Holiday Crafting

My hope that I will create cute and charming crafted items springs eternal at this time of year, Covid or no Covid. Over the years I have learned that simpler is better, I should double any time estimate for creation, and I shouldn’t buy special supplies.

Recently I found my sweet spot with two holiday projects – owl ornaments and snowflake printed cards. The owls are from a pattern by Ann Wood, which a friend sent me. The snowflakes are courtesy of a thermofax screen, fabric and paper scraps, and blank greeting cards from my card printing days. (Remember those CDs from Print Shop and the like? I found that Print Shop is still in business.)

I printed on a mixture of silk and hand painted/printed fabrics, backed them with Mistyfuse, and ironed them to the cards. I also used wallpaper samples given to me by a friend. The wallpaper is great for printing and cuts nicely.

So, this year I sent actual cards rather than e-cards, and probably helped bog down USPS even further. I’ve had some touch and go moments with mailed packages this month, but so far everything has reached its intended destinations.

The owls were more labor intensive, with cutting, gluing, and stitching. My pile of felted wool scraps came in handy. I thought I had tons of buttons to choose from, but I discovered that most of mine are too big.

These avian ornaments now hang from my kitchen light fixture, with the seasonal quilt you can see part of on the table beneath it.

Would I have made these crafts in a “normal” year? Probably not, but right now any distraction is welcome.

I’m linking to Off The Wall Friday.