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Poster Board Duct Tape Christmas Tree Card

5:49 pm in Creative Adventures, TSN outreach Projects, Uncategorized

Poster Board Duct Tape Christmas Tree Card

Each year as a church we prepare practical modest gifts to give when we go Christmas caroling at Green Briar. Green Briar is an assisted living group home of lovely folks who love anything we do for them. They are so thankful for our visits and appreciate it when we bring gifts, dessert and the kids. I wanted our presentation to be fun and to last throughout the Christmas season.

Items you will need:

name tags, clear tape, packaging tape, fancy duct tape, ribbon, assortment of stickers, hole punch, scissors, box cutting knife, markers, lip gloss, 2 large pieces of green poster board, large piece of cardboard

Determine the size tree you want, I wanted ours to be big because originally I was going to attach 53 name tag ornaments to it. Tape 2 poster board ends together with packaging tape creating 1 large piece; overlap the edges about 2 inches so it is secure. Draw a Christmas tree shape on the poster board; I used a green marker, this works well just in case you mess up. Place the poster board on top of the same sized cardboard piece and place small pieces of tape about 12 inches apart to secure the cardboard and poster board together while you cut out the Christmas tree with the box cutting knife.

Tape the cardboard and poster board tree together along all the edges with your fancy Duct tape. Allow about ½ the tape size to show on the front of your project. This is a little tricky at inside edges; you will have to do some angle cuts to allow the tape to lay flat. When you do the outside tips of the tree it is easier to let the tape adhere to each other and trim it after.

I added re-enforcement to the back of the tree by taping another smaller piece of cardboard to it. I also did this for the trunk of the tree.

We presented the Christmas Tree Card to the kids at church and told them what it was for. This was a transition time just before they were heading to their Sunday school classes so I cut up clusters of stickers in advance so each child had about 5 stickers.

I placed the Christmas tree card on the rug as the kids gathered around and placed their sticker on it. It was amazing how they placed them so evenly.

The older children later weaved little messages and scriptures in between the sticker that pertained to Christmas and drew candy canes and designs. The church family signed the card.

          

 I picked up the name tags at Michael’s, they were pretty reasonable at 2.99 for 16, punched a hole at the side with a hole-punch and tied a tube of lip gloss to it with ribbon. We attached Avery address stickers to create multiple cards since we were putting together 53 of them.  Thanks to Anna for helping with all the prep.

I was going to cover the whole tree with the name tag ornaments, and when the residents removed them, they would see the messages. I decided against that and scotch taped some of the ornaments along the edges and put the remainder in a small basket. I didn’t have the heart to cover up the stickers and sweet messages everyone had placed on the tree.

Optional objects to be tied to the name tags: pencil, candy Have fun with the Christmas Tree Card craft.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

For Healthy Kids, Ms. Dawn

Other craft posts you may like:  ♥  Making greeting cards    ♥  Back to School Sampler

Health post for winter:  ♥   ♥  Healthy living and Hand washing  favorites

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DIY Christmas Party Snack Tree

4:30 am in Creative Adventures, TSN outreach Projects

Christmas Snack Tree w word

Update: This really was a fun project and a great center piece. Check out the last link at the bottom too for a smaller candy tree version. Have a Merry Christmas!

I had this crazy idea as I was preparing for Children’s Church. Please allow me to diverge from the healthy posts today. It is the Christmas season right? I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to share something that would tell the Good News. I wanted to make a snack tree for our friends at Green Briar, a local older folks home. So… I started putting it together and discovered it would be a better project for older kids. It took me about 3 hours to make this baby. It was fun and you can make a smaller version to share with your co-workers or bring to a Christmas party. You could even make one for your family or classroom. Adding healthy pre-packaged snacks like nuts etc is also an options. So here we go.

What you will need: 2 large poster boards, pen, string, clear tape, packaging tape, glue gun and glue, 1 large pizza box, wrapping paper and about 100 snack bags. attach 2 poster boards

Hot glue 2 pieces of poster board together if you want to make a 3 foot tree.


draw an arcmake quarter circle

place your string at one corner of the shortest side, attach a pen and draw an arc, the results is an 1/4 circle. Cut along the line.

Make a coneAttach cone to wrapped Pizza box

Overlap the edges to make a cone, be careful with the hot glue gun. The hot glue gun works great, but if you have another pair of hands handy, you will be less likely to burn your fingers with the hot glue. Wrap a large pizza box and tape the cone to the box using packaging tape. Any square box will do but the pizza box works nicely.

Build a Christmas Snack Tree

Start at the base of the cone, attach a couple of pieces of scotch tape to your snack bags and tape them to the cone. Work  your way around and up the tree, staggering the bags as you add another layer. This tree was made from 3 large boxes of snacks. Each one contained 32 snack bags. So…this tree is made with almost 100 snack bags.

I added a bow and a star on top with a Christmas message. We created a large Christmas card for the kids and their families to sign. The card was the shape of a Christmas bulb. Two of our friends from Green Briar posed with the card and Christmas Snack Tree. 

