the nativity

We made this at our super saturday last year..I loved it cause
A. it was simple
B. it was kid appropriate

a must at my house!

and guess what? it's made with terra cotta pots! and you all know my OBSESSION with terra cotta potta!

it would be a great craft to do with the kiddos..and unlike most nativities they can play with it when it's done!!!  (please ignore that wicked piece of raffia going haywire!)

I took some round wooden balls and a clothespin and painted them skin tone

that clothespin will need to be cut in half!!!! (you can find something else to use if you don't have a handy man with a power tool at your disposal. )

and took a planter thinga mig (not an official name) the thing that catches the water...you know what I'm talking about...

oh...THAT thing. Well I got the smallest size...(okay I bought 12 of them) I was thinking about doing it with my neices and nephews...and they were on sale (see below picture:)

if you can not see....that says 12 ...cents. cause I'm cool like that.

I painted that a brown mixed with my leftover skin paint...I hate wasting paint....it's the hoarder in me.

Then you hot glue some spanish moss inside and then you take your clothespin that's been trimmed up a few inches...wrap a piece of felt around it and hot glue it on.... and draw on some eyes.

for mary and joseph:

You will need two small terra cotta pots. (SMALL!) and you can paint them whatever you want. Then you just hot glue the ball on top (the terra cotta pot is acutally turned upside down...so you would glue it on bottom?) then you just hunt through your scraps and find some squares of fabric and hot glue them on. I used raffia to hold the fabric around mary.

now..you are done...but you CAN add a little stable.

I had  a pack of these little wood slats that I bought in the craft section at walmart...I just hot glued them together and painted them with watered down brown

and of course you hot glue a star on too!

I also made this one...

and I'm going to give you the VERY CONDENSED VERSION: (aka..no pictures)
it's just a two by four that my handy dad split up the middle and trimmed off an inch on one. then I painted them...sanded them...hot glued them together....hot glue the balls on top..

then I took some more wood slats and a smaller ball....painted and hot glued those...then wrapped some raffia around it.....I took some my brown stamp pad and distressed it a little and added some rosy cheeks...(cause child birth will do that to a girl)

I also loved this kid friendly version from I am momma hear me roar

too cute right?

AND....go here to see quite a collection of nativities! it's so fun to see all the varieties! my sister has 9 nativities! I can only remember one...a giant mary and joseph!