by Ardeana Hamlin
of The Weekly Staff
March is National Craft Month. This is the point in the the long cold winter when a thawing of the spirit begins to occur. We want to breathe deeply, sing, dance, shrug away the confines of the cold season and make stuff.
Here are a few ways to channel your creative spirit during craft month:
- Go out for a walk on a day when the snow is melting and look for things nature has left behind — dried leaves, pebbles, bits of moss or fallen twigs. Use those items to make a mobile, or glue what you find onto a circle of poster paper to create a small wreath. Use a glue gun. Go to marthastewart.com/275439/nature-crafts-for-kids/@center/276975/marthas-crafts-kids#273438 for inspiration.
- Share your skill at knitting, crocheting, embroidery or other craft by volunteering at a library or other organization to mentor those who want to learn stitching skills.
- Make a polar fleece scarf. Make cuts in the narrow ends to create a fringe. Decorate the scarf with buttons, beads, lace, fabric or whatever takes your fancy. Go to pinterest.com/explore/fleece-scarf/ for lots of ideas.
- Stir up a batch of cupcakes — from scratch or from a box — and decorate them in a giddy way.
- Get some pretty beads, some cord to string them on and make gaudy necklaces for yourself and your girlfriends.
- Get out those old greeting cards you have saved and fashion them into pretty boxes, gift tags or jumping jacks. Go to wikihow.com/Make-a-Gift-Box-out-of-a-Greeting-Card, instructables.com/id/Recycle-Christmas-cards-into-gift-tags/ or http://bookzoompa.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/antigue-jumping-jack-toy/ for instructions.
- Go to the beach, collect tiny stones, bits of beach glass, driftwood and other flotsam and jetsam. Arrange the pieces artfully on a flat piece of driftwood and hot glue the pieces in place. Use an aluminum can pull-tab thumbtacked to the back of the piece for a hanger. Instant art!
- Buy a bright colored T-shirt at a thrift shop and refashion it with scissors. Cut the neckline wider, cut off the sleeves, make a fringe on the bottom edge with evenly spaced snips. Decorate the T-shirt with sewn on beads, grommets, buttons or pieces of old jewelry. Go to instructables.com/id/Super-easy-DIY-Fringe-T-shirt/ for instructions.
- Make a pillow by cutting two pieces of new or repurposed fabric into 15-inch squares. Stitch them together by machine, or by hand using a backstitch. Leave a 6-inch opening, stuff with fiberfill and stitch the opening closed.
• Paper is always fun to play with. Any kind will do — newspaper, magazine pages, copier paper, art papers, gift wrap, old envelopes. Fashion copier paper into journals, or cut out bird and butterfly shapes to make a mobile. Go to https://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/make-a-simple-summer-journal-by-mary-alice-gruppi/ or allthingspaper.net/2012/06/paper-birds-to-make.html for instructions.