A great craft activity for toddlers to develop their fine motor skills. For older kids, the planning aspect is great, thinking what design they want to make!

The holiday season is approaching fast, and that inspired us some fun DIY ideas that involve gathering as family, kids and adults, and crafting together! And although they are so many beautiful products that we can buy in the stores, nothing is more special that some ornaments created with your own kids.

These recycled cardboard ornaments can be as creative as you want them to be, by mixing yarn and ribbons with different textures and colors. You could also let the kids pick colorful markers instead of using silver or gold ones, but for us the sparkly touch looked super festive, and that was so perfect for this time of the year.

One of the benefits of making these with the kids are that they will help them develop their fine motor skills. They will have to perforate holes in the cardboard and introduce ribbons and yarn in and out a couple of times to be able to decorate the ornaments. For older kids, the planning aspect is great, thinking what design they want to make, and how are they going to plan for it, where to start, what colors to use etc.

Check out the video we shared over Instagram so you can have a better idea and see more details of the process there.

MATERIALS:

• Ribbons and yarns in different bright colors

• Recycled cardboard boxes

• Pom poms

• Sparkly silver marker

• Regular puncher

How to Make Colorful Ornaments with Cardboard:

1. Create the templates. Start by making a few template in different shapes using a cardstock paper or regular printer paper. We made simple circular ornaments but also others that look like a star and a sparkly rhombus.

2. Cut the shapes out of cardboard. Trace the template shapes, circle, rhombus, square, etc, in cardboard with a pencil and cut them all.

3. Make holes. Mark where you want to punch holes to create a design and then punch them out.

4. Create your design with ribbon. Insert ribbon and yarn through the holes to create a pretty design. You can follow a straight line, or zig zag line crossing the yarn and ribbon from side to side on the ornament.

5. Hang your ornaments. Add a hole at the top of your ornament and add a ribbon to be able to hang it in a garland on your Christmas tree and decorate your home this holiday season.

I hope you like this project, it’s creative and easy for the kids.

I personally always save a few crafts and activities projects for cold snowy or rainy days, when the kids are inside the house and I need to entertain them. This one is just perfect for those days!

We collect some of our favorite crafts over Pinterest, check them out here if you are interested :)