Here’s a craft for those of you that include the nativity in your holiday celebrations…
I love having a nativity set around that our kids can play with. This craft is extra sweet because the kids can play with it and they made it! So far, we have a Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus but you could easily keep the craft going and make more clay characters…an angel, wise men, and shepherds
Here’s what you need…
- a scissor
- heavy duty glue (I used Liquid Fusion)
- fabric
- mini clay pots
- mini clay saucer
- paint
- paint brushes
- large wood beads
- 1 smaller wood bead
- markers
- straw (I substituted spanish moss)
Paint shirt time!
Step 1: Paint the clay pots. Clay will soak up a lot of paint and dry quickly!
A simple face = A sweet face!
Step 2: Use markers to draw a face on a large wood bead. I found beads with one flat side at a big box craft store…very handy when it comes time to glue the head and the body together.
Step 3: Create a head scarf by gluing on a square piece of fabric onto the wood bead. You can tie a piece of yarn to add a bit more detail.
Step 4: Cover the bottom of your painted pot with glue…
Mary
….and attach the head. You can repeat these steps to create as many clay characters as you want.
Making a manger.
Step 5: Paint the clay saucer to use as a manger. Again, the paint should dry quickly on the dry clay. Glue down the straw onto your manger. This way you won’t be picking up straw every time your kids play with the nativity.
Step 6: Draw a face on a small wood bead to create baby Jesus. Add glue to the bead and wrap the bead in a square piece of fabric.
Merry Christmas!
Enjoy & leave a comment letting us know how this project went at your house!
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Love this! Great activity for today’s snow day.
Very cute idea….stopping by from craftomaniac blog party!
Yea! I just bought a box of about 30 little clay pots for $1.25 at the thrift store. Score! Thanks for giving my first idea of how to use them. Will be a school project tomorrow.
That’s perfect! I LOVE garage/thrift shopping!
oh they look so cute!! Come link up to Handmade Tuesdays @ Ladybug Blessings if you have a chance! http://www.ladybug-blessings.com
What a cute idea!!
I love these! SO adorable!
This is just adorable. I’m always looking for crafts I can do with my boys. They would love this project.
These are simply ADORABLE! So simple and yet they look fabulous!
Thank you so much for linking up to Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy
What a great holiday treasure! They did a great job.
ThankS! I think so too!
Sooo cute! I love these:)
….AND so far they’ve had a LOT of play and they haven’t broken! I’m very happy about that!
Hello! This looks like the perfect craft for a Christmas party my daughter is having on Tuesday! Can you say how expensive this project is? I don’t know how much the clay pots and the wooden heads might cost….but this is just adorable! Thanks for posting!
This would make a wonderful party craft! I paid about $5 to make 2 sets. The mini pots come in packs of 6, saucers in packs of 2, and the wood beads also come in a bag. I bought all of my supplies at Hobby Lobby. And I’ll admit that I used old shirts instead of buying new fabric!
Let me know how it goes if you decide to use it!
I did this with my 5 year old: http://www.staceysays.com/2010/12/christmas-traditions-nativity-craft/ Thanks for the idea!!!
That’s awesome! It is one that you can add more characters to each year if you want to, and lasts a long time. Enjoy!
She did a great job! I like the tissue paper…clever! Thanks so much for linking back here too!
Hi again! This craft came out great. Just adorable. Please check my site to see a picture of mine.
Oh, and the costs for 8 sets was about $22 from Hobby Lobby. The other post above is right, $2 for 6 clay pots. The wooden heads were 4 for like $1.50. I had to buy wooden bowls since they were out of clay saucers, but it looks fine. We loved doing this for my daughter’s Christmas party. What a great take-away gift, too.