Christmas Mice with Candy Cane Tails

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Felt and glue are two of the best things to have on hand during Christmas time with your kids. I can’t even begin to count how many different ornaments and crafts we made up as kids to hang on our tree or give to friends using mostly those two simple supplies. It’s so important to let kids make gifts for friends because it really teaches them that the best gifts, the ones they should get excited about, come from the heart

These little mice are a great place to start with your kids. I know its difficult to find red and green felt this time of year so don’t worry about those colors, just think outside of the box. Why not make them in your favorite colors or school colors even? Think of your sports fan and how much they would enjoy a gift from your child in their favorite team colors!

Either way you go, you’ll have fun and your kid will be proud at the results. I’m including a template you can print off to trace onto your felt to make this a breeze. There ya go, excuses are gone and its time to get crafting with your younguns!

This is a fun little craft for kids and adults alike.

You’ll need: felt, little pom poms, googly eyes, scissors, glue, and the little template I’m using.

I am using Tacky glue but a glue gun and even good old school glue would work.

You really should print off the template if only to see what happens when you draw two shapes on a piece of paper, hand them to a mechanical engineer, and say “Can you make me a template of this in a pdf file so I can upload it to the website?”

~blinks~

Methinks he gets a bit technical!

(You can also click on that photo up there to print it and it will pop right up on your screen)

Cut out the mouse body and ear templates and trace them onto your felt. I like to use two different colors for ears and body but there isn’t a rule that says you have to!

Here is my little army of mice just waiting to be made.

All of my photos are a little off tint here because I did this tutorial indoors at night and because I haven’t a clue how to work photoshop or any other fancy schmancy program. And I’m cool with that…

Then cut two little slits for the ears to go through.

I have these marked on the template to give you an idea of where to put them and about how big they need to be.

Then you just slip the ears through the holes of the mouse.

Doing this creates a little pocket on the back that the candy cane slides through.

Then glue on little googly eyes and a pom pom nose to each one.

Katy Rose has been having fun gluing three eyes and two noses to some of hers. Let your kids have fun and create three eyed mice if they want!

It’s quicker if you just set up an assembly line, dotting little bits of glue for eyes and noses as you go along and then placing them.

Here are the little mice babies as they dry

Then turn all the little guys over and insert a little candy cane in the pocket the ears made.

They make  cute little set! Don’t forget to make some in your school colors!

You can hang them on the tree or use them as little favors.

These are great little gifts for your kids to make for their teachers and friends.

Print the template for making the mice by clicking here.

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It isn’t the size of the gift that matters,

but the size of the heart that gives it.

~Quoted in The Angels’ Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman

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237 Comments

  1. Every year I make a different gift for everyone on my list. It may be food, crafty or sewn or crocheted. I used to spend a lot of time in October and November doing my yearly thing, but with aging and other responsibilities around the holidays, I am now starting in June and July! I am in charge of the Thanksgiving and Christmas food baskets and also the Angel Tree each year at my church. Love doing it; it makes you feel so good and happy and blessed. This year I am adding these mice to my list for all the children on our Christmas Angel Tree. I have made these before for my Sunday School class and the children loved them.
    Thanks to Marsha Wiggam for her idea of an “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” Tree. I still have a copy of it. I am doing that for my tree. But, I am also reducing the size of some mice to use with the mini candy canes. They will both be on the tree.
    Also thank you to Sara Jones for your recipe for Pan Release. I am so anxious to get it made and try it.
    Merry Christmas to Everyone.

  2. Just received a jar of hot chocolate mix with homemade marshmallows! I didn’t even know people made marshmallows–what a nice gift.

  3. I can think of 2 handmade gifts, 1 the afghan my Granny made me for Christmas one year… I will always treasure it. She left us 2 years ago on Dec 30. I made her a crocheted angel that year… it is still with her. I was her heart and she is mine. The other gift was from my Grandma… she taught me to sew and make biscuits and dumplings. Another year, my non-cooking daughter made bread for all of us! Boy were we all surprised! I have many handmade gifts through the years from all my kids and family and will always treasure them all.

  4. The best homemade gift I received for Christmas were 2 ornaments I received 30 years ago. One was made from a napkin and placed on a cylinder type of styrofoam & the other was an icicle made from beads. I have cherised them all this time. I still think of that person each & every time I look at the ornaments. Love homemade things. I keep all the one the children have made over the years.

    Thanks for considering me for the giveaway :).

  5. I cooked up an assortment of things last year for my co-workers. This year several started asking (before Thanksgiving!) what goodies they will be getting this Christmas.

  6. Last year I made reindeer out of 1 regular sized bath towel and 1 regular sized wash cloth. It started when I found one my sister-in-law had given me. I took it apart and decided it was easy enough for me to make. I went to Walmart and brought matching sets of bath towels and wash clothes, some gooney eyes, felt for the ears, pom-poms for the nose, and small bells to put along the bottom edge of the towel. I made 3 or 4 and took them to work thinking I could share my reindeer with a few friends. Golly, me! Everyone that saw them, wanted at least one or more and one lady decided that she would give to family members as a gift and ordered 25 of them, they even told me what colors they wanted. Every night after work was over, I sat down on my living room floor and made myself an assembly line so I could get all these “orders” ready in time for December 15th. In all, I made 257 reindeer, had lots of happy, smiling faces and gave my family an extra special Christmas with the money I earned from this project. I look forward to next year and on other holidays this coming year to sharing many of your ideas with my co-workers and friends and referring them to Southern Plate!

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