Better Homes and Gardens publishes one of these Christmas Special Interest issues each year. The ideas I tried for this post were from the 2009 issue specifically. (To place a library hold on a specific year's copy you will need to contact the library because it is listed as part of a series.)
I like these Special Interest series because they have something for a great variety of tastes and styles (this issue claims to provide "256 easy and elegant ideas for your home"). Also, the projects tend to be relatively simple to execute and use many different types of crafting techniques.
I still had all the scrap booking stuff out on my table from my post about making holiday cards and tags so I tried my hand at the Tree Tag project first of all. I don't own the stamp they used but the tree was simple to draw out with my markers.
I was inspired by the tags they showed in "Tag Team" so I made a few more tags using some purchased stickers.
I have had a set of clear glass ornaments in my craft stash for years but never set myself to do anything with them so when I saw the "Custom-Color Ornaments" project I decided it was high time to drag them out. You swirl diluted acrylic paint inside them to coat the interior and then apply punched out snowflakes (or snowflake stickers) on the our surface. Yay! Another opportunity to use my snowflake punch!! The craft is simple and the finished project is very effective...my husband really liked these.
I decided to use up the rest of my clear glass ornaments and tried the project I originally purchased them for: marbleizing. For this project you squirt two colors of diluted acrylic paint inside and swirl it around to coat. Dry it upside down and you have a "marbleized ornament". My son really liked these...my photos don't show them off too well though.
Lastly, I made the "Circle of Snow" wreath by randomly piling felt snowflakes of varying sizes on a circular shape. (The book's project used a foam wreath...I used a sheet of stiffened glittered felt that I already had and which I cut into a donut shaped piece.) The glitter in the felt doesn't really show up well here unfortunately.
As I am writing this, the Better Homes and Gardens Christmas 2010 issue is being readied for circulation.
It indicates that it has "247 Festive and Easy Ideas for your home" including "39 simple and stylish ornaments." I'm looking forward to investigating many of those.
Meanwhile, a couple of my colleagues here at the library have been tapping their inner craftiness and have given me permission to share their endeavors.
If you read our ever so fine SciFi blog "The Labyrinth Librarians" then you are familiar with Adam. While he and I were talking about the crafts I was planning to make this season Adam thought he remembered making pipe cleaner reindeer sometime in his past. Not one to let any craft opportunity to escape, I challenged him to try making one. Not one to let any challenge go unanswered, Adam did make one.
I thought that his rise to the challenge was GREAT!! But, then we decided that the little guy was destined to be Rudolph, so Adam added some bling:
And there you have it, a blinged out pipe cleaner reindeer by Adam, The Labyrinth Librarian. We only need a few more, a sleigh and a Santa....Adam, are you able to rise to the challenge again?
Next up in the colleague craft-a-thon is a beautiful display by Mary, one of our Children's Librarians. During the Fall, Mary created a tree covered with Autumn leaves for our stairwell. Not yet wanting to see it go, she decked it out for the Winter. While I was working on my "Quick Felt Holiday Decorations" post, Mary created some felt cardinals to put on the branches of her tree. She looked through our books for Cardinal pictures to use as a reference and sketched one out. Once happy with her sketch, she made templates for the individual pieces: body, wing, beak,black thing that goes next to beak..., traced them onto felt and cut them out.
She used a blanket stitch to outline the wing and body.
She sewed the rest of the parts on and added a bead for the eye and put them in her snowed capped tree.
I am so pleased with my colleagues' crafting contributions and thank them for allowing me to share them in my blog...you never know what you are going to encounter in this place! As for me I think I had better start worrying about some gift making ideas pretty darn soon! Back to our shelves I go, exploring the world of possibilities. I will keep you posted. Until then, take a look through the Holiday crafting books at our, or your own library and tap into your inner craftiness!
Our staff is so creative.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.