What is it about crafts that we enjoy so much?
I must admit I don't consider myself much of a craftsy kind of person. To be sure, I enjoy the process of most crafting activities, but the idea of choosing what direction to channel that interest (painting, fabrics, stationary, wood, florals, etc...), buying the supplies, storing the supplies, practicing the skills necessary to make something worth keeping or gifting ... then deciding what to do with said crafts when they are finished -- it all sort of overwhelms me.
Maybe that's why I have enjoyed digital photography. It's a creative outlet, that's not messy. "All" I've needed is a camera, some lenses, and a computer with software. My photos are stored on chips and disks or in the cloud and the best photos are printed and stored neatly in books on shelves or hanging on walls. Since my entire adult life I've only ever lived in small apartments, you can see why this is appealing.
But digital photography is not a craft that I can practice with a group of kids or women... and since I find that relational ministry in our neck of the woods seems to flourish around the activity of crafting, I've been pushed out of my comfort zone and found myself spending time researching and planning crafting activities on a regular basis.
Not all abundant inspiration to be found on the internet is feasible for our situation so you can imagine my delight when we found a craft that was a HUGE hit on girls night...
All it took were some glue guns, stencils and wax paper and we were in business!
Believe it or not, we have this great store in Albania called "Jumbo". It's sort of like a Greek mash-up of Wal Mart and Dollar General. They have these economical little glue guns and assorted colored glue sticks.
I gave each girl a glue gun and a handful of glue sticks and let them go to town.
They got really creative mixing different colors together and made a lot of little snow flake decorations!
When I saw these online, they were advertised as great window decorations.
But everyone at our little crafting party wanted to make ornaments for their Christmas trees.
The process was really easy. Just position a piece of baking paper over the stencil of choice and trace it with the glue gun. Make sure the lines are solid so none of the arms break off later. Single, smooth strokes look neatest.
After it cools, you peel it off and trim it with scissors (if needed). A little dab of hot glue and it can stick to a window or just add a piece of string, yarn or twine and make it an ornament!
A few days later we found all of K's ornaments hanging on the tree in her mother's kindergarden class room!
And a nice bonus was that it was something Ellie and Reni enjoyed doing too! So if you are looking for something to do on a free winter day at home, I'd endorse this as an activity to try!
P.S. I really wish I could share the link for the stencils -- I downloaded the PDF but neglected to pin the source site and have been unable to relocate the source.
