Holiday crafts

It’s not too late to make gifts for the holidays! 

The holiday season is upon us, but do not fret.  There is still plenty of time to make gifts for friends, family, and maybe even a few strangers this year.  If these books are checked out, we have hundreds of craft books!  Be sure to ask a staff member if you need help finding another title.

Handcraft Wire Jewelry: Chains, Clasps, Pendants (2015)

By Kimberly Sciaraffa Berlin

This guide to wire jewelry covers all the basics of wire jewelry creation.  Lovely color photos and step-by-step instructions will help to guide you as you create stunning pieces.  The author teaches jewelry makers how to make 22 pieces from start to finish.  The techniques described cover all the basics of wire jewelry construction including a variety of clasps, pendant settings, and chains.  The best part is that each instruction is a foundation technique that is interchangeable, the only limit is your imagination.

200 Beading Tips, Techniques and Trade Secrets (2009)

By Jean Power

Award winning jewelry designer Jean Power walks readers through the basics of beading projects.  This book covers design and color considerations, bead types as well as basic bead stringing, wire work, and bead weaving techniques.  This book is full of color photos and easy to follow instructions.  It is a modest sized book, but is packed with information!

Terrarium Craft: Create 50 Magical, Miniature Worlds (2011)

By Amy Bryant Aiello and Kate Bryant

Turn your latest thrift store finds into lovely terrarium gifts.  This book is filled with ideas for creating living gifts.  Using jars ranging from fancy apothecary jars to regular mason jars the ideas in this collection are as simple as they are intricate.  Some plants (mosses) can still be collected locally.  So, save yourself some money and get to the woods before the snow settles in for winter.

Arm Knitting: How to Make a 30-Minute Infinity Scarf and Other Great Projects (2014)

By Mary Beth Temple

Have a couple skeins of yarn? That’s all you need to make an arm knitted scarf!  These scarf projects make for a super quick gift.  The author details the basics of arm knitting and offers 15 projects based on this simple idea.  No needles or other equipment required. 

Scissors, Paper, Craft: 30 Pretty Projects All Cut, Folded, and Crafted from Paper (2014)

By Christine Leech

This collection of paper crafts ranges in difficultly from easy to somewhat complicated. Projects include pretty packaging for your other gifts: gift bags, gift tags and boxes. Home decorating: garlands, mobiles and light embellishments.  And standalone gifts: books, pictures and figurines.  At the end of this book you will find a nice bonus, all the templates. These templates make even the most complicated project in this book doable. 

The Art Abandonment Project: Create and Share Random Acts of Art (2014)

By Michael deMeng and Andrea Matus deMeng

Not technically a craft book. However, if you like the idea of random acts of kindness, try out the idea of Art Abandonment this holiday season. Art abandonment is creating something for the pleasure of making it, and then leaving it for an unsuspecting person to discover.  This book contains ideas for art abandonment, monthly challenges, and stories from the artists and ‘finders.’ The Art Abandonment Project also has a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/ArtAbandonment/, join to see art abandoned and found all around the world!  From the facebook page you can also download tags describing the art abandonment project. 

Happy (holiday) crafting!

--Andrea Ingmire, Library Director