Category: Crafts

Posted on

COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS, 2024

For several years now, I’ve launched an annual countdown to Christmas tradition enabling me to share a range of holiday decorations I make for gifts.

Most of the items assembled are destined to be presents, including a bundle ordered by a friend for her friends.

Like the holiday lapel pins I create, these desk and  table décor  allow me to engage in my hobby of sharing holiday crafts and reflect on why or how I did these 25 items.

Disclosure: The best way to indulge in an end-of-year project like this is to seek, collect,  make, or purchase a variety of items year-round to assemble as needed to create Christmas items. With a glue gun, and your thinking cap,  you’ll be amazed what you can create.

I appreciate hand-made items, which is why I make ‘em.

So beginning now and continuing through Christmas day, I’ll feature 25 ornamentals and reflect on the how and why they were created. Let the countdown begin…

No. 1—With Mele Kalikimaka as a theme, I assembled a Santa-like male figure and a Hawaiian hula dancer –in actuality, mini  fabric dolls — in front of a papier mâché house  with walls the shade of sand which yield an island tone. Added “Mele Kalikimaka” signage, a Christmas tree, a gift, a holiday lollipop, plus a pine-and-berries cluster. Final touch: a string of white lights.  And voila, this becomes  local all the way. This is one of the larger items I’ve done this season….

Posted on

YULE PINS, 2024 VERSION, IN MAIL

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..

Posted on

MAKING YOUR OWN CHRISTMAS CARDS

‘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…

Posted on

SIGNS THAT EASTER’S A-COMING

Found some wooden cut-outs online, and fastened them to those acrylic photo snapshots, 4 by 6 inch size.

Voila: bright seasonal howdy-do’s, suitable for placement on the check-in counters at the offices.

My doctors have been so helpful in my recovery, from last August’s hospitalization to a Jan. 5 surgery, and these were simply random thank you’s to them.

Happy Easter, y’all!

Posted on

MY FAVORITE EASTER PINS

I created several dozen Easter pins — with Easter basket motifs — that wound up to be my favorite designs this year.

Again.

These pins are labor intensive, and each one is an original, because while the model of the basket design is the same, the contents — little bunnies, carrots, flowers, exterior add-ons — are all different. The colors vary, too. And so was the time required to finish a pin — from 20 to 30 minutes.

With all the pins already distributed — by mail, and in a few cases, delivered in person — I only have a few remaining, mostly to remind me how I did and what i utilized, to complete the pins.

So, sharing two photos of the range of the designs.