File It Under: Where to Find This Next Winter

It's a good, good life.  It's a wonderful life.  It's also become a life where I'm generally two steps behind!  Ah well.  I can work with that, I suppose.  (I'm loaded with tricks.)

Our local art museum features a monthly Crafternoon for families.  It's exceedingly well done -- three craft projects that are interesting to do AND to have around the house afterwards, as well as being manageable for little ones and also engaging for adults.  It's very inexpensive, and, honestly, gathering the supplies for and executing three projects at home would cost more on my own (and I really love crafting with my kids!).  December's projects were beaded snowflakes, felt wreaths, and paper ornaments.  I had just a minute to learn to make the ornament, but I was so captivated by it that I made myself a tutorial for next year!

 Fold an origami square in half diagonally.

 Fold it in half again, forming a triangle.

 Hold the triangle so that the bottom edge could open.

 With the triangle closed flat,

make at least three cuts.

DO NOT cut all the way across.

Try to leave the same margin at edge for each cut.

 When you open your paper, 

it should look like this.

 Using double-stick tape,

roll in the innermost two flaps.

Because it's tiny, I use a pencil or the scissor tips

to help me make them stick together.

 Now, TURN IT OVER.

Repeat with the second set of flaps.

 TURN IT OVER AGAIN.

Repeat.

 Turn it over again. 

Repeat until all flaps are matched with corresponding flaps.

 Punch a hole & string it.

Beautiful for hanging in arrangements in windows.

Sela experimented with making more cuts.

 I experimented with making a star.

I cut two pieces of origami paper into 4 squares each.

(You need only 6 of the squares.)

I made 6 ornaments, 

and using double-stick tape at the bottom tips

put together two sets of 3.

With more double-stick tape,

I combined the two sets.

This one is small enough to hang 

with the Christmas cards or from the mantle.

Sela made one with regular origami paper

that is large and looks beautiful hanging in the window.

They have an wondrous way of feeling as though

they bring in light.

So lovely in these winter months!

(Happy Winter, You, and Merry Christmas 2015, Me!)

Crafting Together

This year we made rolled beeswax candles to give as gifts, and it might just be the most fun-to-make gift we've ever done.  It's not original.  It's not elaborate.  But, (and I hope our loved ones think so, too) I think they are a classic beauty.  The icing on the cake was how lovely and truly relaxing it was to make them together.  I'll go back to this project again and again.  (And also, back to the bee keeping supply store where we bought the sheets of beeswax.  We have our eye on supplies to make lip balms next time.  And molded candles after that.  And then we'll see what else strikes our fancy!)

Linus will demonstrate the process, in the spirit of a remarkably family-friendly project.

 We opted for two tapers per sheet, 
so we measured it and found the halfway point,

scoring with a butter knife at the top and bottom edges.

 Using our marks at the top and bottom,

we used a straight edge to score a complete line.

No need to saw, just press it into the wax.

Then, pick up the wax sheet and bend it.

It will break into two pieces.

 Lay the wick along the edge and trim to size.

 Press the wick along the edge to keep it in place.

Curl up the edge so that it covers the wick.

Then, roll, roll, roll.

 Press the seam from top to bottom to seal it.

I just love them!  Thanks, Linus <3

Need to Get Away?

Made by friends, this beautiful origami ornament inspired us to share it with our book club.  We fancied it looked like a whimsical hot air balloon, transporting us over oceans and continents, just as it did Professor William Waterman Sherman and his fellow Krakatoans in The Twenty-One Balloons.

 Follow the simple directions for a waterbomb base.

Then complete your balloon.

(This site has clear and easy directions for so many kid friendly projects.)

 Thread your needle with embroidery floss.  

Be sure the eye of the needle will pass through the beads you'll be using.

Tie a bell onto the end of the floss (where you would normally knot it).

 String beads.

   Add your balloon by inserting the needle through the blowing hole 

and pushing it through to the other side.

  String more beads.

Tie it off by creating a loop, for hanging.

Bon Voyage!

Cookie Building

 

The Christmas season just wouldn't be quite the same without our gingerbread creations. 

 

We tried some new things this year, and as you can see, we needed to be sure we had a nice, sturdy icing for it...

