These articles are from my weekly craft column in The Journal.

December 3rd - Shadow Box

Making Memories: A Christmas Shadow Box

 

As I bake my Christmas cake and the house fills with the scent of cinnamon; as I unwrap precious decorations made by little fingers decades ago; as I sing along to sentimental old Christmas songs – the memories come flooding back; jewel coloured snapshots studding the story of my life.

 

We’re all the same. We remember childhood Christmases full of wonder when it always snowed and we woke in darkness with the thrill of a lumpy stocking and the knowledge that He had been. The parents among us remember the exhaustion mixed with excitement as we rushed to fit together yet another pile of brightly coloured plastic until it resembled a much wanted toy. My children are grown now, and I have grandchildren. New memories are made every festive season and loved ones now lost are remembered with a smile and a tear as photos and mementoes are taken out of storage for the yuletide season.

 

Most of us have bits and pieces we can’t bear to throw away, left in a drawer. This week’s craft idea takes those memory-jogging fragments and makes them into a beautiful Christmas keepsake. Shadow boxes make great holiday decorations and are easy for children and adults alike to make. I like to use old photos, including photos of much loved relatives now no longer with us; bits of pretty but past-their-best decorations, old cards and scraps of wrapping paper. It’s a great way to re-use and recycle so it’s a green option too!

 

What is a shadow box?

A shadow box is like a deep picture frame.  The extra depth allows you to display mementos and multi-dimensional pieces that wouldn’t fit in a scrapbook.

Make your own ‘Christmas Past’ shadow box

You need:

An old Christmas biscuits of sweets tin (or buy one from this year and you have a great excuse to eat the contents!) I leave mine unfinished as I like the Christmassy pictures (and they will become vintage one day!!) but you could cover yours in paper if you prefer.

Wrapping paper – saved from last year or use offcuts of the paper you are wrapping presents with this year

Christmas cards – maybe some of those ‘meaningful’ ones you have saved in the junk drawer?

Copies of old photos

Fragments of Christmas decorations as you unpack the box of yearly treasures – there are always bits you put back in the box ‘to mend’

Stiff card

Black or ‘invisible’ thread

Felt

Sticky pads

Glitter gel pens

Your general craft kit:

PVA and/or hot glue gun

Scissors

Tape

Craft knife and cutting mat

Glue brush

What to do:

1.      Put your tin on its side and cut a piece of felt to fit the bottom edge of your tin. This will help it to stand securely on any surface. Glue the felt securely in place.

  I like to use old photos, including photos of much loved relatives now no longer with us; bits of pretty but past-their-best decorations, old cards and scraps of wrapping paper. It’s a great way to re-use and recycle so it’s a green option too!

2.      Line the inside of your tin. You can go down the route of cutting paper to fit and pasting it on like a mini-wallpapering job. You may prefer to paste clipped images one over another to make a decoupage effect. You could, of course create a combination of the two – experiment and see what suits you!

3.          You want to build up your shadow box in layers, so prepare all of your bits and pieces ready. Cut out photos (a craft knife is useful here to cut around figures etc.) I like to mount my pictures on card and add extra elements like wings etc.

 

4.      Cut a stiff card strip and fold it into a triangle that will be hidden behind your photo, when it is standing in the box. The size you need to cut depends on the size of photo you choose. Tape the triangle shut, and glue it to the back of your photo. Repeat for all photos you wish to include.

5.      Cut out elements of cards you want to include in your shadow box. Mount them on card, and add glitter accents with your gel pens.

6.      Hang a decoration to dangle into your shadow box by taping one end onto a piece of thread. Tape the other end of the thread to the ‘ceiling’ of your shadow box.

7.      Place precious mementoes in the box to suit. Move things around until you have an arrangement that pleases you.

Inspiration Flash: Why not make a set of shadow boxes that can be hung together to make a Nativity scene? This is a great family project – give each family member a different character or set of characters to make: Dads and lads can make the kings and camels; Nanna can make the lacy angel and mum and the girls can make a flock of fluffy sheep and their shepherds. Hang the boxes on the wall, or put them on a shelf. The great thing is you can add new pieces year by year until you have a collection worthy of a French santon complete with butcher, baker and candle stick maker! (might be good to have a web link here to show what santons are, such as   http://www.net-provence.com/en/santons.htm )

Lynn Huggins has written more than 300 books including many craft titles. She runs Celebrate the Seasons, a craft shop and community arts space in High Spen http://www.celebratetheseasons.co.uk . There are seasonal events, activity sessions and craft classes for everyone from toddlers to bus-pass holders!

Here are some interesting links to find out more:

http://victorian-frames.stores.yahoo.net/shadowboxes.html 

December 10th mulberry tealights

The Journal Crafty Ideas 10^th December

 

Mulberry Tea Lights

Christmas decorations wouldn’t be the same without some wonderful scented candles flickering on the mantelpiece. I like filling the house with the smell of cinnamon, pine and sweet cookie scents for an instant homely, Christmassy mood. This week’s crafty idea will help you to make some gorgeous festive candle holders that you can use every year. I’ll be making lots of these to line up between the holly, mistletoe and ivy on my Christmas table. Making your own means it’s easy to match your Christmas décor – whatever your theme! They are also thoughtful presents. Why not make one for each place setting and ask guests to take them home as a keepsake?

