Easy Nativity Ornament Tutorial

 

This is an easy Nativity Ornament you can make with crafters of 

almost all ages. I used it with my Awana Cubbies group this past week 

(3 & 4 year old group). All I needed was a bit of prep so they could be successful.

I started out with some Craft Sticks, some yellow poster board, some cotton fabric scraps (I'm a quilter after all!), a bit of ribbon, glue and a stick on star.

Dh cut down some of the craft sticks for me using tin snips. He cut one at 5" for Joseph and one at 4" for Mary, retaining the end of the 4" stick for Baby Jesus. We drilled a hole in the end of an uncut stick for the support backing.

After drilling the hole, I used a 10" length of ribbon, running it through the hole for a hanger.

I used a threader for my serger to thread the ribbon through the hole.

I had the Boybarian punch three 1" circles from yellow poster board (card stock should work just as well), cut one piece of swaddling clothes at 1 1/2" X 2" for Baby Jesus, a piece of cloth for Mary at 2" X 3" and a piece for Joseph at 2" X 4".

All the prep work was finished and we were prepared for crafting time!

Each of the three cut sticks received glue and a yellow halo circle. We set these aside for a couple of minutes as the halos wanted to slide around. This was a great time to go play a game (though the crafters wanted to continue the project!).

When we came back, each crafter put two dots on for eyes. We used a Sharpie, and it did bleed a little bit :( It did not bother the Cubbies, so we moved on.

We placed the fabric, pretty side down, on the table. We spread glue on the back of the craft stick, trying to keep the glue in the same size as the fabric height.

Push first one side and then the other onto the back. Smooth the fabric into the glue. If you use cotton fabrics, the glue should come through the layers enough to hold the fabric in place. Do this for each of the three people.

Spread glue on the back support stick, place Joseph on the glue, spread glue on the front of Joseph and press Mary into that glue. Finally, put some glue on Mary and place the Baby Jesus in the very front. They look best when they are kind of wonky all at different angles :)

Above the family, stick a shiny star sticker.

If necessary (I considered it important when working with little hands), use a binder clip to hold the layers together until the glue has set.

Write the year (and child's name, if they are the crafter) on the back of the ornament :)