Creativity in your Holiday Shopping

From what I am seeing online and when I venture into craft and fabric stores, people are making more things during this pandemic.. So I was reminded of something I posted a couple of years ago about adding a little creativity to your Christmas shopping.  You never know what you may start.

 

What do I mean by creativity?  I mean make sure you buy someone you love some art supplies, craft supplies, or a craft kit or two.  You never know what life long love you will start in a young child or help someone older continue to enjoy a lifelong love.  You might even help a future artist or quilter end up in and international exhibit.

 

There are all kinds of activities out there from model airplanes and cars to assemble to adult coloring books.  The other day I saw a kit to paint a set of nesting dolls (I almost bought it for myself).  There are looms of every kind and step by step books to do all kinds of needlework.  And of course you could provide the supplies for one of the crafts I have done a tutorial on and show them this blog.

 

And also consider a gift of music or dance.  Either provide some future performer with lessons or an instrument or take them to a holiday concert or ballet.  I bet there is a Nutcracker Ballet going on somewhere near your hometown this time of year. Going to a performance is a memory both of you can share.  I still remember going to a simple children’s Christmas concert at a local junior high with my mother when I was visiting her one holiday.

 

So add a little creativity to your holiday shopping by giving a gift of creativity in whatever form your heart desires. You can never give too much. Happy Shopping!!

 

©2017, 2018, 2020 - Cheryl Fillion

Using Hands in Kid’s Crafts

 I  have been trying to think of a Thanksgiving craft to do this year when I remembered this blog post and thought for the holiday it would be fun to repost this.

Do you remember making a hand print turkey in grade school?  Have you of creating other things using a hand print.  I’m seeing a lot of crafts with hand prints.

My favorite is the turkey. I liked as a child using my hand as part of the design. It made my turkey more personal.  Although then I probably thought it was just fun and silly.

If you place your hand print with the fingers upward, you can make all kinds of birds.  Another good one for the hand print is a peacock.   The fingers are great as the feathers and the thumb can be the head with the palm as the body.

If you place your hand print with the fingers downward, the fingers can be the legs of some four legged animals with the thumb either as the head or the tail or as in an elephant the trunk.  

If you close your fingers a bit, the hand can be a fish or with some additions, a rocket.

                          

Go ahead ad trace your child’s hand (or yours if you want to have some childhood fun) on paper and see what the child can come up with. 

©2017, 2020 Cheryl Fillion

Yoyo Ornament

 

Every year since I was a teenager, I have made an ornament for family and friends at Christmas time.  If you line all my ornaments up you can see the history of my crafting.

 

This year I have been making a lot of fabric yoyos.  It is an easy and for me relaxing craft to do when I am anxious and 2020 haws certainly made a lot of us anxious.

 

A while back. exactly when and by who I don’t know, I was given a piece of polyester fabric that had an unusual red and white design on it.   It was hard to use it in a quilt since it was polyester.  ut it would work with yoyos. 

 

 

 

The nice thing about yoyos is you can use any type of fabric not just cotton.  You can use a sheer fabric or heavy denim.  The yoyos will look a little different with each type of fabric and it is not good to use different types of fabric together but you can use it.

 

So since the fabric was red and white, I thought a yoyo candy cane might look nice. So I started cutting out circles.  I figured I would need 8 yoyos for each ornament (and I need about 20 ornaments this year).  I wanted a small ornament so my circle was about 1 ¾ inch in diameter which would end up with a finished yoyo of about

 

           

 

 

 

To make a cane shape I needed to line up 5 yoyos up straight on one side then have one slight to the left in the center and then two more under that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is how I sewed them and then added a thread loop sewn through the top yoyo and the ornament was done.

 

 

 

©2020 Cheryl Fillion