Whoo likes to be savvy?!

I use tissue paper for little decorations in my Sunday School classroom and birthday parties.  It's cheap.  A little goes a long way, and it makes big statements especially when your budget isn't that big.  (I have a few ideas coming up for my daughter's Lalaloopsy birthday party in January.  Check back then to see what else I can do with tissue paper and other cheap dollar store and crafty supplies.

I teach the three and four year olds' Sunday School class at our church.  Last week we began work on our nativity scene for our room.  I wanted to do something big enough they could all see and not fight over touching.  I think this worked out pretty well.

I just cut out everything free hand, and tried not to use the same scrapbook paper twice.  It's not perfect, but it gives the kids something to picture while I'm teaching them the Christmas story.

Here's what we came up with.  Hope you like it!

I used brown tissue paper for the barn, and simply tore it into the pieces I needed.  I wanted it to be simple

I used the same basic shape for all the tops, heads and "legs".
The camel was the hardest to free hand.  I had to look up a lot of pictures to make sure I got him right.

I used several pieces for the swaddling clothes for baby Jesus to make it look like they used scrap fabric/cloths to wrap Him up.

I think these sheep and pig are my favorite!  They were soo cute, and the kids helped pick out the patterns from the scrapbook paper.  They're pretty smart, aren't they?!

Here are the shepherds, again, same basic shapes, just turned the opposite direction.  I couldn't get their crooks to be long enough, and my daughter thought they were old ladies, instead of shepherds.  Lol!! But we'll get that sorted out next Sunday School lesson.

And last but not least, our angel.  I cut here wings in a giant heart shape and just free hand cut one side.  Obviously I folded it and cut the other side to match.

We've used scrap book paper in our other classroom decorations as well.  Here are the other walls.  The kids just love them!

 So, if you can picture it, our room goes from left to right.  The big owl tree, the nativity corner (there's a window on this wall, as you can see a little in the left of the large nativity pic), and the little owl tree.  


The nice thing about the tissue paper is that the longer it hangs the wrinkles come out, and now it looks really neat!  I'll take a panoramic with my iPhone and post it later.

Here's a couple of pics from my third's 1st birthday party.  As you can see I used the same owl pattern I created then, for my owls in my classroom now.

I'm all out of time for posting, but I've got many more ideas to come!

Have a great day!