Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

21 December 2022

A Tiny Forest

Are you familiar with the meme about wanting to make all your loved ones homemade Christmas presents, and come Christmas, it turns out you love two people? That's usually me. But last year, I made holiday sweater pins for all my co-workers, and this year the muse showed up again. With a recycled project to be fair, but still, every one of my colleagues received a homemade Christmas pillow.

I freehanded a Christmas tree shape on paper, 20" high and 20" wide at its widest point, and cut out the trees. I can get three double-sided trees out of a yard and a half of fleece. Sew the two sides together leaving a 3" opening, turn the tree inside out, stuff with poly-fil, and sew the tree closed by hand. Behold, a tiny forest of Christmas cheer. 

Merry Christmas!


16 December 2013

Fabulously Festive Cardboard Chandeliers



When I was still living in Holland, my mom, my sister, and I would get together every year at the beginning of December to do something Christmas-y. We would make a wreath, needle felt a Santa Claus, or visit a Christmas market. I miss that. So, after we moved back to Wisconsin, I introduced this lovely tradition to my family here.



I get together with my aunt and my cousin’s wife, kids are included, every first weekend of December and we do something crafty. This year we made Finnish Stars. Since I already have a Christmas tree full of them, I tried my hand at origami Christmas trees while supervising the folding, weaving, and gluing of strips of sheet music.



The origami tree turned out very cute, but it wasn’t what I had hoped it would be. I just couldn’t see my Christmas table full of them in various colors and sizes.

But then my eye fell on the stack of cardboard from my aunt’s recent shopping trip for Swedish dining room furniture and I immediately thought: “Cardboard chandeliers, how #fabulouslyfestive!” And a perfect project for Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts’ Celebrate The Season campaign.



I am hosting Christmas dinner for twenty this year. The twelve big people will dine at the ping pong table in the living room, and the eight smaller people, I cannot call them little anymore, will sit at the kitchen table. My plan is to make three cardboard chandeliers, two for the adult table, and one for the kitchen.

If you would like to work along with me, here is what you’ll need:
My chandeliers are approximately 18” by 18”. I started out by making a rough sketch on a piece of paper, making sure my design was not too intricate. I then copied the drawing onto a clean sheet of cardboard. To ensure symmetry, I drew a 1” grid on the cardboard, making all my male relatives (engineers and physicists the lot of them) proud, no doubt. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of this so I cannot prove it. I have witnesses, though.




Once I was happy with the result, I cut out the chandelier with my X-acto knife. This is a laborious task, I have to say. I cut until my fingers hurt from pushing the knife, and blisters started to form. This is when I quickly adjusted my plans to make three chandeliers down to two, and then down to one. What. A. Chore.

Ah, but when the cutting was done, it turned out so awesome and I immediately readjusted the number of chandeliers. In fact, I now want to make four, as soon as my hands heal. But first, we paint!



I use DecoArt’s Elegant Finish metallic paint in Glorious Gold. Fabulous paint, people! You can find it in the paint aisle at Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts. Covers well, dries fast, and has a beautiful shimmer to it.




Once the painting is done, it is time to break out the glitter to make the flames extra sparkly.



Lather on the white glue:



Sprinkle on the gold glitter:



And secure with a few spritzes of clear coat to keep the glitter from falling off.



Heartless mother that I am, I deprived my six year-old who lives for this stuff-of adding the glitter to the flames. What can I say, I still have not gotten over the Great Glitter Explosion of 2011. I know, I should let it go already.

Once everything is dry, it’s time to decorate. For the trim I wanted lightweight strands of gold beads. I found the perfect stuff in the Great Deals aisle at Jo-Ann. They have the beads in two sizes and three colors: red, silver, and gold.



I cut small sections of the beads and secured them to one chandelier half with a drop of hot glue. Then I put the two chandelier halves together and glued the beads in place on the other half.
While I think they look great, they are a little wonky. I tried straightening them by adding weights and making the strands wet, but to no avail. Wonky beads it is then.



If, when you slide the two halves into each other, there is a large gap, secure that with a little hot glue.





By the way, should you run into a very large dog that, with one sweep of his tail, breaks off one of the chandelier arms, don’t fret. With a thin piece of wood, such as a match or even a toothpick, and some glue, this is easy to fix. Just dab some glue, I used Aleene’s Tacky Glue for this, on the wood and insert it into the broken pieces of cardboard. While it may wobble a little bit, it will not go anywhere after that and once you put the chandelier together, you’ll never be able to tell an arm was broken.



For the finishing touch, I made a small hole in the bottom of the chandelier and attached a crystal chandelier part. I happened to have some on hand from a previous project, but you could easily use large beads for this.



I hung my #fabulouslyfestive cardboard chandelier with some clear beading wire and stood back to enjoy the final result.



Fabulous!



And festive!



To make the chandeliers even more fabulous, you can add some battery operated fairy lights if you have them. Alternatively, you could use gold wire lights, found in the bridal department at Jo-Ann. Since I have no place to hide the battery pack, I didn’t do so for the chandelier in the kitchen. The living room is another story, though. We have big beams, perfect for setting a battery box on.







What do you think? #Fabulouslyfestive, or what? I am so pleased with how they turned out. Our Christmas will be merry and bright, for sure.

Find more #fabulouslyfestive inspiration at Jo-Ann and use a coupon for a fabulous 50% off.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!



This post is sponsored by Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores. I received craft products and a gift card to write this post.

10 December 2013

Tic-Tac-Tinsel

I took one look at Molly Moo’s project for Spoonful and I knew I was going to recreate her tic-tac-toe game made from champagne corks. I have a box full of those babies and this was the perfect project.

Since I am hosting Christmas dinner, I thought this would make a fun project for the kids table. I did not model my players after Olaf and Sven of Disney fame, having never heard of them until now, but adjusted them a little bit to better fit in our family.

Of course one game wouldn’t do, since there are eight kids seated at that table. And so I created a few more teams until I ran out of corks.

There are angels.

Santas.

Toy soldiers, lead by an accidental angry bird.

Christmas trees.

Gingerbread men.

And gringy-ish elves.

Four games in all. I used paint, puffy paint, pipe cleaners, pompoms, felt, acorn caps, flower pots, spools, ribbon, buttons, beads, stars, disks, and pearl string to create the players. And hot glue, lots and lots of hot glue. The little swords are made of bamboo appetizer fork tines. The board is a square piece of red wool blend felt with white zig-zag stitching.







Let the games begin. It will be a tic-tac-tournament! Lola and I are already trying them out. She has a blast with them. I am too, if I’m honest. If I had more corks, I would keep on going. I could open a bottle or two, I suppose, but I find that drinking copious amounts of bubbly impairs my painting skills, which are mediocre to begin with.

Is it wrong for the hostess to want to sit at the kids table?

24 December 2012

Last Minute Gift Bags

We had a few small presents to wrap up for Lola's teachers on Friday. I thought I'd make some fun gift bags in the shape of a stocking.

I drew a stocking shape on a sheet of paper and cut it out. After tearing off a piece of gift wrap, I folded it in half and traced my template onto it. I sewed the stocking about a quarter inch inside the lines I drew and cut it out.

I had never sewn paper before but it was easy. I did find it's best to use a little bit heavier paper. The really thin stuff doesn't sew very well. It's easier to sew the stocking outline first and cut later. That way the paper doesn't move when you cut out the stocking.

Once I had all my stockings sewn and cut out, I punched a little hole in the top and stamped initials on them. Insert gift, and tie with pretty string. And there you go. All wrapped up.

Merry Christmas, everyone!