Reindeer Feet {Guest Post: Amanda}

Hi! I'm happy to introduce you to a bloggy friend of mine, Amanda! You may remember her from her Searching for Super-Mom interview that I posted a while back. Amanda blogs at Natural Living Mama. Give her a visit and say hello! You can also keep up with Amanda via Twitter, Facebook, and Pintrest.
Take it away, Amanda!

Times are tough for a lot of us. Money is tight and life is stressful. I have also noticed a nasty trend of the “gimmies” during holidays that are supposed to be spent giving thanks, with an emphasis on the word GIVING. Because of this we have decided to have a handmade Christmas this year focusing on gifts custom made for the people we love.
Kids are young for such a short time so these homemade reindeer feet are the perfect keep sake for years to come. We made ornaments out of some, and made copies of others for our e-mail Christmas card and yearly letter. 

This is so much fun and so easy to do! Both my two year old daughter and my 8 month old son were pros, which I am sure had a lot to do with the help of their very patient and artsy grandmother.
Supplies:

• Heavy stock paper. We used both 150lb water color paper and card stock. We tried construction paper but it was too flimsy and not as pretty looking.
• Bronze acrylic paint
• Sponge brush
• Red ½ inch pompoms
• Googly eyes proportionate to the size of your child’s feet
• Glue
• Sharpie or black marker
• Scissors (optional)

Directions:

• Paint the bottom of the child’s foot with the paint and make an imprint on the paper.  We did that by having the kids sit in Moms lap or in the high chair and pressed the paper up against their foot. You can also paint their feet and let them run across a bunch of paper. My floors decided that we would do the less messy option.
• Press the paper against the feet and hope the child does not squirm while doing it. You can fit about 4 feet on one sheet of paper.
• Draw antlers between where the toes and foot meet on both sides.
• Cut out the reindeer.
• Glue nose and eyes on. We placed the glue dots where the eyes and nose went and she placed them. There were a few reindeer with mis-matching eyeballs but she was so proud of her self we just left them.
• Punch a hole in the top of the head and add a string if you are giving them as ornaments or glue them to your Christmas cards for a special holiday greeting!

Are you looking for some other handmade gift ideas?
Cinnamon ornaments- This super easy project is a fun one to do with kids. It has two ingredients and is loads of fun!
Homemade Vanilla Extract – This requires two ingredients and some patience and will make any food lover happy.
Herbal Bath Salts – These salts are great for both men and woman. They encourage relaxation and healing in stressful times and are really easy to make.
Lotion Bars – Three basic ingredients is all you need to make these moisturizing lotion bars.
Coffee Honey Sugar Scrub – This decadent sugar scrub is simple made with ingredients you have in your kitchen, smells amazing, exfoliating, moisturizing and reduces cellulite. What is not to love?

What are you making for the holidays this year?