‘Tis the Season: The Crafty Edition

By Jola Naibi on December 17, 2016

The Christmas season is my absolutely favorite time of the year for a number of reasons. This is the first in a series of posts in which I will share what I get up to during this time of the year. So this edition, is a little crafty and I have titled it the crafty edition. I got bitten by the crafting bug a couple of years ago, so you can say I am relatively a newbie. I only just got my first glue gun – a must-have tool for most crafty people out there – so that is saying a lot. I think I have threaded very lightly into the crafting world because I do not myself to be creatively good with my hands but I have actually stunned myself with some of the things I have come up with and now I tend to wander around the boards on Pinterest on the quest for something creatively new and inspiring. Side note: Pinterest is also a great place to get the best quotes.

Here I share three crafts that I have tried this season: one that I have nicknamed Doily Dazzle, then two that I discovered on Pinterest: the Illuminated Snow Scene in a Jar and the Snowman Mason Jar Luminary Ornament.

Doily Dazzle:

This first Christmas craft was introduced to me very casually by my child’s fourth grade teacher and it has been my go-to Christmas craft for the last two years. I don’t know the origin and I have dubbed it ‘Doily Dazzle’. It is simple to make, brilliantly elegant and a great Christmas gift.

You will need the following items

Cloth Doily – For those in the U.S. you can get these for about $1.50 at Michael’s.

Everything else (except for the ribbon) I got for this, was from the Dollar Tree

Christmas Lights (5 feet or less, anything longer than that will be cumbersome) – Depending on what you find, there are some that are battery-operated but the results may be different if you decide to use the battery-operated one and I will tell you why shortly

Vase with serrated top. I have not tried this with a vase with a smooth top, so it will be interesting to see the result if someone else tries it.
Potpourri – I have used red or brown ones
Ribbon – When I first did this, I used paper ribbons but I realize that I can get better results with a cloth ribbon. I have a collection of cloth ribbons that I get on sale from Michael’s or AC Moore. If you want to get creative, you can make your own ribbon from any fabric of your choice.
Rubber band

Here is what you do: Stretch out the Christmas lights and place them in vase, depending on which kind you get, make sure the plug or battery base is out of the vase.

Then, pour the potpourri over it, enough to cover it up.

Next , place the doily over the top of the vase and use a rubber band to tightly hold it in place. You can then tie your ribbon around it.

In terms of the results, if you use the Christmas lights that you plug into the wall, they heat up the potpourri and make any room you place this in smell delightful. I have not encountered the same result for the battery-operated one, but others may have a different experience. This is a great, inexpensive gift which can be used over and over and over…it is sure to brighten any room during the Christmas season and the smell is not so bad.

The next crafts, I will share are the ones that I discovered during my wanderings on the Pinterest boards, and I added a bit of a twist of my own. So, I have this thing for mason jars, or just glass in general…when it comes to crafty creations, glass brings a simple elegance to what you create. So, of course my wanderings inevitably took me to a set of crafts from mason jars.

Illuminated Snow Scene in a Jar

I discovered this on a Pinterest board which led me to BitznGiggles, and you can find the list of items you need and directions on there. I added a bit of a twist to mine. I used the same mason jar that was recommended and because I wanted to give these out as gifts and I was not happy with that you could see the words on the cover of the jar, so I got some felt (with the sticky back) and placed it on the top of it.

I got the items to place inside the jar from Target. They are actually these colorful ornaments that they have on sale this year and I got them for a good price while they were having their Cyber Monday deal so that worked out perfectly. I also used a glue gun to hold the ribbon in place and because I was giving mine out as gifts, I included a gift tag.

A great gift idea and you can modify it as much as you need to.

Snowman Mason Jar Luminary Ornament:

I discovered this next one from courtesy of our friends at Club Chica Circle. Their site says that crafting is contagious and I caught the bug with this one. I actually got to make it with a bunch of 5-6 year old children and it was a fantastic. Word of Caution: it involves the use of a glue gun so you might want to be cautious about using that around children. We made sure we were super-careful. The list of of items to buy and instructions are here. I used the tealight when I did it with the kids but for myself at home, I found these LED String Lights on the Clearance rack at Target, originally priced $3, I got it for less.