  |
|
|
|
Suddenly the calendar flips to December, and the winter holidays are well and truly on the way. For me, it's Christmas. Maybe I spent too much time in art class in elementary school, but somehow or other when the season rolls around, I often find myself with glue gun and magazine in hand, contemplating a craft project.
Martha Stewart Living http://www.marthastewart.com Okay, okay, so it's easy to mock Martha. In fact some of my favorite Internet pass-around jokes are Martha-based. (No, I'm not posting them here!) But the craft projects included in the magazine, and on the Web site, are really good -- often pretty easy to make, but quite elegant. My choice last year was a snow-globe, easy to make with distilled water, glycerin and a ceramic figure. (E-mail me if you'd like the instructions.) This weekend I plan to sit down with this year's Christmas issue and choose a project. Reader's Digest Christmas http://www.rdchristmas.com/ This was the first year I bought Reader's Digest Christmas magazine, and I was pleasantly surprised. The magazine has a reasonable mix of stories, recipes and craft ideas. The Web site is a bit sketchy, but a few basic craft ideas are included here. Coloring sheets, ready to print for children to color, are a nice touch. Craft Creations http://www.craftcreations.com/Projects3/... Craft Creations is a British quarterly magazine all about hand-crafting greeting cards. Cross-stitch, foil work, fabric and other methods are all included. The selection of free patterns on this site (ready to print in Adobe Acrobat format) includes several Christmas cards and small gift items like bookmarks. Crafts 'n Things http://www.craftsnthings.com/projects/ This magazine's Web site has a collection of instructions for projects that have appeared in back issues of the magazine. The old-world style St. Nick looks nice, and the instructions seem easy to follow. These are not super-elegant ribbon and lace crafts -- they lean more towards fun projects. I haven't seen the paper version of this magazine. More for browsing enjoyment than for instructions: Victoriana http://www.victoriana.com/christmas/defa... Christmas and Christmas crafts are not a new topic for magazines. At the end of the last century, magazines like Harpers and Peterson's included instructions for Christmas crafts, recipes and drawings. Look on this site for a drawing of Britain's Queen Victoria and Prince Albert decorating their Christmas tree, an illustration originally printed in Godey's Lady's Book in 1860. The most interesting how-to is from an 1867 edition of Peterson's -- a very outdoorsy-looking Santa Claus made from five pinecones, wood, moss and a doll's head. Personally I would treat this as fun to read rather than something I would do. My results would never match the drawing: the artist has created a lovely, woodsy Father Christmas but it's all too easy to imagine that hot-glue-covered mess that might result from an encounter with actual pinecones. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article A crafty Christmas in Magazines is owned by Mary Wilson. Permission to republish A crafty Christmas in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