A few years ago, thanks to my friend Jay, I discovered mulberry paper – and once I realised what I could do with it, I was hooked! At any craft fair and in any shop selling lovely handmade items, you will see dishes, bowls and tea light holders decorated with mulberry tissue. They look great, but can be expensive – and they are so easy to make it’s something you can do with the kids to decorate the house.

Candle holders in particular look fabulous when they are decorated with mulberry tissue, as it makes a gorgeous luminous effect as the candle light glows through the fibres. You can even buy plain glass containers filled with a candle and decorate that for a really quick craft that makes a gorgeous hand -made gift.

Make your own mulberry tea light

You need:

Clear glass tea light holder

PVA glue

Brush

Mulberry tissue – make sure you buy mulberry tissue, not mulberry paper. The tissue is finer – hold it up to light and look to see if it is translucent – as the light passes through you should see the fibres that make up the paper. Mulberry paper is thicker and not so effective for this craft. You can choose tissue that contains glitter, metallic strands or botanical inclusions (leaves, petals etc.) to give an extra dimension to your project.

Any extras for decoration – scraps of ribbon, sequins etc.

Glitter glue – buy it from the kid’s craft section as it’s so much cheaper and you get big squirty bottles!

 

What to do:

1.      Tear the mulberry tissue into small pieces – don’t cut them. You need the ‘feathery’ edges of the torn paper for the tissue to cover the tea light well.

 

2.      Paint glue onto a patch of the tea light holder, and gently pat the pieces of paper onto the glue. Overlap the pieces so you cover all of the glass.

3.      Repeat this until the sides of the tea light holder are covered. Gently tear the straight ‘edge’ pieces of the paper to stick round the top of your tea light holder for a neat finish.

4.       Turn the holder upside down and cover the bottom.

 

5.       Coat the paper you have pasted onto the tea light holder in PVA glue – it dries clear, don’t worry! This helps to seal the paper and make it a more durable finish. Leave it to dry.

6.       Now comes the fun part! I coated my tea light holders with glitter glue for extra sparkle.

 

7.        Add some decorations. I added  a strip of spotty ribbon to the red holder, but I could have added a string of festive beads or small buttons. Have a look in your scrap box and see what you have. Little pictures cut from wrapping paper work well, glued onto the holder and coated once again with PVA to seal them.

 

Inspiration Flash

Mulberry tissue can be combined with other items to make really unique and meaningful pieces. I recently made some for a friend, pasting dried oak leaves from the stately home where she was married, onto a glass dish and then covering them with mulberry tissue as a lasting keepsake. You could use tickets from a special journey or event, scraps from a treasured but now crumbling children’s book or special drawings by your children – use your imagination! Buy cheap glass dishes at IKEA or similar shops, and just paste your treasures onto the back of the dish, facing upwards (so they are protected by the glass) before covering them with a layer of mulberry tissue.

More Crafty Ideas

Experiment with mulberry paper. I often buy cheap plastic ‘pound shop’ decorations and customise them by covering them with mulberry paper or tissue. It creates lovely ‘one of a kind’ pieces. This year I bought a pack of plastic conical Christmas trees for a pound and had great fun transforming them with mulberry paper, sequins, buttons and scraps clipped from wrapping paper. Hunt round your local cheapie shop and see what treasures you can find. A box of simple round baubles would look fantastic once they have been ‘mullberried’ – and it’s a great project to keep the kids happy for an afternoon in the holidays! 

December 17th

December 24th

December 31st

January 7th

Junk to Treasure!

The house looks a bit bare once the decorations have come down, and we start to notice all of the things we need to brighten up around the house. But January tends to be the time of year when money’s a bit short because we’ve splashed the cash a little too freely over Christmas…but at Celebrate the Seasons we have a solution! Being a great fan of reusing, repurposing and recycling, I’m always on the look-out for ways to turn old junk into treasure – and it’s a great way to fill your home with really individual, one-of – a – kind pieces.

This week we are going to look at decoupage furniture. It’s incredibly simply, yet fabulously effective – and means you can create pieces that reflect your own tastes and interests. It’s a great way to make even naff old mdf flat pack furniture look ‘designer.’ I started doing this craft years ago because I only had old furniture to work with – and it kind of stuck. I have used posters from rock gigs, photos, wrapping paper, Victorian scraps, dried flowers – if you like it; use it!

 

Basically, if you can cut things out and stick them to a surface, you can do this craft. It’s that simple.

Run through a checklist before selecting decoupage furniture.

·         Is it a good shape? Does it remind me of anything for a theme? (I bought a set of drawers as they had a beehive shape – and made them into a beehive complete with bees)

• Is the piece well-constructed and are the joints strong?
• Are there any broken bits – if so, are they easy to fix or hide?

You need:

Acrylic paint (optional)

Paintbrushes (large house paint brush and small paint brushes)

PVA glue (I use strong builders PVA for this)

Paper – wrapping paper, printed sheets, photocopies – whatever takes your fancy.

