No-Mess Craft Activity for Cold Days

Winter can make you go stir crazy. The hours you spent outside with the kids in warmer weather become a few minutes here and there while you tolerate the cold conditions. Park trips are replaced with finger painting and Play-Doh — repeat, repeat, repeat. When Dana Lardner, CEO/Designer of Words to Sweat By offered this no-mess felt ornament activity, I  jumped at the chance. She chose a fitness theme for this craft activity, but you could just as easily change it up! Plus, Dana says little hands can do most of the work, which helps them with fine motor skills. It also lets you work on numbers, letters and colors, too. So get your kids and get creating ornaments and memories!

No-Sew Fitness-Themed Felt Ornament Supplies

1. Fitness-themed templates

Using pictures from the internet, print out some of your favorite fitness objects and cut out a template. It’s best to select objects without too much fine detail so that it’s easy to cut and apply to the cardboard.

2. Adhesive “glue” dots

Adhesive “glue” dots are the key to this no-mess activity and can easily be found at your local craft store. I used Glue Dots, but the exact brand isn’t important — just make sure they are thin and have a strong hold.

3. Foam letters and numbers

Adhesive-backed foam letters and numbers can also be found at your local craft store in the “kid’s crafts” section. They come in a small tub with letters and number in a variety of colors.

4. Felt

The beauty of felt is that it comes in a whole host of colors by the yard or even in a 9″ x 12″ felt variety color pack. It is soft to the touch but stiff enough to cut easily and hold its shape.

5. Recycled cardboard

Save a cereal box or the back of that lined notepad and don’t even have to leave the house to purchase the ornament backing. The cardboard is the base and helps the felt hold its shape while it hangs.

6. Scissors

No explanation necessary, but make sure the edges are sharp enough so that the felt cuts clean.

7. Hole punch and string/ribbon (not pictured)

A hole punch is necessary to punch a hole in the top of the ornament and the string or ribbon is used to hang the ornament.

5 Simple Steps To No-Sew Felt Ornaments

The steps to make these no-sew fitness-themed felt ornaments are not only simple, but you can include your kids in as many or as few steps as you’d like.

If you have toddlers, just cut the felt and the cardboard to size ahead of time so that it’s ready to go come craft time. If you have older children who can handle scissors with minimal oversight, this is a great time to master cutting squares, circles or whatever wacky shapes come to mind.

1. Cut and prepare the felt and cardboard.

In this tutorial, I am working with a 4″ x 4″ square because it’s easy to handle for hands of all sizes.

I prepared several felt squares and several cardboard squares at the same time so all of the necessary cutting was completed first and the scissors could be put in a safe place afterwards.

2. Affix the glue dots to the cardboard.

Many of the glue dots come on a roll so what I typically do is take the cardboard and place it over the dot then lightly pull it off the wax paper once it is stuck to the cardboard.

For this project, you want to place glue dots on each corner of the cardboard and at least one in the center (as seen below).

3. “Glue” the felt to the cardboard.

Take your felt square and place it on top of the cardboard square with the glue dots. Press firmly in place.

4. Apply the letters or numbers to the felt.

Remove the backing for the adhesive felt letters, place the letters on top of the felt in whatever pattern you’d like then press them firmly in place.

5. Transform into hanging ornament.

Using a hole punch, punch a hole in the middle of the top edge of the square. Take the string or ribbon and thread it through the hole. Tie a knot at the edge of the string or ribbon to secure the loop to the ornament and you’re done!

Hanging With The Bells

Now that you’ve finished the simple no-sew felt ornaments, you can craft some additional ornaments from the templates you cut out from the pictures. Depending on how big the items are, you may or may not need the cardboard backing.

For example the kettlebell (above) was a lot of fun to make and didn’t need cardboard backing, but the dumbbell may not hold up as a long-term ornament and it also didn’t appear to be a dumbbell without the picture on top. It may take a little experimentation, but what’s great about this activity is you can try a variety of things while the kids are making their ornaments.

So go ahead and get in some family “fitness” time while crafting these simple no-sew felt ornaments!

What’s your favorite ornament? My favorite ornaments growing up were the ones my brothers and I made — particularly a reindeer that had to hang upside down due to a misplaced ribbon. I also have a Christmas pickle, which is super fun. —Erin