Category: Crafts

To friends, followers and family:

Let the Christmas cheer begin.

The 2024 Christmas pins have been mailed out the past few days, so be on the lookout. Many of you already have received pins.

As always, it was fun and joyful to create these pins.

So an early wish for the merriest of all Christmas ahead.

A sampling of the pins I did this year is shared above..

‘Tis the season for making yuletide cards.

OK, Christmas still is several weeks away, but I spent a few hours in October to create a couple of different holiday cards I use for  Christmas note-writing and /or inclusion with a gift.

Start early, avoid the rush,

It’s a merry time to get immersed in the holiday spirit. This is in addition to my annual pin-making and simultaneous project of creating tabletop Christmas décor, which works, too, as a holiday-type desk decoration.

One card design, conceived perhaps three decades ago, still is one of my favorites. The look of this card never goes out of style, so yes, it’s a classic.

The concept has been to form a Christmas tree, utilizing holiday wrapping paper with bright island images – of flowers, Santas, snowflakes, ukulele, lei and more – rescued from Christmas wrapping paper. I hand-cut cut three segments for a small top, a graduating middle size and a larger bottom. When put together, you get a representation of a tree.  Top it with a sticker of a star and include old wallpaper for a simple base.

For a bit of a twinkle, I use a string of holiday ties to ensure brightness separating the tree segments, to simulate trim on the tree. If you prefer, you can utilize springs of a tree instead of a bright trim, for an island mood. These greens are available on a spool at craft stores.

My two other designs are simple, if you can locate the right elements. I bought a box of commercial blank notecards with suitable designs and hues.

For one card, I discovered an artsy ribbon, on a spool, with repeating HO-HO-HO. Three hos are rather large to utilize side-by-side, so I cut two and then one, and arranged on a note card, accentuated by a Christmas tree sticker.

The other cards fit my needs; one had a series of triangular image that looked like trees; the other featured a series of triangular shapes. In the middle of  the tree-looking card, I used two stickers of mini-Christmas trees, with a small square wedge of ribbon and attached on it a silver sticker of a snowflake.

 Voila, a professional looking card. On the other card, I simply used three stickers of three trees, with a cut-out of a perfect slogan, “Merry & Bright,” found on a blue ribbon on a spool, so I have lot more of this wording for next year.

There are no rules in creating your own design, even if you cut out images of last year’s Christmas card. Your imagination has no boundaries.

Give it a try…