I am not a big Christmas card person at all - I never send Christmas cards to people. However, when Baker Ross sent me some of their Reindeer Christmas cards as part of our latest blogger box, I thought it would a lovely activity to do with Isabelle in the run up to Christmas - with the added bonus of then having handmade cards to give to our family.I mixed some brown paint (yellow, red and blue) and some green paint, and laid all of the heads and bodies of the reindeer out on the tuff spot. I popped the two paint pots and some brushes down as well, and let Isabelle have at it. She loved painting when we did it a few weeks ago, so I knew she would enjoy it again this time.
This activity had the added element of smaller pieces of card to paint, and different shapes. Isabelle preferred the bodies to the heads and she splatted paint across them in varying amounts. After a while, she got bored of the brown paint and moved onto the green, however she decided that brown was actually best, and went back quite quickly.
As with the previous paint session, I was again surprised when Isabelle wanted to have her hand painted. This time, she asked me to do it,
which I did, before we put a hand print onto one of the reindeer bodies. That was plenty for her in terms of 'hands on' painting, and she went back to using her brushes afterwards.
I explained that we had to let the paint dry, so we played kitchens instead for a while before the card was dry enough to add the red Rudolph noses. I let Isabelle hold the paint bottle, but guided her hands to drop a spot of paint onto the end of each reindeer head, which we then 'smooshed' out with a paint brush.
Once all the pieces were dry, and while Isabelle was napping, I glued the heads and bodies together and drew on some eyes before writing the cards to our family. There were 8 blank cards in the pack, which worked out perfectly to give us one for grandparents, great-grandparents, aunties and uncles.
Although Isabelle hasn't a clue about the real outcome of this activity, I'm so pleased that we have lovely toddler-made cards to give to the people who love her most.
Baker Ross were also kind enough to send us some other goodies for Christmas crafting. My personal favorite is the 'sew your own' kit, which contains a Santa, snowman and reindeer puppet. I've used these to help introduce Isabelle to Santa. Her favorite item were the wintery bath penguins, who have joined in our motley bathtime crew. Baker Ross have a great selection of craft goodies, and it isn't too late to order some for the few days before Christmas arrives!
