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Make a toy stable and manger

December 21, 2012 Ticia 13 Comments

 

So far we’ve made the town of Bethlehem, painted our figures, and added accessories.  Now we’ll make our stable for our Peg Doll Nativity.

make a toy stable

The directions on making the stable can be found at my project on the Studio: making a bear cave.  So for detailed instructions head there.

make a toy stable

After that, my project more or less followed the directions.  The kids…….  in particular the boys……  Not so much.

 

make a toy stable

You’ll see the full impact of it at the end………

 

materials for manger: felt (you can make several from 1 piece of craft felt), needle, thread, yarn, scissors

 

make a fabric manger for your nativity

First cut a small square from your felt, about 1 inch by 1 inch.

Next fold the felt in half, so the sides meet.  This lets you make a mostly symmetrical and lined up piece.

Cut the length of your manger.  Ours was about 2 inches long.  I cut some extra length to have some wiggle room for the next step, about 1 inch.

Fold the felt in half like you did in the second step.  This lets you make sure the final side your cutting out is the same shape as before.

This is what your piece will look like when all done.  Princess commented it looked kind of like a cross……  I hadn’t noticed that until she said it and then I couldn’t get it out of my mind.  From here on out your kids can take over the craft.

Hold 2 adjacent sides together and sew up the sides.  Then hand your Mom the felt to tie knots.  I sat there tying knots for 10 minutes.  As soon as I was done with one kid, the next would be ready for theirs, and then it would cycle back to the beginning as each one finished their sides.

 

make a fabric manger for your nativity

But they loved it.  It was wildly popular with them.

make a fabric manger for your nativity

 

Finally add some yarn for hay.  We didn’t have yellow yarn, but we did have some yellow rope, so we took that apart and used it.  Worked like a charm.

 

make a fabric manger for your nativity

Now put your Holy Family in the stable with some extra hay and you’re ready to play with your Nativity set.

 

Then they each took turns playing and setting it up for me to take pictures for the next hour or two.

toy stable

I kid you not.  Princess took about 20 minutes or so, and that was with me helping her.

 

toy stable

Batman took over 30 minutes.  He had to set up traps and the men to protect everyone in town.

 

toy stable

Superman went through the town and made sure every house had soldiers standing guard over them for when Herod came.  Jesus had his own platoon.  It was quite impressive.

 

Over all the kids have loved this project, and every day for the past week the only question I’ve gotten is “When are we going to make more of our Nativity set?”

 

Want some more Advent ideas to focus on Christ this Christmas?  Then check out my Christmas story for kids page.

 

arts and crafts, Bible, Homeschool Holidays Advent, Christmas, gospels

Comments

  1. Julie says

    December 21, 2012 at 1:11 pm

    I am really impressed with all the hard work that went into this Nativity Project. I love all the little figures.

    Reply
  2. Julie says

    December 21, 2012 at 1:14 pm

    I have a blog hop to show what kids have been interested in spending their time on. Homeschool hobbies and handicrafts. This post is perfect. I would love it if you linked up.
    https://highhillhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/12/homeschool-hobbies-and-handicrafts-dec_21.html

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      December 21, 2012 at 3:51 pm

      I actually thought about linking this up as I headed out this morning, I’ll come link it up!

  3. Phyllis at All Things Beautiful says

    December 21, 2012 at 2:19 pm

    I thought you said you haven’t done any history lately. All of the posts in this series is history to me. 🙂

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      December 21, 2012 at 3:56 pm

      I did think about linking these up, but was going back and forth on it…… 🙂

  4. maryanne @ mama smiles says

    December 21, 2012 at 5:50 pm

    I love that they each sewed their own manger!

    Reply
  5. Natalie says

    December 21, 2012 at 9:24 pm

    Love the manger and the rest of the project. Perhaps we will shoot for it next year!

    Reply
  6. Julie says

    December 22, 2012 at 6:46 am

    I’m so glad you linked up. I was at my friend’s house this morning and she was talking about making a Nativity. I told her about your blog and emailed her the link. This is the perfect idea.
    Julie

    Reply

Trackbacks

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Ticia Adventures in Mommydom Hi, I'm Ticia! This is the adventures of my family in life and learning. Follow along with us as we share our adventures. We're having a lot of fun and learning as we go.

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