These are sweet little car air fresheners that are homemade with love. A little keepsake of a little one in your life and it will smell great! You can also give them to family as Christmas tree ornaments.
Check out these oils HERE or some felt HERE
Where did this idea come from (Yeah its silly)?
First of all, my little girl really wanted a new car air freshener and I said “ok lets make one!” I am not a fan of all the fake scents that use chemicals to make them smell pretty and I don’t trust that they are safe to inhale everyday. So naturally, I wanted to use essential oils for our fragrance. I thought about the little car freshener trees in the stores and how they are kind of like carboard with felt on them. I figured we could just cut out some cute felt shapes add some essential oils and hang them up.
Then, being super excited to get started, I thought about the different kinds of fun cutouts we could do with our felt. Knowing the holidays are fast approaching, I thought we could do Christmas themed cutouts with oils that smell like Christmas. If we are going to do Christmas themed crafts, we have to use handprint art! To me it is the best kind of art. Kids grow so fast and this doubles as a memory keepsake where we can look back at how little they were.
Finally, I thought, if we are going to make some cute kids artwork we should make extra to give as gifts. What grandparent wouldn’t want a homemade or should I say handmade, gift from their grandchild? However, not everyone will want these as car fresheners. It’s Christmas! These will work as cute ornaments as well. Not only are they perfect ornaments they will even smell nice on the christmas tree.
Christmas Handprint Footprint Ornament and Air Freshener
Equipment
- Felt
- essential oils
- string for hanging
- scissors
Instructions
- Step 1: Figure of what kind of cute cutout you want and Trace your child's hand or foot onto the felt. Check out my pictures for examples.
- Step 2: Cut out the hand or foot print you traced.
- Step 3: Have your child (with your guidance) decorate the art piece. See notes below for tips.
- Step 4: Punch a hole in the top of your piece and put a string through for hanging. You can use a hole puncher, knife, scissors, or a large needle and thread.
- Step 5: If you want to add essential oils for a wonderful fragrance, you can: (a) add a few drops directly to the fabric or (b) make an oil blend. In a small bowl or jar pout a couple table spoons of a carrier oil such as melted coconut oil or almond oil and mix in a few drops of your choice of essential oils. (Cinnamon bark, peppermint, frankincense, myrrh are all good Christmas smelling essential oils. )
Notes
- Some markers, crayons, and pens work better than others, so you may want to practice coloring on a piece of scrap first.
- Glitter glue works great if you have time to let it dry.
- Tacky glue or a hot glue gun works well for felt fabric. Do not use elmers glue because it will bleed through.
- Google eyes, ribbons, or little bells would be good additions to your project.
