Sunday School Crafts

Recycled Dryer Sheet Ornaments

Supplies:

• Printable Ornament Templates (dove) (snowflake)

• Used fabric softener sheets

• White liquid glue

• Glitter

• Wax paper

• Embroidery thread

• Optional: Glitter glue, Puff paint, Sequins and beads, Paste food coloring

Directions:
Print out one or both of the Christmas Ornament Templates. You can also search clip art to find many more. Iron any wrinkles out of the used fabric softener sheet on low heat.  Cover the sheet with a damp pressing cloth to keep it from melting.  If you do not have a pressing cloth, a sheet of paper is the next best thing. 

Cover the template with wax paper.  Place the fabric softener sheet on top of this.  Using the white liquid glue, trace all lines.  Be sure every line connects to at least one other line.  If using glitter, sprinkle it on while the glue is wet.  Let this dry overnight.  Shake of any excess glitter onto a sheet of paper and funnel it back into the container to use again.  Carefully peal the ornament off the wax paper. Turn the ornament over and apply a second coat of white glue to the underneath side.  Let this dry overnight. This makes the ornament stronger. Thread a needle with embroidery thread and carefully pull the thread through where you want the hanger to be.  Tie the thread to complete the hanger. If you are letting the kids at church do this part then I would suggest either you doing each one so no one gets poked with a needle, or you can use christmas ornaments hooks and let them poke those through the material.

Variations:

You can use glitter glue for the second coat instead of applying glitter on the first coat of glue.  Tracing the lines with puff paint also is a nice embellishment.   Use sequins or small beads to add to the beauty of these ornaments.  You can color the liquid glue, but be sure to use paste food color not the liquid food color.  The liquid thins the glue too much.

Fabric softener sheets that have been used at least one time actually work better than new ones.  These will keep several years if stored in a cool dry place.

Our Take On It: You can have your kids in Sunday school class or Children's Church do these and teach them about recycling (because you worked with used dryer sheets instead of throwing them away) and taking care of God's creation. Teach them that God created the snowflakes, and the dove. The dove represents the Holy Spirit in the bible, and just like every snowflake is different and not made the same, we are that way too. Jesus loves each one of us even if we are different and don't look alike-just like the little snowflakes that He made.