CREATIVE CRAFTING

Gift jars are gifts that are not only fun to make but fun to give. They are inexpensive to make but given with a lot of love and care.

So to start the holiday season off right I am offering a free giveaway. All you have to do is click on the link below and download ideas for different gift jars. Over the coming weeks I will be looking for other gift ideas for you to make this holiday season and will be sure to pass them on.

Happy Holidays!

****Holiday Gift Jars****

The Penguins are ready for the holidays. Are you? I have started making small Christmas Ornaments for friends, neighbors, and anyone who happens to be passing by the house. This is a very easy project to make and takes very little time.

The individual penguins are made up of one black ball approximately 1″ in diameter with a white ball sitting on top that is about 3/4″ in diameter. The eyes are no more than a 1/8 inch ball of white clay with a black dot painted on after baking. As for the hats…make a cone out of any color you want and fit it to the heads. And don’t forget the beak…orange 1/8″ ball worked for me.

I used blue metallic for the base and made it so that both penguins could sit on it comfortably. The tree was made with a 1/2 ball of green clay shaped into a cone and textured to resemble branches..then I rolled the tree in different color small glass beads.

The sign can be a little more advanced for the beginner, but still easy to do. Get some liquid Sculpey. On transfer paper print the greeting you want the penguins hold up. Take your liquid Sculpey and put an even coat on the transfer, place it up side down on a tile and bake. Once cooled remove the paper backing and place the greeting on a very thing sheet of clay…color of your choosing. Use a small amount of liquid Sculpey to the transfer to have it adhere to the little sign. Sometimes this will take some practice and you might have to do it a couple of times if you have never done it. Be patient as Liquid Sculpey is going to become your next best friend.

Nothing warms up a home during the holidays than candles.  Something about the warm glow and fragrance that makes one feel relaxed and content after a busy day of shopping or getting home from work.

Using small winter squash as molds creates graceful shapes for these candles, and they can be made at home quite easily. Choose various colors of tablets to represent the range of harvest tones.

Materials and Tools:

• acorn and hubbard squash (and others, if available)
• beeswax or regular paraffin candle wax (allow about 1/2 lb. for each candle)
• yellow, orange, coral and/or purple wax color tablets
• candle wicks
• wick tips
• melon baller
• double boiler

Steps:

1. Cut off the tops of the squash and hollow out the insides. (For hubbard squash, scrape out the seeds with a large spoon. For acorn squash, use the melon baller to scoop out the flesh, following the natural grooves of the squash, making the grooves as deep as possible, and smoothing them with the back of a spoon.)

2. Melt the wax in the top part of the double boiler over–not in–boiling water.

3. As the wax melts, add color tablets. If you want to make different colored candles, melt the wax in batches, adding various color tablets each time.

4. Meanwhile, cut lengths of wick a few inches longer than the squash are tall. Attach the wick tabs to the wicks.

Polymer clay can be used in a wide variety of craft projects. Use polymer clay to make embellishments for scrapbooking projects, elements for jewelry making, miniature items for dollhouses, toppers for handmade cards and a wide range of other items.

Unlike other clay mediums, polymer clay requires very little in the way of special tools and most people will have the basics at home. Once you have progressed past the basics then one or two additional tools are worth purchasing. One of these is a pasta machine. A standard domestic pasta machine is suitable. You do not have to purchase anything fancy.

As a polymer clay tool a pasta machine will prove to be very useful and can be used in a variety of ways. Condition polymer clay, roll even, flat sheets of polymer clay, different decorative polymer clay techniques can all be obtained through the use of a pasta machine.

Polymer clay fed through the pasta machine squeezes the clay between two rollers and produces a flat sheet. Pasta makers can be adjusted to bring the rollers closer together or move them further apart thereby allowing you to control the thickness of your sheets.

The ways that a pasta machine can be used include:

• Conditioning polymer clay – The action of running the polymer clay through the pasta machine several times produces more pliable polymer clay. Start by working the clay through the largest setting on the rollers as the clay becomes fully conditioned you can adjust the setting to a smaller width.

This shadow box decoration is a wonderful holiday craft for the whole family.  It is easier than you might think and a wonderful keepsake.

