December in Oriel 1

The snow and ice has meant that St Fagans:National History Museum has been closed to the public for the last few days and we've had to cancel the Christmas art cart sessions (it happened last year too!).

The plan was to make Christmas decorations, tags, cards and wrapping paper, and these are still things that you could make quite easily at home, and it's lovely and cosy to be inside making things when it's snowy outside!

A really lovely eco friendly decoration is to make strings of popcorn and fresh cranberries - you can put them on the Christmas tree like tinsel, and then in the new year but them outside for the birds! They are super easy to make - take some strong thread (i use embroidery thread), make a knot in the bottom and thread through quite a large needle. All you need to do then is to thread cranberries and popcorn through until you have a long garland - it works best with popcorn that is a little bit stale as this makes it easier to thread.

Paperchains are simple to make and look great too - you can make them out of any kinds of paper, newspaper and magazines look pretty festive. If you wanted to make it a bit fancier, why not paint the newspaper first?

You will need to cut out strips of paper about an inch wide but as long as you would like (the longer the paper the bigger the loop), take one strip and bend it to form a circle and tape or glue it together, with the next strip thread it through your original loop to make a second circle and glue that too - then just carry on until you have made your desired length!

If you want to make your own wrappping paper you could get some brown packing paper and using cookie cutters dipped in paint or carved potatoes, you can print festive shapes!

I've been making paper snowflakes to decorate my house, they look fantastic taped to windows or hanging on a string together. Snowflakes are pretty easy to make but hard to explain so have a look if you can find some instructions on the internet. If you've been to any of the art cart sessions recently, you might be familiar with one of my favourite books The Art of Decorative Paper Stencils , which has really great directions in how to make paper snowflakes and other paper shapes, there is also a second volume out too.

That should keep you busy until the New Year!

The next art club is on the 8th of January at 2pm - please book if you would like to attend - we will be starting a very important project!!

Quilting club is also on the same day at 11am - it's only are second meeting so don't be shy! We would love for some more people to come along (again, please book ahead). Details for both are on our website.

So have a happy and creative holiday and see you all in January