In our house, the annual holiday tradition is to make ornaments for all the family members. Every year, I scour Pinterest and various websites to find an age appropriate ornament craft that we can do quickly, without a lot of trauma to the stubborn child’s sense of free will. This year, inspired by Chris McVeigh’s ornament tutorials, I decided to design something that would be easier to find pieces for and easier for my six-year-old to build.
Since we have a Lego store nearby, we have the opportunity to specifically buy the pieces we needed. When looking for pieces, I tried to find ones that would be easy to find if you, like I, have a house filled with random tubs of Lego. If I had prepared more, I would have been able to locate the pieces needed just by sorting through our current gigantic plastic tubs of used and abandoned Lego.
Without further ado, I give you “The Lego Ornament Tutorial in Pictures”:
- Assemble the needed pieces. You will need:
- 6: 4×4 plates
- 8: Attachment pieces that have corners. I used 2×2 by 2x1s (see picture below)
- 1: “handle” piece
- Assorted smaller pieces
2. Next, start by separating your pieces as follows:
3. Take each green plate and assemble them as such:
Keep going until you have this:
4. Once you have assembled the four plates with their attaching pieces. Start placing them on another green plate that has not yet been used.
And keep going:
And going.
And going.
5. Now that you have an open “box” you need to put a lid on it. This is the tricky part. My suggestion, after multiple attempts that then collapsed the box as a whole, would be to gently place the side of your top plate on one of the 2×1 pieces, then gently rotate and keep placing the plate 2×1 piece at a time along the edge. This will allow you to line up the edges without putting too much pressure on the top. Also, the corners of the black pieces do not touch each other when they are affixed so if you keep in mind that a teeny amount of space is there, it will help with the lid addition of the project. Also, this is the part of the project that, if you’re doing it with a smaller child, is useful to have an adult do.
See how you sort of put the one side on at an angle, instead of just plopping it flat on the top? That’s what I was talking about above.
6. Take the little handle piece that we’ve assembled and add it on. This is what you will put a string on to hang it on the tree.
7. Take a bunch of 1-peggers, cheese wedges, and other small pieces and let your kid (or you!) decorate away!
8. Hang on tree and gaze lovingly at your new ornament!
