Let’s talk Christmas.

I know, “Halloween is barely over and you’re talking Christmas?!?” I feel the same way. However, it’s good to start thinking about what kind of gifts you’re going to give the special people in your life; whether you’re going to buy them something from their favorite store or hand make the gift.

A couple years ago my fiancée, future mother-in-law, future brother and sister-in-law decided that the only gifts we were going to buy would be for my niece.

If we wanted to give each other gifts, we would hand-make them. When you’re hand-making items, they require more time and thought to create than just buying an item, in my opinion. If I do buy a gift for someone, I prefer to buy something from a local artist; knowing how long it takes to craft an item, I feel it expresses how much I care for a person when buying locally and supporting that artisan.

Lots of local places have classes to make handmade gifts; like the holiday card workshop hosted at Gallery By The Lake given by artist, Bridgett Vallery in this week’s Creative Crafter. Yayi Beads and Gems has had metal smithing classes recently and will have more classes which they announce in Creative Crafter and via their Facebook page: YayiBeadsGemsGallery, and Niche Creative Studio has a ton of classes which you can find at <a href="https://nichecreativestudio.com/classes" target="_blank">nichecreativestudio.com/classes</a>.

So this week’s craft is a gift I made for my future mother-in-law two Christmas’s ago. As it seems, history is repeating itself again. Everything from the 70’s and 80’s are coming back. Vinyl is back and so are crafts from the 70’s.1101181006a.jpg

Nostalgia drives inspiration as you sit and think about “the good old days”. When I was young, I remember my mom having a string art owl hanging on the wall. I was always impressed with that owl and was always curious how she made it. I wanted to do a string art design for my future mother-in-law and decided on making a cross with a heart inside.

I gathered my supplies; graph paper, pencil, scotch tape, small gold crafting nails, small hammer, a wooden plaque, purple paint (her favorite color) and white string with silver entwined.

First I painted the whole plaque purple. After it dried, I tacked my graph paper on the plaque with tape. I then plotted out on the graph paper the shape of a cross. I made it big enough to draw a heart inside the cross.1101181007.jpg

I then started carefully and gently hammering nails into the cross outline. I left about ¼ inch between each nail. After the outline of the cross was finished, I proceeded to the heart outline. Once done with my nails, I removed the graph paper. This took a little time and I also needed some tweezers for the hard to reach pieces of paper.

Now I was ready to start stringing. I began by tying a small knot at the bottom of the cross. Remembering how the owl looked from my childhood, I ran my string up and down between the cross outline and the heart outline.

The fun thing about string art is that you can run your string very methodically or haphazardly; it’s your craft. Once I filled the space between the heart outline and the cross outline with string I tied it off with a single knot. My handmade Christmas gift was finished!

String art is very versatile. You can create any design; use any kind of background color or fabric on the wood and any kind/color of string. Let your creativity flow while having fun with this craft.

I hope this has helped you think of something to hand-make for the special people in your life this Christmas. Happy crafting!

<hr /><p class="p2"><em><strong>Creative Crafting with Kim</strong> prints on Saturdays. If you would like to advertise your crafting business or sell leftover crafting supplies call the American Press Classified department at 337-494-4000 or email <a href="mailto:djean@americanpress.com">djean@americanpress.com</a>. Deadline to place a display ad is Wednesday at 4pm and line ad deadline is Friday at 4pm. Feedback about this article can be sent to <a href="mailto:kwright@americanpress.com">kwright@americanpress.com</a>.</em>