Small sharp scissors

Junk!

What to do:

1.      Having chosen your piece, sand it lightly. This is to make a ‘key’ so that paint and decorative effects stick. Wipe the surface clean to get rid of dust or debris.

2.      If you are going to paint your furniture and add pieces, paint the furniture first and add accent pictures later (see celestial coffee table).

3.      If you are covering the entire piece in clippings – get cutting! This is a job I like to do whilst having coffee with friends or watching a film. I also rope in my family to help – you need a LOT of images to cover a piece of furniture.

4.      If you are covering the whole piece of furniture with images, apply a thin layer of PVA in a working area (about the size of your palm) – then repeat until the piece is covered. If you are painting the piece, paint it and leave to dry – then put a layer of PVA on each cut out you add to the furniture.

5.      Gently smooth the pieces of glued paper with your fingers or a sponge (make up sponges are a good texture). Don’t use too much glue – it squishes out from under the edges and makes a mess. Wipe any excess away immediately.

6.      Keep building up layers of pictures, overlapping until the furniture is covered.

7.      Leave the piece to dry for a couple of days. Then start varnishing. I use yacht varnish as it has a good hard finish – this stops all of your hard work from getting chipped or scratched. Make sure the coats are completely dry before adding another. Be ready to varnish lots of layers (up to six for delicate pieces).

 

14th January
 

Pearl Stringing

Like so many other women, do you have a jewellery box full of pretty but snapped or broken necklaces? If so, this week’s craft is for you! I did a little bit of research online and found that the cost of re threading necklaces is around £2 per inch - around £20 a string! Now, I know how quickly and easily necklaces can be threaded, so I was cross. My mother worked as what she called ‘a pearl stringer’ for all of her working life. I learned my skills at her  knee - and she designed and made pearl jewellery for the royal family, including a lovely pearl choker for Princess Diana and numerous re-threads of pearls that had graced royal necks. Once ‘us kids’ came along she worked from home earning a pittance. I have enduring memories of her sitting with her feet in the huge paddling pool I had permanently in the garden with her tray on her lap as she 'pearled' in the summer. As a result, I grew up playing with amazingly expensive jewellery pieces and could spot good pearls at 20 paces from the age of about 3. She once even did an incredible job reweaving a Voodoo priest’s collar, I remember but she shrieked like a banshee when I went to touch it! In her 70s now, she is very keen that her skills should not die out and is always delighted when I tell her I’ve taught a ‘stringing’ class to a new group of folks!

What you need:

1. Beading wire – to make a threading needle.

2. Thread to fit the size of the holes (and colour) in your pearls/beads. You do not want your beads to slip about on the thread – it’s more likely to snap. But if the thread is too thick, it won’t go through the bead.

3. Your pearls or beads, plus two metal ‘seed beads’ in the same colour as your clasp (makes a neat finish)

4. Clasp

5. Sharp scissors –embroidery or surgical scissors.

6. Something to work on, to stop beads rolling. You can buy special beading trays but a rectangle of fine needle cord on a tray works just as well –cut down an old pair of trousers or skirt and get it for nothing!

7. Glue (I like brown ‘paper’ glue best) and a fine sewing needle to apply it.

What to do:

1.       Wash your hands – the natural oils on your fingers combine with the slightest bit of dirt to make your thread look grey – ew!

2.       Cut a length of thread 5 times the length of your necklace. Fold the thread in half, then in half again. This gives you a length longer than your necklace, four strands thick. If this is too thick to go through your beads, you can try double instead of quadruple thickness.

3.        Cut a piece of beading wire to make your needle. I used old fashioned coils of wire to make my needle by stretching and twisting the wire (come along to a workshop and I’ll show you!) but you can get just as good results with fine beading wire – as fine a gauge as you can.

4.       Put the thread through the bent arm of the ‘needle.’ Place the silk thread between the bent wire-needle. Your "needle" is now threaded, and you should have four strands of thread (two either side of the needle)

5.       Separate your clasp into its two pieces.

6.       Add one metal seed bead to your thread by pushing the needle through it and pushing it down the length of the thread. Be careful not to push it off the end!

7.       Add one part of your clasp. Again, push the needle through the loop on the clasp and push the clasp part until it is touching the bead.

8.       Loop the thread back on itself (back the way you came) and poke the needle back through the metal bead so the clasp piece is caught on the thread by a loop.

9.       Tie a knot with the loose ends so the bead and the clasp piece cannot come off the thread. Pop a tiny blob of glue on the knot and tie it again. Snip the loose ends back to the knot so you now have a piece of the clasp and a metal bead secured on the thread.

10.   Thread on all of your pearls/beads.

11.   When all of your pearls/beads are on the thread, add the second metal bead. Then add the second piece of the clasp.

12.   Push the needle pulling the thread back through the metal bead (back the way you came).

13.   Snip the needle of the threads and tie a knot. Add a tiny blob of glue and tie the knot again. When the glue is dry, snip as close to the knot as you can for a neat finish.