One of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season is craft. Our tree is almost always covered in homemade ornaments, and it is nice to add a few "new" things each year.
This week, we have been working more with tools. In this project, we have been perfecting our use of hammers as we make old fashioned tin punch ornaments.
When I was younger and in 4-H we made these ornaments quite frequently. I had trouble tracking down my old patterns, but found a link here online with a few. Making your own patterns is also quite simple. The less experienced with hammers the group of children you are working with, the less complex you want the patterns to be. (I started to type "younger" and then realized that as with many things, age has little to do with it.... it is primarily based upon experience).We used old juice can lids, but you can use a wide variety of lids/metal to attempt this project. The nice thing about the juice can lids is that they are the perfect size for ornaments, they are easy to work with, and we are re-purposing "garbage." All you need to do is find/create a pattern, print it, cut it, and tape it to your piece of metal. Use a large nail and pound each dot. You can choose to pound through the metal each time or just put a small dent in the metal. Then when you have completed the pattern..... you can leave them as is, or you can decorate them up with paint/permanent markers, ribbon, etc.
Although this is a "product-orientated" craft, the children have spent quite a bit of time enjoying the process too.
Happy Crafting!
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