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
My grandma always made her special pumpkin bread and gave all of the grandkids a loaf. She would bake in several batches, wrap in foil and freeze it. I have her recipe and it didn’t taste quite right until one year I mad several loaves and froze some. The fresh loaves were good but still not like my grandmas’ After a month or so I thawed out a loaf from the freezer and pulled off the foil and found that it tasted just like hers! Looks like the secret was letting it freeze in foil before eating it! Her recipe has orange juice and is the best ever. I miss my gift of pumpkin bread from her but now that she is gone I find myself carrying on the tradition and give loaves of this wonderful bread to friends and family.
How cute are these little mice? Unfortunately, I don’t have any kids to make them with, but when I start teaching I’ll make mice with my students at Christmas time 🙂
Hey Christy,
A couple things I want to share with you.
Something we call “Russian Tea”. It’s 1 1/4 cup of tang, 1 cup of instant tea, 1 cup of sugar (can use sugar substitute) 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves. Mix together and add 2 teaspoons to about an 8 oz cup of boiling water. It’s different and great to give as gifts, in a little canister or pretty mug.
We always liked making the candy cane reindeer too. You leave the candy canes in the box they come in, just take on the clear plastic on the outside of the box. Helps hold them in place. Then glue 2 wiggly eyes on, a red pom pom nose. After the glue is dry then add a brown pipecleaner for antlers! Tie a red ribbon on to hang on the tree. Waalaa – Rudolph.
We also make a candy train. Using a small roll of lifesavers, glue a little box of nerds at one of the ends of the rolls, then glue 4 peppermint candies in the “wheel” position, then a chocolate kiss where the “smoke” would come out in the front. Kids LOVE these. If you use your imagination you can create cars, trucks, a sleigh with candy canes, airplanes and more! There are many websites that show the pictures.
The next the kids like to make. Using last years Christmas Cards, make a circle pattern from an old clear plastic lid with a piece of cardboard. Trace around the pretty picture on the card, cut it out and glue it to the inside of the plastic lid (lid on back, pretty picture on front), punch a hole through the card and lid and put ribbon through. Looks pretty on packages. Kids can date and sign. Then keep and hang on the tree year after year!
The Russian Tea is great! I’ve made it for years too! It is also called Friendship Tea.
Some years I make string angels. They are time consuming to make so I have to start way early. I always make pecan brittle for my mom and brother, I also love tracking down unique ornaments for my great-niece and great-nephews.
A friend in high school made me a purple butterfly plate in class. I still use it to hold my jewelry
One year my mother in law was unable to shop for Christmas, because of health. So she and my father in law shopped at home. They gave us gifts that they wanted us to have. I got the family silverware. They have sinced passed but we all seem to talk about the year they shopped at home very fondly.
Precious Memories!
I was married for 39 years and we (my family and I) collected our tree ornaments (both handmade and bought ones) all of those years. After my husband passed away, I had to move to a smaller place and most of my things were put in storage. Well…I lived in Missouri at the time and a big tornado came along and took my storage unit for a BIG ride. Everyone’s property had been strewn over a wide area. My family went to see if anything could be salvaged….YEP…a few of our ornaments were found! I have several that my daughters made in Kindergarten and some of the dozens of the Hallmark metal trains that my husband had collected over the years. I am so grateful to have these prized ornaments to put on my tree this year.