My most recent foray into ornament making was was the direct result of reading Franklin’s Thanksgiving to my children the other day. In the book, Franklin (the turtle if you are not familiar) was making corn husk dolls at school. The illustration showed corn husk turtles with walnut shells. I decided that I wanted to use walnut shells to make some fun little turtle ornaments for the tree.

Here they are in their natural habitat! I painted the shells with acrylic paints and then varnished them. This little craft can easily become a family affair. My son helped me crack the walnut shells and empty the meat from the shells. My husband helped eat up the walnuts. Kids could help with the painting. You will need to drill a hole into the shell for the hanger so that’s a job for a grown up. The heads are fabric balls that are then hot glued to the walnuts. To make that easier, you could use pom poms.

I was then inspired to make a few ladybugs. They have embroidery floss antennae.

While I was painting the turtle shells, one of the kids asked what I was doing with the yellow shells, making a bee? Well, the green just didn’t have enough coats yet so it appeared yellow…but a bee, how genius!

So a bee came next. The bee was tricky because it required a perfectly cracked walnut shell. I could have left it whole but I didn’t like the idea of storing a nut in our attic when it wasn’t on the tree. I thought it might be too appealing to little creatures.

These ornaments are my children’s absolute favorites. I can completely see it. They definitely have kid appeal. Each of them has chosen one for the tree.