Parent Gifts Are Ready to Go!

I have a canvas art of a snow family at my house that says "Families are Forever, Love never Melts" I love it so much. I have had it for 18 years and every year I love getting it out and hanging it up. When I saw an idea on Pinterest for making a snow-family canvas ornament I knew exactly what I wanted my students to make for their parents this years.

I went to Michaels looking for canvas, I was thinking we would make them small because I didn't know how much 14 canvases would cost, but I was surprised to find a pack of 10 - 8 X 10 canvases were only $20 and I had a 50% off coupon. I could get them for a dollar a piece, that just as good at getting a frame from the dollar store!! I was so excited. We already had paint at school so this was my only cost this year.

We started by choosing one color to color the entire canvas. We painted them and let them dry for a couple of days before adding our snow family.

To add the snow family we painted our fingers and pressed them onto the canvas. I know this is a popular idea there are all kinds of ornaments made this way. We made sure we had one snowman for each person in their family.

Then they took toothpicks and q-tips, dipped them in paint and added details to their snowmen as well as snow flakes to the sky.

Once the entire canvas had dried for a couple of days we used a oil based sharpie pen to write the saying "Families are Forever, Love Never Melts" on them. We practiced our handwriting on paper first, and sketched it with pencil before tracing it with the markers.They turned out absolutely adorable!! I think their families are going to love them, I know I do!!

I also made adorable picture ornaments for them. I purchased a cute chalk board from Hobby Lobby, wrote Merry Christmas 2014 on it and had the kids hold it up in front of the tree. I took a picture of each kid and had a wallet size print made at Wal-mart. I bought small pieces of wood (they came in packs of 10), sharpie paint markers, and spray adhesive.

I put the pieces of wood in a cardboard box to spray them so that the adhesive would not get on anything else. Sprayed the wood, and stuck the pictures on. I used the paint markers to color the edges of the wood that were still visible.

I used this sealer to cover the photos and make them more durable.

Then I added a bow (got the ribbon from Dollar tree) and there you go! Adorable little keepsakes for them!

All the presents are wrapped up and put them under the tree!

I have enjoyed making these projects with my students this year and can't wait for their families to receive them! I hope they become treasured keepsakes for many years to come!