A little seasonal trivia for you before sharing the projects to get you in the spirit!
The traditions of trees, mistletoe and
elves stem from Druid and Paganism roots. In fact, a lot of Christmas
traditions pre-date Christianity.
Mistletoe
was believed to ward off evil spirits, much later on earning a
reputation as a healing herb. When Christianity came to be, it was ruled
that all mistletoe was to be pulled and destroyed. Consequently to this
day, mistletoe does not grow on its own. The seeds must be introduced
to a living plant where once it takes root, it will grow and thrive all
the while destroying the host plant. It takes five years for the plant
to reach its full maturity! Kissing under the mistletoe branch didn’t
begin until the early 17th century, believing it would bring
good luck and fortune or possibly mend a broken heart. What few people
know is that after kissing, they are meant to pick a berry off the
sprig. Once the berries are all gone, the sprig then loses its magical
powers. Anyone partaking in the tradition this year, remember to pull
those berries. And if it’s a sprig without any berries, get away from
it.
On to elves .... There is so much information on these wee folk …
some good, some bad. Basically
the Pagans and Druids perceived them to be impish little folks. Very few
were ever described as being good and helpful until Christmas
celebrations came into existence. Although St Nicholas was first
introduced as an elf in A Visit from St Nicholas (1823), elves were not introduced until 1856 in an unpublished work written by Louisa May Alcott entitled Christmas Elves. They were also popularized as Santa’s helpers by publications such as Godey’s Lady’s Book by putting them on their front cover in 1873!
St Nicholas, was a Greek Orthodox Bishop during the 4th
century. He is best known for quietly giving gifts to children in need,
especially very good ones. He did have a little man by the name of
Crumpus travel with him whose job was to hand out the coal to the bad
children. Throughout the years one would see St Nicholas traveling
throughout the lands in either a red, white, brown or green long coat.
Today everyone sees Santa only wearing a red suit with white fur trim.
Do you know why? Back in the 1930’s Coca Cola was running a Christmas
advertisement. The company’s colors are red and white, thus they put him
in the same colored clothes. The advertisement was such a huge success
that everyone has perceived Santa in his outfit of red and white ever
since! Europeans deemed the 6th of December as St Nicholas
Day, which is early in advent, so that his activities would not mar the
holiest of days … December 25th.
(thanks to Karen Sullivan for this bit of info!)
Before I forget AGAIN, I have to share some good news with you about a prize give-away offered by Stampin' Up!! EVERYDAY in December you can enter the drawing (one entry per day!) There will be 10 winners who will get their own copy of MDS PLUS all the downloads from 2013 which is over $1900 in product! Can you say WOW!!!! So, head on over to Facebook and go the My Digital Site and register there and enter the contest!!!! If they hit 10,000 hits in their contest we'll all get a free thank you!!! So run, head on over!!!
Before I forget AGAIN, I have to share some good news with you about a prize give-away offered by Stampin' Up!! EVERYDAY in December you can enter the drawing (one entry per day!) There will be 10 winners who will get their own copy of MDS PLUS all the downloads from 2013 which is over $1900 in product! Can you say WOW!!!! So, head on over to Facebook and go the My Digital Site and register there and enter the contest!!!! If they hit 10,000 hits in their contest we'll all get a free thank you!!! So run, head on over!!!
How about a few Christmas project shares? I just love these little candy guys!!
Mr Grinch is a Heath bar - you can use any flat candy bar - Hershey, Skor, etc. It's really quite easy to make him. Measure
the candy bar to see what size your wrapper needs to be. You need to
double the width and add an inch PLUS add an inch for the length
too. So, the Skor and Heath bars are the same size, 1 1/2 by 6 1/2, so
your wrapper needs to be 4 by 7 1/2.
These
are the punch pieces you will need for the Grinch. The Curly Label punch
and Owl Builder piece from Old Olive. The yellow circles and black
circles are from the Owl Builder punch. The Santa hat is from the Pennant
Builder punch (folded over.) The white hat brim is from the Scallop Square punch, the
white puff ball is from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack, and the eyebrows are
from the slot punch (retired) but you can just cut some strips of paper in
brown. Cut one foot from the Old Olive Owl piece to use as a nose,
then glue it and the eyes to your Old Olive Curly Label Punch piece. I used Real Red to ink
up the stamped piece (from Tags Till Christmas). Punch it out with the 1 1/4 square punch and mount
that on the Scallop square punch.
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| Mr Grinch Candy Bar |
And we can't forget the Rolo Rascal! I made mine into a Santa but you could just as easy have a Grinch Rascal also following the punched instructions above.
Wrap
Designer Paper (about 3 ¼” x 4 ¾” around the Rolos. For the eyes... I colored 2 pearls
with a black sharpie. Cut the fabric 4" x 5" for the hat – I used the
hot glue gun to make it stick or you can use the Red Line tape.
Punches: 1-1/4" Scallop / ¼” circle for eyes / ½” circle for nose / 5 flower Punch for mustache.
Punches: 1-1/4" Scallop / ¼” circle for eyes / ½” circle for nose / 5 flower Punch for mustache.
Cut
strip of black for belt & a square of Gold Glimmer paper for buckle.
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| Rolo Rascal Santa! |
Enjoy!! I have 2 ladies coming over today from my Thursday Stamp Club to do their projects. With just two, we should get a lot done. I think I will be creating with them!!
