By Christine Skofronick - Staff Reporter
This Christmas season, decoration is the name of the game. Instead of spending money on tacky Santa inflatable lawn ornaments in place of gifts, try out some of these crafts to brighten up your home.
The first on our list of crafts is a citrus slice ornament. Since we live in Florida, a sliced up orange works perfectly for this task. Cut your orange into rounds (across the core into circles) about one fourth of an inch thick and place them on a greased cookie sheet. Bake the rounds at 175 degrees for 4 hours and let cool. To hang them, poke a hole near the edge of the orange with a needle and thread string through. Tie the string at the top to make a loop and you have your ornament!
The next craft is more decorative; jar luminaries. To start, you’ll need glass jars, aluminum foil, a pen or a toothpick, tape, tea lights and a safe place to work. Make sure your jars are clean before you start and measure out a piece of foil that wraps around the jar with a little overlap. Put the foil down on a flat surface and begin poking holes in the design that you want. You can lightly mark where you want to poke a hole before you start with the toothpick. Wrap the foil around the jar and tape it. Put a tea light inside and watch your luminary glow.
Sock elves are both adorable and easy to make. You’ll need colored cotton socks, dried beans or peas, needle and thread buttons and small rubber bands. Start by filling the sock up three fourths of the way full with the dried beans or peas. Then you take the needle and thread and sew the top of the sock closed, use a few more stitches to gather the ends to form a point and sew a bell on the tip. To make the nose, gather a few beans/peas about halfway down the sock and wrap a rubber band around the base to secure it. Finally, you can either glue or sew on buttons for eyes.
For the last craft, you can make snowflakes out of cotton swabs. Take however many swabs you want and form them into a snowflake pattern that you like. Glue the ends together and, if you want to, you can sprinkle some glitter on the glue. Let it dry overnight, and then you can take some string and hang them up wherever you want to.
These are only a few simple crafts to get your creative juices flowing. Try a couple of these out or even come up with one of your own to surprise your family with.
The first on our list of crafts is a citrus slice ornament. Since we live in Florida, a sliced up orange works perfectly for this task. Cut your orange into rounds (across the core into circles) about one fourth of an inch thick and place them on a greased cookie sheet. Bake the rounds at 175 degrees for 4 hours and let cool. To hang them, poke a hole near the edge of the orange with a needle and thread string through. Tie the string at the top to make a loop and you have your ornament!
The next craft is more decorative; jar luminaries. To start, you’ll need glass jars, aluminum foil, a pen or a toothpick, tape, tea lights and a safe place to work. Make sure your jars are clean before you start and measure out a piece of foil that wraps around the jar with a little overlap. Put the foil down on a flat surface and begin poking holes in the design that you want. You can lightly mark where you want to poke a hole before you start with the toothpick. Wrap the foil around the jar and tape it. Put a tea light inside and watch your luminary glow.
Sock elves are both adorable and easy to make. You’ll need colored cotton socks, dried beans or peas, needle and thread buttons and small rubber bands. Start by filling the sock up three fourths of the way full with the dried beans or peas. Then you take the needle and thread and sew the top of the sock closed, use a few more stitches to gather the ends to form a point and sew a bell on the tip. To make the nose, gather a few beans/peas about halfway down the sock and wrap a rubber band around the base to secure it. Finally, you can either glue or sew on buttons for eyes.
For the last craft, you can make snowflakes out of cotton swabs. Take however many swabs you want and form them into a snowflake pattern that you like. Glue the ends together and, if you want to, you can sprinkle some glitter on the glue. Let it dry overnight, and then you can take some string and hang them up wherever you want to.
These are only a few simple crafts to get your creative juices flowing. Try a couple of these out or even come up with one of your own to surprise your family with.