Here is one I made earlier..I used to love watching Blue Peter and especially liked this time of the year when Val and John would make the Advent Crown from two metal coat hangers some tinsel and  four candles..That was when I began to feel really Christmassy.Sometimes they would even show us how to make Christmas presents out of sticky back plastic and lots of cardboard..

 And my point is - what could I make for Christmas with the P1 class on Monday? - we had made Christmas cards and calenders - used the artificial snow and even made paper snowflakes. Maybe stained glass windows would be a good idea. I was so impressed by the other teaching I had seen recently that I wanted to do something really different after all - I do the Art- but my mind was blank...
Well Picasso said something about the best artists are those who use other artist ideas and make them their own.I agree and remember at Art College how we were encouraged to view each others work and this had a positive effect on our creativity.
Tonight while sitting waiting to pick up our son from the Boys Brigade - inspiration struck!! The car was parked outside a small but  fancy house furnishing shop. I stared at the Christmas display  and suddenly noticed  a large silver horse head was part of the display. As I looked closer I began to question why was I subconsciously looking in that window - - then an idea emerged thankfully about what to make on Monday. The window had long strings of silver hearts -snowflakes and  stars .These were strung from ceiling to floor like a beaded curtain. These decorations were what pulled my eye into the window. Aha - these could be duplicated -all I need are some used cardboard boxes tinfoil and the spray on glitter and some ribbon and some .. sticky back plastic?

This weekend will be spent drawing shapes on cardboard of various thicknesses and looking for old bits of string and wool. The cut out shapes of hearts and snowflakes will vary in size and thickness and could have a bell added. The thick cut circles could have wool wrapped around them or have glitter sprayed onto them.The finished products will be hung from a window just like the ones I saw in that shop today. I feel  my art is justified if the children and I can create something which is useful and lovely to look at. Its more fun than painting yet another snowman on black paper  - although that does have its place..