Handmade gifts/crafts
Eleonore Beaudoin
Time is short but surely there is a way for those who are lonely and have
time on their hands to create something....
Here are some ideas....
Wreaths. They can be made out of anything and do not need to be laborious.
Anything you can shape in a circle and glue on will do. From cardboard
plates you keep just the rim of to this old clock that does not work
anymore, that has this contour to it that you can wrap a ribbon around -or
stripes of an old shirt that you will not wear anymore, preferably with
XMas colors (green, red, or even white). If you have old decorations, you
can use parts of those to add to make it look more colorful. Gold and red
usually make it nice on their own.
Cards. Fold a piece of paper in four and make a drawing or write a wish on
the top part, or write a thought inside, and glue whatever on top. Rice
for sno on a b;lue background can work, and ideas can come once you start
that, too. Youc an use wrapping paper and cut shapes out of it to glue on
your card, too, making it xmassy right from there.
If you like to work wood: a chess board. Or a backgammon board.
Do you have old vynyl albums?
If you do and don;t care to keep them in working shape;-) :
find a pot that can go in the oven.No plastic handle on the pot. No lid
needed at all. Turn the pot upside down in the oven at max.
fter oven is warm, be careful to not burn yourself, but slide the vynyl
album over the pot., Make sure the pot is smaller in diameter than the 33
rpm old record.
Look inside and spot when it starts softening and falling on each side of
the pot. When all sides have softened, taking a flower shape of its own as
it softens, aroudn the pot, wearign oven mittens, get the record out. You
have a few seconds only to correct any shape. But don't sweat it out: the
album tends to take its own perfect wavy shape and form a bowl wiht nicely
waved sides. You can offer that flower pot covers. Trust me they look
neat one waved that way by the ehat. BTW, all scartches will disapear, so
you can use an old scartched one and it will look brand new once "melted"
that way. You do not melt it, you just let its side sioften and fall on
the sides of the upside down pot in the oven anyway.
Tjhis can also serve as soemthign to emty pockets into on a dresser,
table, etc, and can be a nice small fruit bowl or candy bowl. The shape
intrigues poeple and they usually comment a lot on it.
If youw ant more elaborate: the hole in the centre of them old records can
have a metal pin you buy for the rigth size inserted in the middle. Add
more records and make a sort of lazy suzan, putting a "nut" (english?)
and washer at each level you want to have each basket/record. Thos can fit
over counters and up to ceiling, and be great space savers. Again, poepe
usually like the idea, havign seen not much doen with old records
Buy a cheap clock with hands.
Remove the real clock, and use the mechanism to put behind a vinyl record,
picking one of a band you knwo soemone to love particularly. Of cours,e
before doing this with the album, make sure your friend does nt colelct
old vinyls from that group, less you want to eat it at XMas dinne)
Angels:
If you have pine cones, see if you can get plastic plants with leaves.
The idea is to glue the leaves beind the cone in a way to make them form
wings. Forget the color for now. Use a styrofoam small ball or a ball made
of tin foil for the head. Optional is to use pipe cleaners as arms tied at
the cone, and the ring over the head glues at one spot behind the top of
head, at the back, and let the front float over the head.
Use spray paint you have to make it all one same color. You can tie a thin
ribbon or string before spraying, to be used to suspend in a tree.
Od scratched XMas balls:
Handle carefully, you donlt want any of that borken stuff in your skin.
But to revamp them: dip a square of lace, strong enough, not too
delicate (curtains lace is fine, cut fro an old curtain) larger than the
ball in water and flour, so it glues. Let dry. You can tie it in the shape
you want at the top tpo hide the hook area if dammaged/paint off. let dry,
then spray paint. Lace will be same color as ball, but will mae a nice
decoration to each ball. Does not have to be lace either. If you have
string, lie butcher string, and if your old XMas balls have tips at the
top and bottom you can use to gnetly twir some string aroudn to make some
design, do so. Then spray paint.
What do you call those things to put under glasses or cups to not elave a
mark on a table? Whatever it is called in English, *those*.
Got old plastic placemats?
Cut them in the shape you want. Round by tracing the circle waround a
round pbject a bit larger than a cup, or any other shape you;d want (eg:
hegagonal). Use anythign you can think of tryign to make a sort of lip
around it, not too high. It can be a ring made of the same plastic glued
on top, or XMas ribbon, twisted and glued to keep the twists in shape.
Note that not all glue works on that sort of plastic. But if a glue gun,
will work to hold it good enough to offer and use as decoration at least
that XMas season. Does not have to be made to last a lifetime, youc an
come up wiht new ideas the year after.
Super cheap: rings for table serviettes: got any speare shower rod rings,
those used to suspend your shower curtain?
Donlt worry about the opening. You can either make a tube of red and white
material or use ribbon, anything at all to cover it and make it a bit
fluffier, bigger in apearance than the thing ring.
The opening can be used to insert cards to designate guests place, i.e.
their first name on a card inserted in the opening of the rings, that do
not look like sower rings at all once done.
Got an old frame?
Forget what to put in it. Let the people you give it to decide.
Use ribbon to wrap around the frame and cover it.Does not even have to be
XMas colors, of course, cause one can use those all year round.
Got some extra flower vases ir bottles even that you do not use?
There is paint sold that is "plastic paint" here youc an dip those in the
paint only half to the top, say, or one qyuarter, it is your creation you
chose, but best to not put it all covered, and leave at least half ogf the
glass as see throug glass. If they do not match, you still can offer a
sort of set by dipping them all in a same sort of manner and color.
Once you dipped the botton part, you can turn the vase or bottle upside
down to let the paint "drip" makign its own shape towards the top of the
upside down vase or bottle. That s where trying to dip them all either at
half or 1/3 will make a difference: the more paint, the more it drips, and
the quantiy of drip si actually what makes it become a set.
You cna also do that with a simple metl can, like a vegie can washed and
dried and entirely painted and dipped and dripped from tat plastic paint.
This way nothign can cut anyone. Be carefu to not cut your own self as you
handle it though.
Once dried, you can add anything to it to make a nice decoration.
It can be a pencil/pen holder, or even serve as a sor of stand for a glass
on a patio table in summer: it can keep kool or warm longer than
nothing, if not as good as thermos, better than the glass sitting on its
own on a table.
Anyone else got ideas?
Anyone doing any handmade presents for XMas this year?