How to upcycle christmas crackers

Hi Everyone,
I went to a christmas tea party and came across pretty xmas crackers that the cleaning staff was going to discard so I took a couple home with me.

I decided to use a few of them to make xmas cards.

The rest I brought to one of the crafty recycling workshops I organised with kids and we made xmas tree decorations out of the christmas crackers ( stapling a ribbon out of one end of the almost discarded crackers.)

We also made gift bags out of the brown bags that I collect from buying some of my lunches in town and the girls were able to put their xmas crackers decorations and cards into their newly made gift bags. They were delighted with it and I was delighted for them. It is very inspiring to inspire creativity in others.

How to make a pretty christmas tree out of a single branch

Hi Everyone,
I found this pretty naked branch on the ground in Dublin 8 and thought this could do a perfect little Xmas tree. I had a large candy cup which i thought I could fill with stones to use as a base for the tree.

I had pretty ribbons which I had already bought to make xmas cards. The great thing about those ribbons is that I can use them for many purposes ( for gifts bags as bows, on cards, as tinsels ect...)

I also found in a local market large xmas snowflakes stickers for very cheap and instead of using them as stickers I use them as xmas decorations.

and this is the result- simple but nice.

Of course, you can wrap the base (the candy cup) with a nice wrapping paper but i didn't.
Happy St Stephen's Day everyone.

Upcycling card making workshop with kids

             

  

As part of the Upcycling card making workshop I did with the kids last week, I brought a Postal Ad from Tesco and we cut the bottom and upper part of the pages ( which had nice Christmassy designs) to make cards of our owns.

We also used the shapes of Christmas balls and gifts and snowflakes printed in that Tesco Ad and we cut the shapes into divider tabs and here is the result of one of my young creative students ( card to the right) Quite proud of her.

I also showed the kids how they can reuse their old Christmas cards this year to make new ones for next year.
Here's an example of an old christmas that I got. I cut the bottom part of this card and stuck nice ribbons around it and voila!

                 

Angel Card Tutorial

Hi Everyone
I researched on the internet how to make an angel card and found this great website from Laura Howard
 ( Another Laura ;-))

http://centralfoothillsmommies.blogspot.ie/2012/12/angel-christmas-card-tutorial.html

I followed her instructions ( which were very visual and easy to follow)
I changed it slightly for the wings ( too long to cut those curved shapes)

I used a paper plate.


For the Halo, I used a gold pen because I didn't have any gold paper and Voila!
I think my angel is a lot thinner than hers. ( It wasn't my intention to make it look thin but it happened that way. ;-)

Project Recipe:
- Brown paper from a brown paper bag.
- Scissors
- A black marker for the hair
- Pritt stick or other paper-friendly glue
- Gold pen for the Halo.
- Silver pen for the Wings
- White paper doily set for the intricate design of dress.
- White paper to consolidate the dress, round shape for the Face and remaining of the paper for the Feet.
- Thick White paper for the angel's face and feet
- Card blank.

Making Xmas Cards out of Packaging materials and Workshops

Card Making and Recycling two things that I really like.

Soon I was thinking: "Why not try to make 1 or 2 Xmas cards out of packaging materials?" and then I made another and another and before I knew it, I had lots of ideas and cards and was thinking of sharing this fun activity with kids.


So this is one of my ideas:
I started cutting triangle shapes out of the Baked Beans Heinz packaging, Peppermint tea packaging and perfume packaging ( any white packaging that i could find around the house)

Then I used a coloured tab divider that I had and cut a rectangular shape for the background and stuck it to a blank greeting card.

Then I bought some foam squares to raise the triangle shapes. I also bought  1 meter of  nice ribbon where it said"Merry Christmas" on it, glued the little stars and a little golden ribbon and star for the tree to make a nice finish  and voila!

 Project Recipe:

• Scissors
• Glue
• Foam Squares
• Little colourful stars
• 1 meter of  a "Merry Christmas" Ribbon that you can buy in any Crafts shop (Inspiring ideas Shop in this case)
• Food Packagings
• 1 star and a golden ribbon but you can cut a Star or a snow flake design out of a magazine or advertising that comes through your letter box and it will do nicely.  
• Colourful Tab divider

I will be doing a Christmas card making Workshop for kids ( 9 to 12 years old)  in:

• Hunstown Community Center - Wednesday 11th of Dec  - from 4 to 5:30 pm
• Mountview Youth and Community Center - Friday 13th  of Dec- from 5 to 6 pm. 
•  Hunstown Community Center - Wednesday 19th of Dec  - from 4 to 5:00 pm
• Mountview Youth and Community Center - Friday 20th  of Dec- from 5 to 6 pm.

 So join in!

Warm Regards
Laura A Speedwing