Craft - Advent Wreath

Every year the kids would make Advent Wreaths in Catechism. They were usually made using birthday candles. Back when I was teaching grade four level, I didn’t want to do the same. I was going to make a flat picture with construction paper but could not find any pink paper in Dollarama.
Since I had waited until the last minute to get supplies, I had to change plans in a hurry. I ended up buying foam board, colored craft sticks, wreaths, hot glue guns, and chenille stems. (Side rant - Back in my day, chenille stems were still called pipe cleaners, and craft sticks were called popsicle sticks.)
It went over well, and in later years I bought crafts sticks in advance and painted them beforehand. This brought the cost down even more as the colored craft sticks I bought only had a few pink and purple sticks in every package.

Supplies:
Foam board – each 20"x30" board will make 15 bases.
Craft sticks – you will need 4 for each wreath.
Garlands – each 8' garland will make 10-12 wreaths
Chenille stems – the ones with the 4 wider sections - you will need 1 per wreath. Red and yellow are preferred but some kids preferred white, and even blue flames.
Purple paint
Pink paint

Tools:
Pencil
Ruler (preferably metal)
Knife – to cut the foam board
Paintbrush
Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
Craft scissors or wire cutters (optional) – to cut the chenille stems

If you do some of the preparation beforehand, you can have your entire class make these in an hour. If you have more helpers with the glue guns, you can do it in less time.

Cut the foam board into smaller squares. I used 6” x 6” (15cm x 15cm) but you can adjust as needed. This does leave a small amount of scrap foam board left. I was able to get 15 squares from each sheet.

Paint the craft sticks. You need to paint three sticks purple and one stick pink for each wreath. I painted them in batches using closes pins to hold one side of the stick to a box while it dries.
Once dry, I separated each set of 4 painted sticks into snack bags.

On the day, I had the kids draw a circle on the board. You want a fairly big circle but still leave about 2 fingers of room between the edges. Get them to write their name on the back of the board at this time.

Then they need to mark 4 spots around the circle where the craft sticks will go. I prefer to put them in the corners as it leaves more room. Then they have to decide whether they want the sticks parallel to the circle or perpendicular to the circle.

Once they have the spots marked, get them to take a craft stick and push it through the top layer of paper into the foam at each of the marks. This works best if the board is on a table so it doesn’t push through the bottom sheet of paper.

Four quick dabs of hot glue in the holes holds the craft sticks. A quick line of glue on the circle holds down the garland to simulate the wreath. Get them to hold the sticks up while the glue cools. I usually burn myself a bit sticking the garland down.

For the flames, take the chenille stems and cut them into 4 sections with a thick part in the middle and thin parts at the ends. Depending on the age of your crafters, you can use wire cutters, craft scissors, or even cut them by hand. If you pinch the stems tight between your fingernails, you can wiggle the stem up and down until the wire breaks due to overstressing. By curling one end of the chenille flames around the craft stick candles, you can ‘light’ them each week. If you want them more permanent, you can hot glue the flames instead.

Figure Painting Total - October 2019

I only picked up a game with a few figures this month. I did also pick up two large semis from Walmart that I will probably give a quick wash but I am not counting them as figures since they will be used as terrain. I also found some camper trailer ornaments at Dollorama – two to a package. So I picked up 5 sets. I will need to sand off the glitter and repaint them, but they should make a nice trailer park.

Combat Arena - 5

Oct total - figures bought 5, figures painted 0
Running total 2019 – figures bought 129, figures painted 1