Craft

Although, I'm sure, most don't find this a true form of art, per se, it's still an expression driven by artistic response. Here are the "other things" I've created.

Baskets
Our family, on my husband's side, started drawing names for Christmas (small children not included). It helps us keeps costs down at an expensive time of year and allows us to put more thought into one gift instead of a little into many. The $25 spending caps forces us to be creative as well. This was perfect for someone like me. I have, starting last year, made a basket for the couple we draw and these are the results.

2010 - Theme - Dinner Night for Two

The couple we drew were a young, newly married couple. They do a lot of things together, including cook. So I gave them one of my most sought after, personal recipes for spaghetti sauce on a handwritten recipe card and all of the ingredients to make it. This is the gift tag.

Here you can see, I've added the spices, canned goods and recipe card (brown)

There's even some Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar in there (they were the most expensive items in the basket). The little penguin you can see is actually a small box. There's two in it, the other is Santa. (these I found at the dollar store) The boxes I filled with some homemade candy. I also threw in some holiday decorations I also found at a dollar store to make it more festive.










2011- Theme -Movie Night In for Two
The couple we drew for this one was an unmarried, young couple. Both whom live at their own parents. They don't really bar hop or go out a lot, but they do like to watch movies together. So I gave them all the fixings for a movie night in.

The base is comprised of (in order from bottom to top) a clear, square, winter themed serving bowl (for the candy), and a popcorn serving bowl

Inside the popcorn serving container is tons of chocolate bars, candy, two single-serve bottles of pop, two bags of microwave popcorn (all acquired at the dollar store). To dress it up I adorned it with some holiday decorations and used faux cedar garland (also, dollar store)

Homemade tags to finish it off! To hold the clear plastic wrap (which is actually a bag, where'd I get it....yup, dollar store) away from the contents I found this glittery grapevine style garland that was rigid, and tinsel candy canes (seen above) to give it height.







Bracelets/Adornments/Jewellery
I use to make bracelets when I was a kid. The material I used was called gimp. A recent Christmas present my daughter received brought a plethora of memories back. She got a bracelet making kit. (She loves to craft, not sure where she gets it from :P) The string contained in the kit proved to be too fine for her little hands so I went and bought her some gimp. (aka Scoubidou and Boondoggle) Teaching her how has let me remember why I loved doing it so much. This is the results. I also found another use for the string from the aforementioned kit. ;)

This is what I ended up using the string for! The too blue ones I added 3 days prior to the third green one, which was added on my "Green Day" which I blogged about. Canvas and paper, it turns out aren't the only things I use to create on, apparently.















Here are the first two bracelets I made. One (green and blue) being what I refer to as "flat" the other a square stitch. These were also made on my "Green Day". I know the black and white one deviates from the whole green them but I like to think of it as my yin-yang bracelet, although I seriously underestimated the length and had to give it to my son. That's okay though, even he needs balance.