Holiday Crafts

One of Joss’s favorite things is Christmas crafts. I don’t know why, but throughout the year, he’s repeatedly asked to do “Christmas crafts.” Paper snowflakes are always a hit. I’m not typically in the mood to do holiday crafts until close to December, but what do I know? This year, I got inspired over Thanksgiving Break, thanks in large part to @andrea.nelson.art on Instagram. She is always sharing art ideas that look do-able, and is currently doing a series of easy holiday crafts.

So here’s what I’ve tried so far.

1. Two Ornament Ideas

“Pour-Paint” Ornaments

This first one came from Betty Casey, for a previous issue of TulsaKids Magazine. (tulsakids.com/homemade-christmas-ornaments-to-give-and-keep/) Click that link for instructions, but I can confirm that it was an easy, fun craft. And now I have several ornaments to give as gifts!

Snowman Ornaments

Since I bought a large container of these clear, round ornaments at Michael’s, I had the opportunity to do a few different things with them! And…I still have more ornaments, so please share your own ideas in the comments!

For this one, all you need is the ornaments, cotton balls, googly eyes felt and fabric markers. Start by stuffing the ornament full of cotton balls. This was Joss’s favorite part. He tried to stuff in as many as possible, which was a little overboard. Stick on your googly eyes. Next, decorate your snowman using fabric paint! We also tried a couple with paint pens. Either works. Once the paint has dried (leave it overnight), cut a strip of felt and glue it to the bottom of the ornament like a scarf. Hot glue worked nicely. Ta-da!

For either of these, attach a colorful ribbon to finish it off, if you like.

2. Potato Stamping

This idea and the next both came from @andrea.nelson.art (watch her video at instagram.com/p/Ck1oZ4XteNe/), although of course potato stamping has been around forever! I hadn’t really tried it though.

First, stick a cookie cutter into a potato (make sure the spud will be large enough!). Cut around it to create your stamp. You could also cut it into random shapes.

Dip your potato stamp into acrylic paint, and stamp it onto a plan white napkin or tea towel. Sadly, I couldn’t find any plain tea towels, but Reasor’s had some napkins that did the job.

Make sure you’re not stamping onto anything too important – cover your surface with newspaper or something. We accidentally ended up painting our back porch!

Use fabric paint to decorate the napkin/towel with additional details, if you like. I think I over-complicated this design, but I was having fun, so it’s okay.

3. Painted Wooden Spoons

This idea also came from @andrea.nelson.art (original video at instagram.com/p/Cky_WPcsrpF/). Her idea was to pair it with the potato-stamped towels as a nice gift package.

Basically, you just paint a base coat of acrylic paint 3/4 of the way down a flat-handled wooden spoon. And then decorate it by adding acrylic paint thumbprints on top of the base color, in a variety of colors. It sounds so easy, but for some reason mine didn’t turn out NEARLY as cute. Sigh. But Joss got into this craft, so overall it was a success.

We mixed the thumbprints up with lines and more abstract designs.

Once your paint has finished drying, coat it with dishwasher-safe Modge Podge, and let set. I failed to note the “dishwasher-safe” bit, so ended up making a return trip to Michael’s the following weekend. Ugh!

This blue bottle is the Modge Podge you’re looking for.

4. Ginger-Orange-Bourbon Cookies

I know baking isn’t really a craft, but just wanted to share a delicious new cookie I made! These are going into mason jars for neighbors. I started with this recipe by Jane’s Patisserie: janespatisserie.com/2020/11/21/gingerbread-nyc-cookies/ 

The cookies are spiced with ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg, plus white chocolate chips. To this recipe, I added the zest of one orange and about two teaspoons of Bourbon. These flavor additions were inspired by a cookie Queenies was selling the other day, that I tried to buy – but they’d already sold out!  Anyway, the end product was delicious, and I’ll definitely make these again someday.

What have you been creating this month?