December Inspiration::All Things Christmas

                                                         Photo by Olesia Buyar on Unsplash

This December's Art Elements theme is --all things Christmas.  You can use any medium you feel inspires you.  This time of year, I love to make handmade ornaments and gifts.  I also made it a goal to cut down on waste in wrapping and tags.  

One of my favorite artisans is Brooke Bock.  She made the ceramics that I turned into Christmas ornaments.  The first ornament is for a special friend that loves the beach. Our favorite thing to do is to go to the beach to sit and catch up on our lives.  I only needed to add the connection between the ceramic and my handmade hanger.    

My next ornament is for the nature lover in my family.  I added a cream ceramic to Brooke's.  This cream ceramic is one that my cousin made which makes this ornament even more special in my eyes.  A red bow and handmade ornament hanger complete it.

Next I made this holiday wreath for my daughter's door.  I am very proud of the  bow which I made.  I bought a bow maker a few years ago. I have yet to use it, but I am determined to master it.  I have dragged it out to use which caused me to look at the instructional video twice. It seems to have a big learning curve but I am determined to master it.  

I feel that reusing and recycling is becoming more important every day.  In my last blog about gourds,  I talked about putting my pumpkins outside for the animals to eat and to keep them out of the landfill.  I did this and to my surprise when I returned to see the pumpkins, the ones that I had cut open when placed in the woods were completely eaten.  There was nothing left. The pumpkin in the above photo was originally whole when left outside.  Currently, you can see some animals worked hard to get into it and I am sure they will return and finish it off. 

My efforts to do better with my Christmas wrap were more successful than last year's.  I began with my giving up using glitter on most things.  I love glitter but I learned it is bad for the environment.  This year instead of buying gift tags, I embossed brown bags and used a die to cut them into gift tag shapes.  These tags looked especially cute with brown craft bags that many stores gave out and I saved to reuse.  I had thought about stamping the bags with snow flakes but I simply did not have the time.  I added some festive tissue paper and some ribbon. The gifts had a co-ordinated look plus I saved at least one trip to the store.  

Throughout the month of December projects can be posted on Instagram using the hashtag #aethemechallenge or and tag it with @art__elements (2 underscores between art and elements) and they will repost your images. You can also post it to the Art Elements Community Facebook page. 

 

I hope everyone has a healthy and happy 2022!  I would love to hear any tips you have for cutting back waste and reusing.