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
Love making these mice. Granddaughter did them when in 6th grade with me. She sold them by the dozens at the little store around the corner. Owner was nice enough to let her put them there to sell. She bought all her brothers and sisters and her parents Christmas gifts with what she made.
My favorite gift I have recieved that is homemade is a toss up between my quilted tree skirt my sister made us years ago for Christmas and the doll house my husband made and gave to me. I had mentioned one day that as a little girl I had always wanted a nice doll house and never had one. A few years later he surprised me with a 9 room Victorian one he built himself for me. AT the time I was a grandma with 8 grandkids.
Our family is getting larger so we drew names this year for the adults. I still like doing something for everyone so I made brownie and chocolate syrup mixes to give to everyone. The chocolate syrup mix is really easy…mix two cups sugar, 1/2 cup of cocoa powder, and 1/8 tsp. salt. Put into a zip bag with these instructions: Pour mix into a saucepan and mix thoroughly. Gradually wisk in one cup of hot tap water. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring often (watch it, it tends to want to boil over so you need to stir more vigorously when it wants to do that 🙂 ). Let boil for two minutes then take off the heat and stir in one tsp. vanilla flavoring. Pour into a container and store in the fridge. It is great warm or cold and tasted just like the store bought chocolate syrup!
Ann
I remember when i was very young my mother didn’t have but one present under the tree so i decided to make her one..i found a orange and put whole cloves all on it and told her it was to keep the air fresh..ha ha she told me it was the best present ever.
My daughter and I have actually made these mice. They are sooo cute!! She is now 25 years old, but I still have ornaments she made when she was five. What do I keep these!! Only mothers can still love those handmade children’s ornaments. I have cross stitched ornaments for my tree also. Remember when the country Christmas look was in…
I think I’ll make some of these for my nephew. Maybe attach them to a gift or hang them on my mom’s tree during our gathering on Christmas Eve and he can take them home to hang on his tree, In his room, etc. (If he doesn’t eat the candy canes first! lol) I bet he’ll get a kick out of these! Thanks for sharing this great Idea Christy! =)
I want you for an uncle!
One of my children made these mice at school many Christmas’s ago. I had a licensed childcare at the time and started letting the kids make these for family and friends for Christmas. They were always a winner. I still make them for the kids I know.
We made candy canes by twisting together red and white pipe cleaners. Also reindeer out of wooden clothes pens. We cut and glued the antlers out of brown construction paper and used colored markers to paint on the faces. Glued on google eyes…so cute on the tree.