Mini Christmas Letter Ornament

This weekend we took our stash of Christmas books out and oh my word… Was Miss G ever excited.  She’s been asking to take them out for ages now, so as soon as we did, she got straight to sorting, organizing, and reading them.  {Gosh, I love her.}  

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One of our very favourites – a fairly new one in our collection – is The Jolly Christmas Postman.  I had the original version – The Jolly Postman – growing up and I remember just thinking that book was the neatest thing ever.

Just like the original version, The Jolly Christmas Postman’s pages form envelopes every second page, and when you flip the envelope over, you can reach in and see what’s inside. {So much fun, right?}

This was what inspired the sweet little Christmas letter ornaments / keepsakes Miss G and I put together yesterday.  The idea originally came to us when looking at the Christmas tree on the front cover of the book {it’s covered with envelopes, letters, and postcards} and I quickly realized what amazing keepsakes these little letters could become over time.

Making them was something sort of did on the fly, but the process was easy and worked out perfectly.  And though they are simple and fun to make, they got Miss G using a ruler, practicing her cutting skills, and writing too, which never hurts.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own…  Coloured card stock, white printer paper, a pair of scissors, a pencil, fine tipped markers, glue {I’d recommend a glue stick over craft glue}, and a business or gift card of some sort. Ooh – and some thin ribbon or pretty baker’s twine too.

I’ll show you exactly how we made these, but first this…  If Miss G and I are working on something up at the art table, you can almost guarantee that there’s a sweet little thing named Sam banging or climbing on our chairs below.

Alright, now for the process…  Using card stock, Miss G first traced the card stacked on top of itself horizontally 3 times.

Then she cut out around all three rectangles.

Next, she folded the bottom rectangle up on top of the middle one and then the top one down onto the other two.

She then snipped a 1 centimetre wide strip off of that top flap so it no longer touched the bottom edge.

Working with that smaller top flap, she drew a dot in the centre of the bottom edge and then used a ruler to connect the top corners to the dot. Cutting off the excess bits on each side gave her envelope a proper, triangular flap.

With her mini envelope looking much more like an envelope now, she traced the edge of the triangular flap onto the backside of the envelope…

And then carefully along that line, but not right on it.

We then put a thin strip of glue along the edges of the middle rectangle and placed a loop of baker’s twine diagonally at the top of the glued section before firmly pressing the envelopes shut.

Then we flipped the mini envelopes over and addressed them to whomever we pleased, including an ‘address’ below and a little stamp in the top corner.

With the envelope complete, it was time for a miniature letter to go inside!  Miss G simply cut a little strip of white printer paper off, and then set to work writing a little letter to her baby brother Sam.

Because this little ornament will be a perfect snapshot of her at 6 years old in years to come, I didn’t help her with her letter at all. Here’s what she wrote:

 

To Sam

Even though you are sometimes too rough, you are a very good brother!  

You are very nice!  

P.S. I love you

Love, Sis

So funny and sweet all at once.  {If only she realized that she’s about 100 times as rough as Sam is… Hah!}

Then we tucked the little letter into the envelop and added the year to the flap.

Here are the finished envelope ornaments…  I think these will look so cute on a tree, don’t you?

Alright, now just like yesterday, this little ornament is part of the 10 days of a Kid-Made Christmas series…

To see all of the posts, pop by the homepage on Mama Miss and be sure to check out my friends who are sharing their lovely ideas today too:

katie the candy cane fairy ornaments inspired by Katie the Candy Cane Fairy |  Artsy Momma

eiffel tower ornament inspired by Madeline’s Christmas  |  Kitchen Counter Chronicles

candy cane ornaments inspired by The Legend of the Candy Cane  |  Handmade Kids Art

snow globe ornament inspired by The Snow Globe Family  | Happily Ever Mom

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