Christmas Mice with Candy Cane Tails
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Felt and glue are two of the best things to have on hand during Christmas time with your kids. I can’t even begin to count how many different ornaments and crafts we made up as kids to hang on our tree or give to friends using mostly those two simple supplies. It’s so important to let kids make gifts for friends because it really teaches them that the best gifts, the ones they should get excited about, come from the heart
These little mice are a great place to start with your kids. I know its difficult to find red and green felt this time of year so don’t worry about those colors, just think outside of the box. Why not make them in your favorite colors or school colors even? Think of your sports fan and how much they would enjoy a gift from your child in their favorite team colors!
Either way you go, you’ll have fun and your kid will be proud at the results. I’m including a template you can print off to trace onto your felt to make this a breeze. There ya go, excuses are gone and its time to get crafting with your younguns!
This is a fun little craft for kids and adults alike.
You’ll need: felt, little pom poms, googly eyes, scissors, glue, and the little template I’m using.
I am using Tacky glue but a glue gun and even good old school glue would work.
You really should print off the template if only to see what happens when you draw two shapes on a piece of paper, hand them to a mechanical engineer, and say “Can you make me a template of this in a pdf file so I can upload it to the website?”
~blinks~
Methinks he gets a bit technical!
(You can also click on that photo up there to print it and it will pop right up on your screen)
Cut out the mouse body and ear templates and trace them onto your felt. I like to use two different colors for ears and body but there isn’t a rule that says you have to!
Here is my little army of mice just waiting to be made.
All of my photos are a little off tint here because I did this tutorial indoors at night and because I haven’t a clue how to work photoshop or any other fancy schmancy program. And I’m cool with that…
Then cut two little slits for the ears to go through.
I have these marked on the template to give you an idea of where to put them and about how big they need to be.
Then you just slip the ears through the holes of the mouse.
Doing this creates a little pocket on the back that the candy cane slides through.
Then glue on little googly eyes and a pom pom nose to each one.
Katy Rose has been having fun gluing three eyes and two noses to some of hers. Let your kids have fun and create three eyed mice if they want!
It’s quicker if you just set up an assembly line, dotting little bits of glue for eyes and noses as you go along and then placing them.
Here are the little mice babies as they dry
Then turn all the little guys over and insert a little candy cane in the pocket the ears made.
They make cute little set! Don’t forget to make some in your school colors!
You can hang them on the tree or use them as little favors.
These are great little gifts for your kids to make for their teachers and friends.
Print the template for making the mice by clicking here.
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It isn’t the size of the gift that matters,
but the size of the heart that gives it.
~Quoted in The Angels’ Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman
We love to give homemade apple butter! As the daughter and wife of an engineer, I can appreciate this template 🙂
Those are so cute! Don’t think I could get my 20 year old to make any. One year, I gave cookie mixes in a jar.
I guess the best-loved hand/home made items I’ve given was the “quillows” I made my children. 20 years later, the quilt to the oldest one is still in use and the one the 16 1/2 has never parts from her. She even takes it from her stepmom/dad’s house to her sister’s house when she spends the night with her.
Best homemade present I’ve received was my wedding dress. My mother made it from a pattern that a friend that lived near me fitted to me so that alterations could be done before the dress was made. It turned out lovely, and fit me perfectly. And since it had a fitted bodice, the absence of having had it adjusted BEFORE the material was cut would have meant that it NEVER would have looked good, no matter how much adjusting afterwards was done to it.
Mine isn’t a gift per say. My cousin was engaged to a sweetheart of a man who died in a freak farming accident about 12 years ago. He was 22.He passed away in October. He was a cotton farmer. She and I went to his farm and cut some bolls
of cotton and made cotton boll angel ornaments from them. I still have them and always hang one on my tree each Christmas.
I like to make Russian Spice Tea Mix to give for Christmas gifts. I put the mix in mason jars tied with raffia. I also attach the recipe for the mix so the recipient can make their own when the jar from me is finished.
I work with mentally handicapped children and one of them got the H 1 N 1 flu last year, she was really sick and in the hospital. Our team of teachers aids made her a Disney Princess fleece tie lap blanket and she loved it. That’s one the the best gifts, and I was part of tying those knots!!
My favorite homemade gift is a Christmas tree skirt. It is made of red, green, and white crocheted squares. I always think of my mother who made it and loved Christmas.