Fun & Easy Paint Swatch Christmas Crafts

This past weekend, I was feeling crafty. To be honest – I'm always in the mood for a good craft, but I don't always make the time. Crafting at our house usually looks like this: Here's some paint/markers. Here's a scrap sheet of paper. Here's a ________ (whatever I find in the drawer). Make something! 

I hang it on the fridge for a week (or ten) and then it finds it's way into the recycling bin. Unless it's surprisingly good. Then I put a name and a date on it and file it away under "for when they're famous" in their memory bins. 

But this past weekend I was full of Christmas cheer, and we were at the hardware store and happened to be in the paint aisle. I'm always inspired and tempted by the colourful paint chits/chips (it's fully up for debate: what are they called?) so I brought a few home because I'm painting my bedroom, and need inspiration.

And by "painting my bedroom" I mean: doing a Christmas craft. And by "inspiration" I mean: need supplies. 

Once home, my daughter (2.5 years old) and I sat down and got our craft on. My son (4.5 years old) played with his Lego. Here's what we made:

A Christmas Wreath

If you would like to make this, here is what you'll need:

• paint chits/chips – let's just call them swatches
• glue
• scissors
• string
• hot glue gun 
• bow (optional) 
• free time (priceless)

This is a great craft for kids who are young and love cutting for the sake of cutting. It doesn't matter what shapes they cut, as long as they want practice using scissors! I gave my daughter three different shades of green to work with, and this happily entertained her for approximately 20 minutes! TWENTY MINUTES! I almost didn't know what to do with myself.

After she was done cutting, I gave her a cardboard circle (that I had cut out) and some glue. She happily spent the next 10 minutes gluing the green pieces onto the circle. That's 30 minutes of busy-toddler bliss, people!

She got a quarter of the way through the gluing and then she decided she was bored, so I quickly glued the rest of the pieces on the wreath and called it a day! 

A String Of Lights 

If you would like to make this, here is what you'll need:

• paint chits/chips – let's just call them swatches
• hot glue gun
• felt
• string
• scissors
• free time (still priceless)
• patience (waning)

I'll be honest: I did this craft by myself. My 2.5-year-old doesn't have the fine motor skills to make these shapes and my 4.5-year-old wasn't into crafting – so while my daughter was cutting up pieces for her wreath (above), I was cutting out these Christmas light bulb shapes.

Once they were done, I cut little squares of felt for the top, and hot glued them to a piece of string. Yes, I burned my fingertips about 10,000 times. BONUS: I now have no fingerprints and can turn to a life of crime without ever leaving clues behind. 

In the end, I was quite happy with how this little craft turned out. I'll hold onto it for years to come, and put it into my memory bin, filed under almost famous, but not quite.