Christmas Giving Is Also A Time For Christmas Creating!

I probably started back in the day ... when education was "well rounded," you know when we had art and music and boys took shop and the girls took home economics, that I got started making things, rather than buying things for Christmas. That's not to say I and every other kid I know didn't roam the 5 & 10's buying "Evening In Paris" perfume for our mothers (or some of us did anyway) but we always had a Christmas craft in grade school. One of the best was a huge mobile we made with paper circles when I was in the 7th grade. I had my first male teacher and he seemed to enjoy art and had us create all kinds of things for each season. I can remember carrying it home, we walked in those days, praying that it wouldn't rain before I got it home in Portland, OR, where it always rains.

   My Dad died between my junior and senior high school years and to help my Mom, I volunteered to send all the Christmas cards that year. I made each and every one by hand, a tradition that I kept until a few years ago and resumed again this year. However, I went from hand to computer creating a summery of the things and places I had been to this year.

   When I started crafting in my 60's, I guess an outlet from my computer based graphic design ... using my hands, a brush and paint rather than a computer, software and a mouse, I also became aware of seasons of the year. After I had amassed quite a collection of finished goods for Christmas or Easter, especially Halloween, my daughter found and urged me to sell these things on ETSY.com. So I opened a store and did sell a few things.

   Anyone who does crafts knows from the beginning you sell your items making pennies each and every hour. I think we do it out of love of creating. I learned that it often means more to the creator and purchaser than to the person just given it. Unless you have a hobby of any sort, one that requires hours of patience to complete, people don't appreciate what it takes to make anything. They just assume everything is made by the millions and sold at any old store. While there may be 1.5 million sellers on ETSY there are also about 4-5 billion people that can connect on the Internet.

Cut fancy or not the blank wooden
ornament is well, blank! You need
a lot of imagination to turn it into
something that creates a memory.

   This year after creating my cards and printing them out, I began to work on raw wood Christmas ornaments. Since I am visiting a friend who bought and decorated a Christmas tree for the first time in his life, I felt that it was appropriate to start making ornaments for him.

   Oddly, here in the Coachella Valley it is JoAnn's rather than Michael's that seems to have the more craft friendly items to work with. There was quite a selection of items to purchase and better yet they were all 60% off retail price.

   This ornament ended up 

   with three pieces thick

   glued together.

   So, after getting a client's project done, then the Christmas card designed, its tale of the year written, then printed, cut, envelopes addressed, stuffed, stamped and finally mailed, (as well as the re-creation of two lost birdhouses) I settled down for some serious craft painting and adornment.

   Many of the ornaments were more than one layer and one side. So, I had to decide whether to paint both sides to match, think Santa or snowman, or paint and decorate one side and leave the other side painted a single, dark color. What makes it worse, like graphic design, the possibilities are literally endless. You have to pick a path and stick to it though to be honest, things do change along the way. I liked the shape and cutting of "Noel" but even

   The small rounded ornament 

  on the "O"added just the right 

   amount of depth. So did the 

   illusion of snow on all edges.

painting the "o" with metallic paint didn't jazz it up enough. Adding a small ornament to it, gave it dimension, something this piece didn't have but, I felt, needed. On the back I put the recipient and my name with the year. 

Santa is a three layered wooden creation
that is completed with a red jewel on the
top of the small tree on the left.

   Decorating a tree is one of life's little pleasures. When I was first married we were poor as church mice. We bought cheap shiny balls and found some small wooden ornaments to decorate. The balls broke over time but the wooden ones survived and brought back many memories. As you collect them over the years, looking at each one can bring back so many memories ... memories of the giver and if they've passed, the memory of them and when you received it. So, yes, when you create either for yourself or to sell or given as gifts, date and sign them. 

  Of course no Christmas Tree would be complete without a Santa, or if you are like one relative whose entire tree was nothing a collection of Santa's from around the world that had to be arranged by size ... smallest at the top and getting bigger as you moved to the bottom. It was a rare day of decorating where she didn't come out, admire the work and then move a few "Santa's" around.

Snowmen are fun to paint and offer a
surprising variety of ways to decorate.

   Another great favorite for many collectors is "Frosty, the Snowman" and there are many available from around the world. I found another three layered one that I painted on both sides using the front as a guide to paint the back. How hard is it to paint white, right? However, for a bit of a flourish, he may have had a red hat but I gave him a tartan scarf.

Snowflakes don't always have
to be white you know.

   Finally, but not least was a simple snowflake caught in a ring that I played with before deciding on what to do. I added red jewels on the outer ring, used gold paint for the snowflake with glitter paint on the spokes and a bit of brushed snow for, well, what a snowflake is! Snow!

We are not limited necessarily by what tradition is. Time has allowed creators a wide latitude for decoration. Here, because it was a friends first tree, I wanted tradition. It will be much fun explaining them to him. As time goes along there will be plenty of time to be more creative, even getting him to try decorating himself! As any crafter and artist knows, while you are in the midst of a project, you are literally in another world of time and space. You are so focused that the real world is kept at bay for awhile. And you know? I think we all could use that now and then.

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where the emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed! Be sure to check my re-opened ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. Many of the items talked about here are for sale there!