Quilt Patchwork Patterns

How To Make A Christmas Wreath - Holiday Fun

Making a Christmas Wreath is not only fun - but you really can get creative with them and make them extremely unique. Here are instructions for making a traditional holly wreath. With these instructions, you will be able to get the basic idea of how wreaths are actually made, and you can then decide what to do to make your own holly wreath special - or go with an entirely different kind of wreath.

Materials:

- A 20 inch wreath - This can be a plain foam wreath, a wreath that already has the evergreens on it, or a twine wreath. For a traditional holly wreath, the ones with the evergreens already attached are ideal.

- 1.5 yards of ribbon - this can be plain red, plain green, or a red and black or red and green plaid. The ribbon should about 2.5 inches wide, and can be silk or felt. It’s your wreath!

- Pine cones - you will need about ten. Try to find ones that are well shaped and unbroken.

- Pomegranates - six dried pomegranates will do. Don’t get fresh ones! Or substitute other dried or good-looking plastic fruits.

- Additional Foliage - you need more evergreens (to make the wreath seem fuller) berry sprays and berry clusters.

- Construction Materials - scissors, hot glue gun, glue sticks, wire (if there is no hanger on the back of the wreath), sewing needle, thread (same color as ribbon).

If the wreath has no hanger, you will need to construct one with the wire. This should be done first. Make sure that it is secure, and that it can bear the weight of the wreath.

Fluff the existing evergreens and add more. The wreath should have a full appearance. You will most likely need to straighten a few branches here and there - but don’t make it too ‘perfect.’ It should have a ‘natural’ appearance to it.

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Let’s make and attach the bow. Cut a piece of ribbon about thirty inches long. Cut another piece of ribbon about four inches long. In the center of the long piece of ribbon, you want to form two loops that will make the bow.

The small piece of ribbon is used to secure the bow, in the middle of the loops. Note that the bow is ‘formed’ not ‘tied.’ There are no knots to tie. Secure the small piece of ribbon around the bow, in the back, with the thread. Each end of the bow will be about nine inches long.

You can place the bow wherever you choose to. It could go in the middle of the top, the bottom, or off to one side. The ends should be woven through the foliage on the wreath - or it can hang loose.

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It is a good idea to paint the ends of the ribbon with clear fingernail polish to keep them from fraying over time. The bow can be attached to the wreath with glue or with wire. Just make sure that it is secure.

Once you’ve placed the bow on the wreath, you can glue two of the pomegranates in the center of the bow. The remaining four pomegranates should be glued to the wreath equal distances apart, in groups of two.

Next, glue the pine cones to the wreath. These can be spaced evenly apart sporadically, or in groups of pine cones. Do what looks good to you. Again, it is your wreath.

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The berry clusters and sprays should also be glued to the front of the wreath. Glue some additional foliage over the top of the bow with a berry cluster for added affect. Remember that there is not specific way that any of this must be done. It is your choice.

It is a good idea to lay the pieces of the wreath on it before gluing anything down. This will allow you to see how the finished product will look before committing to anything. Try different arrangements of the material to see what looks best to you.

Once you’ve constructed the wreath, set it someplace where the glue has time to harden fully. Once this is done, pick the wreath up and gently shake it to make sure that everything is secured well. Most wreaths hang on the door, and doors are constantly opened and closed - and even slammed. You want to make sure that your wreath isn’t falling to pieces each time the door opens and closes.

In many cases, you may be able to use wire or a needle and thread to make items on the wreath more secure. Heavier items won’t be very secure with glue in most cases.

Remember that holly wreaths don’t have to be ‘busy’ to be beautiful. A few simple additions to the foliage is all that it takes.

The bow is typically the object that draws the eye, so make sure that the bow is really well done.

Now that you know how wreaths are made - and how easy it is - you may decide that you don’t want a holly wreath at all. You may opt for a themed wreath, a twined wreath, or a truly unique wreath that stands out. The possibilities are endless!

Scott W :  Copyright 2008

Spice up your Chrsitmas Holiday with some Kids Ornament Crafts

Christmas is a holiday where all kinds of kids crafts are created at home and in the school environment.

Crafts for kids, however should be an activity that should bring fun and excitement to children’s activities aside from adding a bonding to the adults that are doing the projects with them.

Educational arts and crafts is a way of doing crafts with children where they are not blindly copying the adults model but are creating things that they are capable of creating at their own developmental level.

When children create at their own level a number of things occur.

It creates a great feeling about themselves, as who can feel good about crafts projects that are copycat models of someone else’s. Children who create their own projects without adult input feel much better about themselves.

An even more beneficial side to educational arts and crafts is its inherent allowance for creativity.
There is very little that represses creativity more than having to copy anothers work.

There are a few categories that are part of educational art.
There is the cafeteria style that allows children to choose materials to work with, there is process only art where the process is what counts along with a few more.

The point of it is that all of the crafts under educational arts and crafts should be age appropriate, and allow for freedom of creation and expression.

Below I will give you 2 clear cut, almost effortless Christmas craft ornaments that you can make.

The first one uses plastic throwaway cups:

The kids can use permament markers to make many colorful designs on their cups. Try egging them on to fill in as much empty space on the cup as possible.

When they are done, take a cookie sheet and put the cups upside down on it and put in the over at around 350 degrees. Give them a few minutes so that they have time to melt. Look out for the amount of time the cups are in the oven as they can burn up completely. Don’t allow the children near this part as it gets very hot.

When they are cool, make a hole in the center and use colorful ribbon to hang as an ornament for your tree.

Another project is to take all of your old cd’s and dvd’s and use them for the project.

Basically: Decorate them and hang them.

There are tons of ways of enhancing the cd’s.

You can color with permanent markers, glue and glitter them, collage over them, decoupage over them, and decorate them with whatever shiny, decorative materials you can find.
Once they are done, get some pretty ribbon and hang them from your tree.

If you want to see what a crafts acitivity done in the cafeteria style is like then check out this Hanukkah Crafts collage

Creative Fun With AquaDraw, The Top Art Toy For small children At Christmas!

it is simple to learn all about AquaDraw, one of the best toys for christmas around!  This xmas is the ideal time to introduce to your youngsters the joy of Tomy’s Aquadraw!  The array of Tomy Aquadraw toys and accessories that are available represent a clever way for  kids to get into drawing and painting, without mess!  Every kid likes to paint and draw, and this wonderful toy range helps kids to develop their artistic ability and creativity! 

Tomy is definitely one of the most respected brands in the world when it comes to games and toys for younger children to enjoy, and they have excelled themselves more with the fantastic AquaDraw range of toys.  With these excellent toys, learning can be fun as kids learn more about their own creativity with a safe and clean crerative art studio toy. 

There aren’t any brushes, no ink and no paints to get messy.  Just fill the roller, pen or bush with water and little hands can make all kinds of design on their Aquadraw mats!  Find the reviews available on the net and discover just how the Tomy Aquadraw toys work, with how it is possible to get them at the most reasonable prices around for christmas.  The Tomy AquaDraw creative sets are very straightforward to use, easy to clean, and certain to bring hours of thrills and creative pleasure for you and your young children. 

They’re great fun for little youngsters and can be used again, meaning there is much enjoymant to be had the entire year round!  It’s not difficult to find reviews of items like the Tomy Aquadraw Classic, the Tomy Aquadraw Travel Drawing Bag, the Tomy Rainbow Aquadraw and plenty of other fantastic Tomy Aquadraw toys that are bound to make your small children giggle with delight as they make their very own photographs and design.  The range of Tomy AquaDraw toys is a wonderful addition to your youngster’s toy collection, and is bound to be used a great deal over the approaching months!