Well, hello November! I love the start of a new month- full of possibilities and a relatively clean calendar. I love it also, because it leads into Christmas. And my favourite part of Christmas is the getting ready bit. You know- all the wrapping, and card writing (yes, I still do that- someone has to preserve the one time a year you get to find fun stuff in the mailbox rather than the usual stack of flyers and bills), baking (Laverne and Shirley, aka. my sister Renata and I, do it up big in a blaze of masochistic glory... really the one time a year we bake.), and the crafts!
I also used to like the craft fairs. But this year is different. Today my aunt, my sis and I ventured to a local craft fair that I always go to. As I walked around I felt like I was in the movie Groundhog Day. You know, with Bill Murray? The one where each scene is more or less a repeat of the last, as he lives the day over and over again. As I looked at the tables, there was the SAME OLD stuff. Nothing new. Nothing terribly creative. My sister and I walked up and down the aisles realizing just how many crafts we've done over the years with our mum, and how little is new on the craft fair circuit. That's not to say there was nothing of interest there. I'm always in love with wood turning and pottery- as I could never do those things myself. And I'm also in love with the one gem of a knitter who produces beautiful sweaters and kids items that are artfully done with creativity and attention to detail. This year it was a lovely elderly European lady who did gorgeous sweaters and mittens. She'd even made sure she kept up with the times and had a selection of "texting mittens" (mittens with a tipless thumb and no fingers so you can still work your texting magic while staying warm. Funny that those looked more Dickensian than modern. But her stuff was beautiful. But in between was row upon row of run of the mill, outdated but likely fashionable once in the 80's crafts. Many created out of pre-purchased pom poms and googly eyes. I'm not paying for anything made out of pre-purchased pom-poms. I'll spare you the unedited soap-box style rant that I subject poor Renata and Auntie Cathy to in the car (it was far from being appropriate for mixed company), and I'll give you the Reader's Digest version. Pom-poms and googly eyes on a craft made by a child 10 years or younger- brilliant. Pom-poms and googly eyes on a craft made for purchase by a self-respecting adult- lacking in artistic merit. Basically I decided that I'm going to go on a craft fair hiatus.
So, what to do when frustrated by pop-pom googly eye crafts? Go home and pull out the pom-poms and googly eyes. Cut me some slack, this craft was to be done by children- 5 and under to be specific, so don't go accusing me of hypocrisy. Rewind to last year. The boys and I tried out a project that I found in Family Fun magazine. My favourite. Those Disney-owned geniuses transformed plastic bottles into adorable little snowmen with decoupage glue and tissue paper. Check out the original project here: http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/the-a-bottle-able-snowmen-1030092/. My issue with this was that we don't use anything in plastic bottles. So we used glass jars instead and they turned out super cute.
The beauty about these is that a monkey can make them. Perfect. Because I've got two of those! Little hands can easily take a make up sponge and smear Mod Podge on the glass, and smooth down a piece of tissue on top. With a bit of guidance they can make sure there are no holes and spaces too. It is easy enough for them to place on the eyes, and cover the lids for the hats. But this project is not without its flaws. First of all, battery powered anything is a pain the butt. Battery powered tea lights are no exception. They are more or less bits of useless junk. But if you want a hat, there is not enough air for a real candle. So you deal with dollar store junk breaking every year. Meh. It's all in the name of crafts. The other part that is a pain to do, is the nose. It isn't that easy to fashion a carrot (3D) out of tissue paper. If I were to do these ones again I would use Fimo or even Play dough for the nose. But all in all, a good project for wee hands- they really can accomplish a lot of the steps on this one.
This year I came across snowmen made from milk jugs on Pinterest. Adorable and easy peasy lemon squeezy for wee ones. Here's what they look like:
http://www.freefunchristmas.com/handmade-christmas-gifts/snowman-milk-jugs/. Nosey butt-in-ski that I am, I couldn't leave well enough alone. First of all, I didn't like having to use Christmas lights in them due to the plastic factor again. Second of all, I tried to peel the labels off of milk jugs for an easy Halloween project this year- the verdict: an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back. Besides, albeit cute, these suckers don't require much doing, and the doing that they do require (cutting of shapes), my three year old couldn't do successfully. So we decided to take this style of snowman head, and last year's fun craft which both boys thought was a good time, and we melded the two. Here's what we did:
Materials:
- Mod Podge or any other decoupage medium (actually, 50% white glue and 50% water does the trick fine if you don't want to buy the other)
- Sponge make-up wedges
- Glass jar (we used Salsa jars)
- gulp.... Pom-poms (2 inch ones any colour)
- double gulp... googly eyes
- Orange and black felt
- White glue
- Glue gun
- Metallic pipe cleaner
- Tea light
Ok. Granted. They do involve googly eyes and pom-poms. But they produced two very happy little boys. And the best part, no lid- they can use real tea-lights. You can tell from the photos how much better the real thing looks. My intent this year was to make the same project, but orange for Halloween. Certainly these could easily be made jack-o-lanterns instead. But we'll see next year how keen we are to repeat the same sort of thing.
Maybe try this one out yourself with your own little monkeys... what will yours look like? I'm curious!
Happy trails!
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