Homemade fingerprint Christmas cards

Have you got your Christmas cards yet ? We've made some handmade cards based on the nativity story.

The base of the card is really simple - a fingerprint. We're quite big fans of hand print / finger print art (as you can see from our autumn tree, spring tree and handprint birthday card).

After a finger print we added different details and embellishments to make the different characters in the story. 

For Mary and Joseph I added a brown and blue body as well as head scarf. Baby Jesus had a bed of straw made from cutting a fringe into a piece of yellow a.d a crib made from corrugated card.

The angel had silver wings (drawn on with one of these markers - which I love  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pilot-Silver-Marker-extra-point/dp/B0017TMLAK) and a body made of glittery card.

The shepherds had bodies similar to Joseph and a white finger print which I turned into a sheep.

Finally the wise men had brightly coloured bodies, hand drawn crowns and stick on sequins for gifts.

If your after other ideas for homemade Christmas cards check out this rather cool hangout (see if you spot us!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WntF78jdcXs

How to make Fimo Nativity figures

Its really important for us as a family that our kids know that Christmas isn't just about Father Christmas (Santa) and presents.

Like story boxes, using small world people to tell a story helps children to engage, interact and remember it. As well as using figures as story props you can let your child play with the figures and re-intact the story (great for developing communication skills). As out main nativity set is very breakable I thought I'd make some chunky nativity figures out of Fimo (polymer clay).

Here's how I made them...

The figures are based on a really simple ball for the head, with additions.

Mary, Joseph and the shepherd have head dresses.

The Kings have crowns and a little present.

The angel, wings and a halo.

Baby Jesus is wrapped in cloth and in a manger.

I wanted to keep the figures as simple as possible, partly to be practical (i.e. less bits means less bits to break off) but also to encourage imagination.

This post is part of a blog hop. Do you have a blog and a nativity themed post? If so link up below. Why don't you check out some of the other hosts on the hop.

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