Green Briar Christmas Snack Tree w words

Hope you have a blast making this. Try making it for a teen event or bringing it to a Christmas Party this year. Time is getting away from us all. Not sure if I will make it, but I plan on posting about making a tree with my patient Kian. He was very proud of it so I wanted to do a separate post in honor of him. Keep your eyes peeled.

Have a Very Merry Christmas,

Dawn

Go here to hear my Christmas song video which has lots of cool vintage type pictures in it. You can also request 3 FREE  songs.

You may like this Poster Board Christmas Tree Card from last year.

Making a Christmas Candy Tree with SMA1 child Kian.

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Candy Christmas Tree Creation

7:04 am in Chronic Illness - Disabilities, Creative Adventures

Kian w tree w words

 Most of us like a little candy during the Christmas season. Kian and I wanted to show appreciation to all his nurses and therapists so we created a simple Christmas Candy Tree. We made it with poster board, stickers, candy, a bow, a star and a Christmas pin. It took about an hour to create this Christmas Candy Tree Craft. Have some fun, spread a little cheer, make and bring one to a Christmas Party or use it as a center piece for one of your holiday gatherings.

decorate with sticker tape to paper plate

Create a cone(use 1/2 sheet size poster board)and tape it to a white paper plate. Use hand over hand with disabled children to place stickers on the cone. Attach a Star with a Christmas message. Details for creating a cone.

Place tape on the ends of the candy and help your kids tape it to the tree. Use hand over hand with handicapped or disabled children. All children like to see the results of touching and building a creation.

hand over hand with Kian w words

Wrap a box and place your creation on top. We also added a simple bow and a Christmas bear pin.

add a star, bow and pin witih words

Find out more about Kian and SMA1. SMA1 is the leading cause of death in children under 2 years of age. You can be tested to see if you are a carrier. Kian is now 7 years old and doing well. He has 24 hr nursing care, has short teaching sessions with a special education teacher 5 days a week, has PT, OT, ST, a regular dietitian visit and now enjoys chiropractic sessions. Kian lives a very busy life. He has many limitations but feels like all other children.

Another Christmas Crafts you may like:

Christmas Poster Tree Card

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Have a wonderful Christmas, 

Dawn

How are you staying, healthy, happy, creative and educated? Comment below.

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Broccoli, Bean & Sweet Potato Lasagna

11:35 pm in Cooking/Nutrition

I recently made this yummy dish. The dish was so delicious I just had to share it with you. I have created it in a multitude of ways but not with broccoli. It is so easy to make.

Ingredients you will need:

Spices: Nutritional Yeast (Bragg brand), garlic power, pepper, fresh basil (or dried)

1 large deep dish glass pie plate (double the recipe and use a 9×13 glass baking dish)

Sweet potato sliced & steamed (cut between ¼-½ inch thick discs)

1 15.5 oz can of black beans rinsed (choose low sodium, rinsing will help to lower sodium)

1 ½ cups chopped steamed broccoli (about ½ a head, use the stems too)

1 24 oz. jar of your favorite marinara sauce (choose low sodium & low fat or no oil added)

I love my steaming pot by Farberware. It does a great job steaming the sweet potato and broccoli.  Try not to overcook to prevent your veggies from falling apart. It will cook more in the oven later right? You can run cold water over your sweet potatoes then placed them in the freezer to stop them from cooking further if you need to. And if you accidentally cooked them to a mushy state just put them in a bowl and mush those babies together, it can still be used to make layers. Steam the broccoli and sweet potato separate.

 

 

 

Pour about ¾ c of sauce in the bottom of your pie dish and place a layer of sweet potato discs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add your cooked broccoli next, sprinkle with Nutritional yeast, garlic power & pepper

 

 

 

 

 


           

Add your beans next with more marinara sauce & fresh basil (or dried)

         

Add whatever sweet potato you have left, top with marinara, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, pepper & fresh basil

Bake 30-40 mins. @ 350 degrees until it bubbles and browns a bit.

Broccoli, Bean & Sweet Potato Lasagna

Add a salad and you have a scrumptious healthy meal.

This is a simple way to add different veggies to your meal. You can add a layer of lasagna noodles as well. I’ve also made it several times with spinach instead of broccoli (no need to cook the spinach though).

We hope your holiday season is filled with family, friends, joy & peace.

Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

Merry Christmas, & A Health New Year!

Ms. Dawn aka The Singing Nurse

#HealthyIsAnAdventure

More Christmas Activity/Gift making ideas you may like:

Candy Christmas Tree

Christmas Snack Tree

Poster Board Christmas Card

“True Love” music video by TSN Link Here

Below are some links to items I really like & use. Purchasing via TSN website will not cost you more. The Singing Nurse is an Amazon Associate and receives a small stipend from Amazon to help keep things rolling here at TSN website. Thanks for participating.

     

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