The 'Something To Make' Challenge: December 2012

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Make a Christmas Card

We've been getting into the festive spirit with some Christmas makes.

Amelie has been making LOADS of lovely things at preschool, she has come home wanting to carry on making anything Christmasy! Luckily, our Something to Make book has some quick and easy makes for us to create.

This Christmas Card was used to write to Father Christmas with Amelie's wish list (which was... and actually... still is growing by the day).

Our completed Christmas Card

Time taken for us to make: 15 minutes

Cost to me: Nothing

Original instructions

What we used:

Card
Scissors
Coloured tissue paper
Glue
Glitter

What we did:

We started by folding a sheet of card in half ready to be decorated. We then took green tissue paper and folded it a couple of times to make several layers. and cut tree shaped triangles with scissors (we only used a couple of the trees, but you could use them to make more cards).

Cut triangles for a tree design

Next we got on with our design. We chose to over lap the triangles to create a forest of Christmas trees. To add interest and colour we added red shiny stickers for baubles and glitter to represent snow.

Glue the paper and glitter to deign your card

To finish we added a 'Happy Christmas' sticker in the bottom corner.

This was very quick and easy to make, so they are ideal for when you run out of printed cards and suddenly remember you have forgotten to write one to an old neighbour. They'll feel very special thinking the kids have taken the time to make one for them.

So, what's this blog all about...

My 3 year old daughter and I have set ourselves the challenge of creating every item in the book Something to Make – Pretty & Practical Ideas, collected by Felicia Law, first published in 1971 by Young Puffin. We aim to complete this within 1 year!

The idea of this project came about after watching the 2009 film ‘Julie & Julia’ starring Amy Adams & Meryl Streep. The film is based on the true stories of Julie Powell & Julia Child. It follows Julia Child's story of her start in the cooking profession whilst intertwined with blogger Julie Powell's 2002 challenge to cook all the recipes in Child's first book. I thought “What a great idea! Creating every dish in a cookery book over the space of a year!” I then went on to think “Whose cookery book would I attempt? Jamie, Nigella, Gordon… so many to choose from… Hang on! This could cost me a fortune and while my bank balance shrinks, my waistline will expand!!” I didn’t think about it again… until the day I was sorting through some of my childhood books to read to my daughter. I came across my Mum’s copy of ‘Something to Make’. It’s such a great little book, full of creative ideas which now seem so retro and, in turn, fashionable again. Just flicking through the pages makes me feel very nostalgic. This would be perfect!! A project I could enjoy with my daughter, it will feed my creative side and it won’t be a strain on my pocket as all the pieces are made out of scraps of paper or material and other items you would normally throw into the recycling bin.

‘So, what next?’… I emailed Penguin Publishers (as Young Puffin is part of their group) and told them of my plan. The lovely people at Penguin gave me their blessing and were excited to see this challenge begin.

That brings us to the present…

I have never written a blog before. I am not a writer or an artist, just a Mum with a creative itch to scratch. I think this would be a fun challenge for me and my daughter, and my husband will be joining us in some of the activities too. I also hope that the blog will inspire other parents to get creative with their kids. All of the items can be made from odds and ends found around the house, so it is great for encouraging activities in the most froogle of homes.

I hope you find inspiration here and I welcome your feedback. Tell me what you have made after reading the posts and I’d love to see photos of your creations.