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A great group of bloggers have teamed up to create clever crafts to go along with some of the best Christmas books for kids out there.
This full week of fun has been organized by Julie over at Emma Owl - you can find ideas for other great books in this holiday blog collection there.
I chose the book Madeline's Christmas as my focus and Gv and I had quite the experience creating a matching craft that doubles as a Christmas present!
It's Christmas and all occupants of "the house in Paris that was covered with vines" are quite sick - all, that is, but Madeline.
She's busy taking care of the others when a rug merchant arrives at the door.
Madeline realizes that his twelve remaining rugs would be just the thing to warm the girls' ice-cold feet in the mornings and so she buys them all.
The rug merchant leaves, happy to have made the sale, but he soon becomes quite cold without the warmth of his rugs.
He returns to the house and Madeline gets him warm and toasty again. He's actually a magician, so in return for her kindness, he transforms all of the rugs into magic carpets that transport the little girls to their homes for Christmas.
Such a sweet tale - and one that references not only other Madeline books, but 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, as well.
Seeing all those rugs inspired me to introduce Gv to the magic of loop looms.
We created our own little set of "rugs" to go along with the book and then give away to family and friends as Christmas presents.
In case you didn't grow up weaving everyone in your family potholders like I did, you need to first purchase a loop loom kit like this.
Then, you pull out the loops you want for this project and loop half of them over opposite ends of the loom.
The loom hook gets threaded over and under the loops, then a new loop is attached and pulled through. The next row gets woven in the opposite manner (under-over this time).
Once the potholder has been completely woven, you use a crochet hook to finish off the ends and - voilà! You've created a magic carpet!
As a heads-up, Gv was a little on the young side for this craft, but I was surprised with how well she did with it all on her own.
It took her forever, but she did everything herself through about halfway down in the weaving process.
Then I took over and finished up the project myself.
So, consider taking advantage of this sweet book's theme to introduce your child to the world of loop-loom weaving - it might just turn into a Christmas-present project at your house, too!
I love coming up with book connections like this, how about you? I'd love to hear! Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.
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Check out the other amazing book crafts that my fellow bloggers came up with today here.
- Sparkly Puffy Paint Snowman // The Snowman // Emma Owl
- Extra Large Sticky Christmas Tree // The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever // Clare’s Little Tots
- Loop Loom Christmas Potholders // Madeline’s Christmas // Syncopated Mama
- Christmas Drum Craft // Drummer Boy // Teach Beside Me
- Washi Tape Christmas Garland // The Fir Tree // Mum in the Mad House
I love this idea. Christmas books for children are some of the best stories ever, aren't they? I love how the rugs were turned into magic carpets and then you tied that into the HotPads. I remember when Georgia was young we made so many of these with the loom, it was a lot of fun. That is so cool that GV could do quite a bit of this herself, I bet it was a blast for both of you. And great Christmas presents for the grandparents!
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