 

I found a fantastic recipe on about.com --

Beat together on high for 7-10 minutes: 1 lb. confectioner's sugar, 3 egg whites & 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar.

 

We use sealable plastic bags with a tiny bit of the corner snipped off as pastry bags.

Can you spot Santa Bear on the roof?
Teddy Bears sledding?
Bears caroling around the Christmas tree?

 

Away in a Gingerbread



To get all these cookies to stand up, I made paper templates for stands.  Using the cookie cutter height as my guide, I cut triangles and labeled them.  Some templates could be used for multiple cookies.  People got one stand each, animals got two.

I got better & better at it as I went along.  This was the winning combination -- so fast & easy once I figured it out!

 

Hold your cookie in the correct spot & pipe a line of icing where the base of the stands will go.   

Remove the cookie and pipe icing where stands will touch the back of the cookie, as well as on the bottom of the cookie, where it will touch your plate.

Place your cookie in front of the piped lines on your plate.

Place a plain, uniced stand on the plate & against the cookie.

Repeat with the second stand.

 

Voila!

This icing recipe made it very sturdy once it dried.

It's definitely the one we'll use next year.

(And, now I'll know where to find it, too.  My gift from me, to me.)

Happy creating!

A Griswald's Christmas Tree

I learned something new this Christmas.  I didn't really want to learn it at the particular moment I learned it, but...

We went to the mountains and chose our tree.  We cut our tree, strapped it to the top of the car, stopped for a warm, cozy dinner on the way home.  Lovely.  (Did I mention there was a tree farm pie shop involved?)

Tree goes in the stand, DH goes out to buy new lights (another story altogether, but that's for another day), I put the lights on the tree.  I run out of lights.  I send DH out for more lights.  At this point, I'm in it too deep to turn back, but wonder if I should really have 1400 lights on the tree.  Well, I've made my bed and now I'm going to have to lie in it.  We do love how the tree looks after it's finished.

We drag out the ornament box, kids are giddy to get their hands on the ornaments and start decorating(fairly spazzy, to be completely honest). Sela plugs in the cord... GASP!  OOOO!  AAAAAH!  And then... total darkness.  Silence.

I want to dissolve into a puddle.  Or run from the room.  But, my sweet little ones have been waiting, waiting.  I have no choice but to solve the mystery of why the lights went out and fix it.

Did you catch the clue?  I said Sela plugged in "THE" cord.  Now I'm remembering something about "you're not supposed to connect too many light strands together."  Hmmm.  So, probably 8 is too many?  I'm remembering "fuses." Something about changing blown fuses.  Good thing I have always compulsively saved all those tiny fuses even though I never had any intention of dealing with them.

Turns out, it's so easy.  So, a gift from me to you this season: How to Change a Fuse, or How to Avoid the Griswalds' Christmas at Your House.

I went to the source of all current know-how and found a YouTube clip on the subject.

How to get the tiny fuse box open?! It slides DOWN.

Pop out the fuse with your tiny screwdriver.

Press the new fuse in with the flat side of your tiny screwdriver.

So, save your fuses and bulbs, people. Get yourself a cute little box & locate your tiny screwdriver. Keep them handy, and you'll be set for the light mishaps.  (Oh, and maybe pick up a few extension cords.)

Sela & Linus's Egg-sellent Adventure

What to do with eggs?
Here's where we started...

I got Linus set up.

Dry pinto beans & plastic eggs

Jellybean Pouches

And then Sela & I worked on these.  I found this idea from Small Wonders at The Crafty Crow.  We changed the pattern a bit, so we enjoyed creating our own tutorial.

Trace your egg shape. 

We used the inside of a cookie cutter to get the size we wanted.

Cut out three.

 

For the Bottom ("B"), cut off the top third of an egg.

For the Top ("T"), cut off LESS THAN two-thirds of another egg. 

"T" should overlap "B" when both are stacked and sewn on the whole egg.

 

Use a whipstitch to sew "B" onto the whole egg.

 Add "T" and continue to whipstitch.

Fill with treats!

This one is for the Easter Bunny. 
Santa gets cookies, she should get something, too.

Linus's adventure evolved this way.

 

We eventually made our way to our book stack and enjoyed these together:

The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown,

Max's Chocolate Chicken by Rosemary Wells &

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Dubose Heyward.