Sticky Christmas Tree – Day 44 Toddler Play Challenge

I had seen the idea for a sticky Christmas tree on several blogs including Peaceful Parenting and No Time For Flashcards. 

However green contact paper (or self-adhesive paper) proved difficult to come across and were also expensive. In fact even clear contact paper was hard to come by (within my price range) and I ended up having to use small sheets from Tesco. So thinking outside the box I realised I would need to use green paper underneath the contact paper. Even this proved difficult. I couldn’t find a roll of green paper – even at Christmas! So I resorted to the DIY method. Using a roll of paper I cut out a large triangle, blu-tacked it to the wall and painted it green.

Once the paint was dry I covered the triangle with the contact paper with the sticky side facing outwards. I have never got on with contact paper. I don’t know how teachers managed before laminators! Every experience I have had with contact paper involves me getting stuck to it and it all crumbling up into one large ball. Today was no different. To make things harder the size of contact paper I managed to find didn’t cover the whole of the tree. So I had to do it in stages.

After a lot of swearing I managed to attach the contact paper to the tree with small bits of sellotape. Around the edge of the tree i added green electrical tape to ensure the contact paper was stuck down completely.

Next it was time to make the decorations. I had bought glittered foam sheets in advance for this activity but when i took them out of the box i realised they were sticky backed! I ended up having to attach all of the decorations to slightly larger normal foam sheets. Although this added to the time factor it did make the decorations look better.

I used either end of a drinking glass to get a perfect circle for the baubles. For the gingerbread man, tree and candy cane I used a cookie cutter as a template. As the decorations were made with foam sheets they could easily stick to the contact paper and also be removed easily.

Adam got the idea straight away and immediately started decorating his tree. The only problem was that Tescos contact paper isn’t very sticky and the decorations fell off easily.

It didn’t deter Adam though. It just meant he had more decorations to put on the tree.

In the afternoon we went to Nana and Grandads to help them with their track. They live down a mile dirt track which becomes incredibly bumpy due to the pot holes. We are training Adam up as he will have a life time of filling the holes!

I think next year I shall try a 3D Sticky Christmas Tree from Two-daloo.

 

Equipment:

* Paper

* Green paint

* Contact paper/ Sticky Back Plastic (affiliate link)

* Blu-Tack

* Foam sheets

* Sellotape

* Green electrical tape

 

Adam was 19 months old.

Are you looking for Christmas Ornaments crafts to do with your children? Then take a look at Red Ted Art’s Christmas Ornaments ebook. Find 30 festive easy-to-do ideas all in one place. Click here to find out more.

Adventures of Adam Christmas tree activities:

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