Use small ornaments and Christmas figures to make a Christmas scene, with shifting snow, in a shadow box. This would be a nice activity to do with your children – let them play with the figures until they create a pleasing arrangement, then help them to glue everything in place.

You Will Need

• shadow box – at least 1½ inches deep (available at craft stores or dollar stores)
• assorted Christmas figures and small decorations
• optional: alphabet blocks
• strong craft glue or glue gun and glue sticks
• crystal snow or fine artificial snow

Project Instructions:

Remove the back of the shadow box and set aside.

Collect an assortment of Christmas figures and decorations and, working from the back, start to play with different arrangements until you create a Christmas scene that you like when seen from the front.

Begin gluing in the various pieces. If you’re using alpabet blocks, as we did, make sure they either sit firmly against the glass, or have enough clearance to prevent fake snow from getting trapped in front of them. Some possible short letter combinations for the alphabet blocks include NOEL, XMAS, SNOW, ANGEL or JOY.

Make sure all the pieces are glued in firmly; you don’t want them coming adrift after the shadow box is filled with snow and assembled. Let the glue dry.

With the holidays almost coming up faster than some of us would like it is time to start thinking of ways to wrap our gifts.  Gifts should be presented to be one of a kind and a good way to do this is by using unique, personalized gift bags.

Gift bags do not have to be generic store bought items.  But should reflect your tastes and that of the person to whom you are giving the gift.  For that reason I suggest you dig out your scrapbooking papers, embellishments and other doo-dads and get to work having some fun and making personalized gift bags!

The Basics

Begin with simple, plain gift bags I have found that if I use a plain bag such as tan-colored I get better results. These plain gift bags come in a variety of colors and can be found at any craft store and even some scrapbooking stores. Once your bag is complete, stuff in some matching tissue paper to give your bag an extra burst of color!

Here are some ideas for different individuals in your life! Since I haven’t started mine yet I borrowed some ideas from Kayla Richards Filip at Scrapbook.com.

For Teachers

• school-themed patterned paper
• black-and-white dotted grosgrain ribbon
• assorted buttons
• red organdy ribbon
• plain #2 pencil

You may come across with various definitions of what a scrapbook is. And you may even have set one for yourself. But you see, of all those meanings associated with scrapbooks, there will always be one thing central to it- keeping memories.

Just like photos, scrapbooks are keepers of precious moments that you would always want to return back to. The moments that you have captured in photos and the moments of your creativity, deeply embedded in every page, note, captions and journals in your scrapbook.

One day, you’ll take a look at the scrapbooks you have created and they will deliver you back in time.

Not all of us are avid scrapbookers. Many may not even have tried starting one. However, we all have an idea of how to preserve our past. Well, scrapbooking is like that, only you would have to add up some creativity and art concepts into it.

The hardest junction might be to start from scratch. Scrapbooking may look simple for some yet the hours and the ideas you have to invest on them are so enormous that many find themselves initially frustrated. Or possibly, on wits end before an idea crops up.

We have prepared some guidelines in here that you may modify and apply in your own experiences. Basically, this is just a collection of ideas that will help shed light on the thoughts bugging in your mind.

Somehow you have to know your own style.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that my children were young. I was never a skilled crafter but what I like to call a “crafter wanna be”. In a lot of respects I am still not a skilled crafter. So what does this have to do with the subject at hand? Let me explain.

Some parents are skilled crafters. Others are doing well to cut paper in a reasonably straight line. No matter which group you fall into, crafting with your kids can be beneficial for all involved.

Few things bring families together like crafting. Here are some of the good things that come out of crafting with your kids.

• Crafting builds creativity. Developing minds need a creative outlet, and crafting provides the opportunity for kids to use their imaginations. It helps them learn to solve problems, and it could lay the groundwork for a lifetime of interest in art. For parents, getting creative can help reduce stress and promote using the brain in ways that we don’t have a reason to use it every day.

• * Crafting teaches kids to follow directions. This seems like a very basic skill, but we all know adults who can’t seem to follow directions. When kids craft, they learn the consequences of not following directions when their projects do not turn out as expected. This instills in them the importance of doing things the right way the first time.