Creativity Begins at Home

As I walked my dogs early this morning, I admired the frost-rimed, gold-bellied milkweed husks nodding along the roadside.



Some clever artisans harvest the empty husks and make elegant Christmas ornaments from them - with a bit of cotton fluff in place of the downy seeds, and thread sewn through the top for a loop. Quite ingenious.



The ice underfoot and the naked, snow-dappled trees remind me that we are, indeed, slipping toward the Holiday season. American Thanksgiving is two weeks from today, and then, for many, it's the gallop toward family gatherings, workplace schmoozing, gift giving, and all the rest of it.




Although too often I get caught in the frenzy (as a shop owner, I can't really avoid it), I also yearn for peaceful moments warming by the fire and enjoying the people I love.



One way to help create such moments is to make things together.



When my kids were little, we had all kinds of fun with scissors and plain paper. One of our absolute favorites was the Snowflake Quest. I would cut plain white paper - computer paper or cheap craft paper - into circles using a dessert plate. (Put the plate on the paper, trace it, then cut out around the circle.)





The circle was folded several times, so that it looked like a tiny slice of pie.





Then: scissors. What splendid little tools. My boys would nip, snip, gouge, and edge the tight folded circle until the moment of truth: the circle would be unfurled, and the marvellous patterns revealed.





Naturally, these snowflakes were taped by the dozen in our windows.





There are so many other simple, creative ways to celebrate this time of year.





Try the classic chain made with looped strips of construction paper (or use old, colored funny pages). These can be strung about as decoration - and, for homes with squirmy-eager kids, you can tear off one link of the chain each day until a desired holiday or event arrives. (Make sure you have links enough!)





Another tried-and-true home craft is macaroni art. As with a stuffing recipe or a folk song, potential variations are endless. You could paint the dry macaroni (gold? red? green?) and string it into garlands, or necklaces, or dangly ornaments. You could glue it to a paper plate or piece of cardboard as a mosaic. Try different shapes of pasta: bowties, ziti, wheels, etc.





This approach can also work with dried pumpkin, squash, or melon seeds - string them with a needle & thread.





While we're using food as an art material, another fun craft (for older kids or grown ups) is to peel an apple, carve a face into it, and let it dry in a warm spot for a week or so. Then glue apple seeds into the eye cavities, glue yarn or thread on top for hair, and - if you're really ambitious - make a body out of an old plastic bottle.





(When I was a kid, I mostly had lots of disembodied little heads.)





There are so many more simple, easy ways to be creative at home. Post comments with ideas of yours! And, although the suggestions above are suitable for use with children, people of any age can enjoy them. I had at least as much fun cutting snowflakes as my kids did. This is true for all these activities.





NOW: one word of caution for any or all of these projects. DON'T take seriously ANY magazine or book photographs of the completed crafts!





Rare is the woman who doesn't feel diminished by magazine photos of models and movie stars. None of us looks so perfect, but the magazines are designed to make us feel that we should.





The same principle applies to photos of completed craft projects. Don't compare your own work to such images - and for goodness sake, never let a kid do so! Better yet, just don't let kids see the pictures in the first place.





Each of us, young or not-so-young, needs to learn that what we create is precious, delightful, and valuable in its own right, with no reference to any one else's work.





So - take out some scissors, raid the kitchen cabinets, sit someplace cozy with people you enjoy, and let the creativity flow.