Pinterest is great for a lot of things.
Recipe ideas and meal planning, cute photos and inspirational quotes, and make-up tips paired with unrealistic fashion advice. Its addictive and fun.
But you know what is equally fun?
Busting a gut checking out the endless images of ‘Pinterest fails’. Thousands of pictures proving just because it is on Pinterest, doesn’t mean us mortals can actually pull it off.
Lately, I have thrown caution to the wind and started searching fun crafts for the kids. Not just ideas I pin because they look cool and have no desire to actually follow through with, but honest to goodness projects that are 100% doable for my 10, 7, and 4 year old. Most are met with resounding success, and the craft we tried this week was one of our favorites. It was VERY easy to do, used stuff we already had in the house, and we had a blast!
Here is what we did!
Cork Stamped Christmas Lights
Okay. The idea I originally found on Pinterest was using finger prints to make the lights. In the interest of keeping the mess contained, I decided to use a cork as a stamp. It was genius, if I do say so myself, and while I am sure I am not the first person to think of this idea, it worked really really well. We invited some friends to join us in the fun and got to it!
You will need:
- white cardstock (recommended) or white printer or construction paper
- paints of varying colors-finger, acrylic, whatever, just NOT watercolors
- black marker
- 1 wine cork for each color of paint used
- paper plates or paper bowls, one for each color of paint
Since you are using paints, cover your work surface with newsprint or an old table cloth. If it hadn’t been raining, we probably would have done this outside on the picnic table! Also, remember to cover up with a smock or grubby clothes you can get paint on! And because this was a Christmas craft, I turned up the holiday tunes!
Using the black marker, snake a line for your ‘string’ of lights on your white paper. This can be as simple or complicated as you would like it to be.
Be sure to mark a spot for each light. We made little black hatch marks along our string and without them, the kids just randomly stamped anywhere and it was a mess.
Place a dollop of paint on the paper plates. Then, simply stamp your lights with the corks and paint. Use the paint sparingly and try not to mix the colors – hence, one cork per paint color.
This craft was quick and surprisingly low on the messy scale. At the end, everything just was gathered up and tossed in the trash. The pictures turned out awesome and the kids wanted to make more!