Christmas Button Frames

Each year I take photos of my day care group (individually) and frame them as a gift to their parents. We also make an ornament and many crafts go home during December. This year each child decorated their own frame. Each one is unique and special!

We started with bare wood frames from Michael’s – just a $1 each. I pre-painted them all white (tempera paint) so we had a nice base to start with. I know all the children will not paint every part of the frame and the white showing through is much nicer than the wood.

I offered red, green, and silver paint and a brush for each, explaining it would be best if colors were not mixed. Most did a great job with this but with younger ones, it might be better to limit it to one color and silver. After they were finished painting they sprinkled the frame with iridescent glitter from Craftprojectideas.com. Using iridescent glitter gave them a little sparkle without changing the overall colors.

After the paint dried, they glued on an assortment of buttons. I’m not sure where I got this mix of red, green, and white buttons, but perhaps from Oriental Trading? We used Tacky glue for sticking on the buttons. In the past, I’ve used regular Elmer’s glue but they easily popped off. These buttons won’t be popping off! I put a puddle of glue on a small paper plate and each child applied glue with a Q-Tip. For smaller kiddos, consider dabbing on the glue yourself and they can apply the buttons.

They did such an amazing job and these will be treasured for sure! I wish I could show you their adorable pictures and how wonderful they look in the frames but for privacy reasons, you’ll have to just imagine! They are so proud of their work and I am too!

And simple. Oh so simple. And inexpensive!

More Gifts Kids Can Make