to use the air freshener. Once open air freshener will last for about a month. If you created the air freshener in a jar when the scent wears off you can scoop out the gelatine and use them as a tealight holder :D (2 crafts in one!!!)



Now the second craft we did was.....
Snowglobes
for this craft you will need the following....
An ornament that can get wet and fits in a mason jar
A wide mouth mason jar with lid and ring
glitter (any color)
water
hot glue or crazy glue (crazy glue does work better but both work)




First step is to glue your ornament to the bottom side of the lid

While your ornament is drying to your lid add glitter and water to your jar. Less than a half of one of the small tubes of glitter is perfect (too much glitter and it will just chunk up).

Then add the lid screw on the ring and your done. Give it a shake and instant snow globe :)

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions about these crafts please feel free to ask :)