 Photo by Melissa Griffiths/Bless This Mess |
The holidays are here, and all of the prep and magic that goes into them are in full swing. This week, we decided to make and deliver our annual cookie plates to friends and neighbors.
My kids’ favorite part of cookie making is definitely cutting out and decorating the sugar cookies. We get out my big box of cookie cutters, and select our favorites to use. The kids have so much fun searching through the cutters, organizing them by color and seeing how many of the shapes they can identify. They end up having just as much fun digging through the cookies cutters as they do making the actual cookies.
All this cookie-cutter fun makes we wonder why I don’t get them out more. Cookies cutters don’t have to be just for cookies, do they? Of course not! So later in the week, when the kids were looking for something to keep their hands busy after school, we got down the cookies cutters again, and this time, we crafted with them.
The cookies cutters make the perfect stencils for little hands to trace. Once the shapes were traced, they cut them out and embellished them. They had so much fun making and decorating paper cookies. I love this craft, too, because it was a lot less effort than real sugar cookies, no one was grumpy from eating too much sugar all afternoon, and the clean up was so much easier. Win, win, win!
The next time you need a fun project to keep little hands busy, remember this easy cookie cutter craft.
 Photo by Melissa Griffiths/Bless This Mess |
Materials You Need:
- assorted cookie cutters
- construction paper
- pen or pencil for tracing
- scissors
- glue
- embellishments: pompoms, glitter, crayons/markers, sequence, stickers, ribbon
Let the Cookie Making Begin
Have the children place a cookie cutter on the paper and trace around the outside of the shape. (They might need a little help holding the cookie cutter still.) Then have them cut the shape out.
Let the children embellish their “cookies” any way they like with the glue and things that you’ve collected for them to decorate with.
 Photo by Melissa Griffiths/Bless This Mess |
Put “Cookies” to Use
Use your paper cookies as ornaments for the tree, gift tags, goodie-plate decorations, holiday greetings sent to Grandma or cousins, window decorations to enjoy.
Unstructured projects like this are wonderful for little minds. Kids so often have to follow a certain set of rules or instructions that it seems like they loose the ability to make creative decisions on their own. Give your little ones access to supplies and a little guidance and you will be amazed at the fun creations that they come up with.
Enjoy this project and happy holidays to you!
| About Melissa Griffiths Melissa is a photographer, recipe developer, hobby farmer, food blogger, momma and general lover of all things delicious. She joins at The Craft Hub each month with a new kid-inspired craft that’s fun for the whole family. In the meantime, keep in touch on her blog Bless this Mess. |
