How to Make an Angel Tree on a Budget

Today, we are going to make an Angel Tree. 

If you don't know what an Angel Tree is...Basically, it's a tree at your church or place of business with ornaments that have a child's name and Christmas wish list on them. The point of it is to have people take an ornament, shop the items, and return them wrapped to be delivered to the children. It gives people the chance to bless others and become "angels" of God's blessing at the holidays.

Anyways, I had to make one for my church.

At first, I wanted to buy some angel decorations and then attach the list to each one. However, no one makes angel decorations anymore!!! Or else they are really expensive.

So, I perused the Dollar Tree and came up with an idea.

We had 12 children's lists, so I bought two boxes of these red and silver bells for $1 each.

A bag of this decorative shred is $1 as well.

Okay, I couldn't find ANY angel tree toppers, so I made this one out of red and white cardstock and taped it to a Dollar Tree star tree topper. You can look at the next two pictures here and figure out how to make your own.

Okay, here is how I made the angel lists themselves. First of all, get your kids' names (or initials), their ages, and their wish lists. Make one angel per child. (I did this in Publisher.) You can use my template at the end if you need it for the angels. Or just Google "angel clip art" to come up with your own template.

Then, print your angels on cardstock. I printed the boys on red and the girls on white.

Cut them out.

Okay: Really important step. Cut the heads out like this:

This is another view of the weirdly cut head.

Then, fold one side tab in. . .

. . .and then the other one in. . .

Then, slide the folded tabs into the bottom of one of the bells.

Once the tabs are neatly inside the bell, they will sort of unfold a little and that will lock the "head" in place.

Now to make the halo. Get your bag of decorative shred.

Get a little piece of tape like this.

Take a small piece of shred and make it into a loop. Put the tape where both of the ends of shred meet.

Then, just fold the tape around the shred.

Then, slip it onto the head of each angel like this.

Then, you can use the rest of the shred and extra bells to help decorate the tree. 

The whole project only cost a couple of dollars! (Minus the tree...which I didn't buy, so I have no idea.)

Template:

The End!

Sunday School Craft - Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man

I totally ripped this one off a German Sunday School lesson site. Anyways, I refined it so that you can make the least amount of cuts (in case you, like me, are in charge of preparing crafts beforehand.)

This one teaches the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man really well. As I said, I did rip it off a German site, but I added the verse in English at the top. 

You need: cardstock, scissors (or cutter), Exacto-Knife, and crayons (optional)

First off, you want to cut the "ribbon" part away from the main part. You can do this with scissors...or you can do it with my new favorite office tool: The paper cutter!

Cut one:

Cut two:

(Throw the right-hand portion away.)

Next, stack all your "main portions" on top of each other so they are perfectly even. Then, very carefully, and with your non-dominate hand pushing down on the top of the stack (and your thumb out of the way!!!), pull the Exacto-Knife through all four cutting places. If your stack shifts during the cut, restack and press the stack harder with your non-dominate hand.

Cutting through the stack like this kills several birds with one stone. First off, you can cut through 2-4 pieces of cardstock at a time--saving time. Secondly, you don't have to worry about cutting through to your table when you do it this way.

Okay, here is how you thread the "ribbon" portion through. Remember to thread it through all four slits.

The first scene you should see is the man being let down by his friends in the top window, and Jesus looking up in the bottom window.

Keep pulling and you will see the man and Jesus interacting.

Finally (and don't pull too hard here or you will have to re-thread!), you will see where Jesus healed the man who is now holding his bed.

Template: 

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Sunday School Craft - Daniel's Lion 2

Another Daniel's lion craft!

First, print out the template at the end of this post. (I compiled it from two lion pictures in a Google search.)

Next, fold the paper just under the top lip of the lion.

Then, fold that top lip down to meet the bottom lip.

Done!

From here, the kids can color the lion however they want. 

You can even cut the eyes out if you want to make a mask.

Template:

 

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Sunday School Craft - New Year - "This is the year that the Lord has made" Party Stuff!

So if you are like me, you were planning all this stuff for Christmas and COMPLETELY FORGOT about New Years! So. . .here is a craft for the procrastinators and overly-busy!

First step, go to Dollar Tree and buy some party hats and blowouts.

Next, print out my template (at the end).

Then, glue the 2018 sign. . . 

And stick it to a hat!

Now, let your kids run around and be sure to give them a lot of sugar before you send them back with their parents! ;)

Happy New Year!

Template:

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Sunday School Craft - Christmas Shepherd

This one is VERY easy, and it includes candy!

You need: candy canes, crayons, cardstock, and an Exacto-Knife (or hole punch).

Okay, so I found my little shepherd on Google, deleted his prior shepherd staff, and added the verse (as is my wont). After you print these out, all you have to do is take an Exacto-Knife and cut a candy cane-sized slit above and below his hand. I used a hole punch (which you can see in the picture), but now I wish I'd just used an Exacto-Knife because the hole punch hole is smaller than the candy cane and you almost have to tear the paper to get the candy into the paper. If I'd just cut slits, this would all have been much easier.

Anyways, make however many shepherds you need and have them pre-cut so the kids can just color them and you can shove the canes in just before they go back to their parents!

Despite the obstacles. . .he's still cute!

Template:

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