topic Re: The Holidays crafts thread! in Off-Topic

The Holidays crafts thread!

EmilieT — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 08:15:10 GMT

Hi everyone,

Although it's quite easy to find beautiful decorations and presents in shops, it can be so much more personal, special, and frankly fun to make some of these at home

Whether you make your own cards, tinsel, wreath, baubles, or even presents, we want to know all about it! I've only decorated cards so far year on year but I learned to crochet recently so I'm hoping next year I'll be able to start making some scarves and hats to gift for the holidays ...

Here you can share your tips, tricks, experience or aspirations in terms of crafts: so let the crafting begin!

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

Cleoriff — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 09:05:46 GMT

Hi @EmilieT

It seems a long time since I ever did anything like this.

My mum taught me how to knit, so years and years and years ago I would occasionally knit pretty cardigans for my Mum and aran jumpers for Dad. They would be given at Christmas and worn with pride lol

I used to knit a lot back then, so the boys always had knitted jumpers and friends would ask for hats, scarves (and even tank tops) in the 70's.

Then knitting went out of fashion and life got in the way so the knitting pins disappeared.

When I was a ward sister, I made a lot of decorations by hand for the ward. They ran a competition for the best decorated tree on any ward and we won 4 years in a row. Though one year a jobsworth Health and Safety officer claimed our tree was a fire risk as I 'used too many lights'. He got short shrift from me when I told him my husband (an elecrtician) had personally checked all the lights and if he wanted to moan he best get himself to London and check the lights in Trafalgar Square!!

We also gave presents to every patient who was unlucky enough to be in the ward at Christmas. We had a Christmas kitty to collect money for these little gifts. The nurses put money in as did the doctors and I was a real nag with the consutant surgeons stating they had money to throw away, so they were very generous.

I would give one of my nurse time off to go and buy the presents then I brought them home and wrapped them. Tried to make them look as beautiful as possible, with lots of ribbon and glued on tiny baubles.

A real pleasure to give these little gifts to our patients on Chistmas morning.

However, that was then and this is now....and today I don't do anything 'arty crafty' for anyone. I loved it when I did years ago though...

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 09:24:16 GMT

I remember cutting up last years cards to make this year's as a kid, but that's about as crafty as I ever got!

(This may or may not be the truth)

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

Titanium — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 09:49:04 GMT

I'm not crafty at all, get in a mess with just wrapping paper and sticky tape myself!

However, I did 'create' a free festive gift box for a food hamper this year... Where the supermarkets keep the used fruit & wine boxes, free to take for storage/house moves etc, I saw a nice tall box with christmas trees and stars on it, with a red background, in good quality card and print as well. I guess it ws probably used for wrapping paper rolls given it's size. Anyway, bought that home, cut it down to exactly the right size and it's made a really nice, proffessional looking gift box. Even surprised myself with it!!

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

davethorp — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 12:53:27 GMT

Closest I’ve come to doing any form of Christmas crafts this year are some Lego decorations I have in the living room

There’s a Lego present that opens out into a Christmas house scene and a Lego festive train

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

mahj — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 13:15:47 GMT

That’s so lovely @Cleoriff (how do I tag please?!). Please know that these ‘little gifts’ you prepare mean so much to our special little ones. As a regular hospital goer due to my little one’s health, you’ve no idea how happy these gestures make them (in general, not just at Christmas). And just because it’s come from you guys at a time when they least expected and they were too caught up worrying their little heads about their day, it ends up being their favourite pressie and the one they’ll talk about for days ❤️ Thankyou for doing what you did

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

mahj — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 13:16:18 GMT

Yeyy it tagged! 😄💃🏻😎

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

TallTrees — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 13:36:27 GMT

Hi @EmilieT

Always loved art and crafts. As a family always made things girls dressmaking knitting /crochet and boys learned knitting too as well as making bed for pets etc. models from balsa wood planes and boats. . My father had a wood lathe and made turned wooden items. As a fly fisherman he made his own flies, rebound and varnished his Hardy rods. The philosophy at home was ~ be as practical as possible and enjoy doing as much yourself as you can. Very early days my family made some of the Christmas Decorations. I have enjoyed glass painting and ceramic painting put in a kiln, when finished the flat ceramic discs with the paintings on are then framed for gifts and for own home. I am a keen Watercolour Artist and have painted my friends' pets for gifts. During Christmas there would be lots of crafting, making and diy, a holiday was a good time to do these things. Still do as much as possible and enjoy every minute.

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

Cleoriff — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 14:09:36 GMT

Thanks @mahj

I wasn't on the childrens ward though, mine was male and female trauma.

The childrens ward had a visit from Santa, who was one of the consultants... and presents handed out by him.

Whatever their age, people do not want to be in hospital for Christmas, so we did the same for everyone. No matter how old they were

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

mahj — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 15:02:10 GMT

Exactly, and adults would defo not have expected it

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

pgn — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 15:24:29 GMT

We pull together some relevant photos from the preceding year, and put them into wall calendars for the immediate family who are far-distant.

Others get a selection of photos as a collage in a letter sent at around this time, sometimes before, but usually just after Christmas.

I doo miss Google Picasa thoough, it was the bee's knees for making wonderful collages! Google Photos just gives you a boring (up to 9 x 9) grid. So much for product improvement....

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

Cleoriff — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 17:59:06 GMT

@pgn

We still use Picasa on our laptops?.

https://picasa.en.uptodown.com/windows

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

pgn — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 20:47:02 GMT

@Cleoriff wrote:
@pgn
We still use Picasa on our laptops?.
https://picasa.en.uptodown.com/windows

Yes, but they keep turning off bits of it (latest here)... and all our phones now upload automatically to Google Photos, resulting in multiple copies of things dotted around here there and everywhere.

And the Mrs has been Chromebook for many years...

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

Cleoriff — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 21:35:20 GMT

@pgn

I have never used it on my phone, just PC and works fine for us...(so far...though not attempted to do the same as you)

My other half uses it for editing photos and pictures. Cropping and changing colour etc...nothing fancy.

I suppose it just does the basic stuff.

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

pgn — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 21:37:22 GMT

@Cleoriff wrote:
@pgn
I have never used it on my phone, just PC and works fine for us...(so far...though not attempted to do the same as you)
Luck of the draw I suppose.

Oh, no - the phone(s) is(are) the source(s) of the photos.

The PC (me) and the Chromebook (she) are the means to make the collages etc.

Picasa stopped working on the Chromebook many moons ago, and since I moved to Win10, I hav not installed it on my all-64bit (well, almost) laptop.

Sorry for the confusion.

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

Cleoriff — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 22:56:10 GMT

That's ok.

As I said we both have Win 10 laptops and it's on both of them. Though my hubby is the only one who still does 'fancy' stuff with it

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

jonsie — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 00:19:58 GMT

I use Picasa on the laptop. I do drag the photos down from Google or straight from the phone. Works fine for me.

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

welshsteve76 — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 11:54:18 GMT

For years we had decorations our son had made at school on the tree, but unfortunately they eventually give up the ghost "broke".

Nearest to this now is a little santa decoration with our son's name on that his late grandad bought him many years ago. This has pride and place just below the star on the tree

The IT dept. at work always provide festive wallpapers for our computers

Re: The Holidays crafts thread!

EmilieT — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 14:47:22 GMT

So many ideas!

Thanks for sharing @Cleoriff, @Anonymous, @Titanium, @davethorp, @mahj, @TallTrees, @pgn and @welshsteve76 - I'll need to step up my game next year. I think I'll practice my crochet throughout the year for once to be able to make some handcrafted pratical & seasonal presents next year, but I'll also look into some of the ideas you put here