year's end

it's hard to get much crafting done in december, but here are two things i managed. the first is what is known as a "putz house" (or sometimes just "glitter house").  here's a little bit i stole from wiki about putz houses:

The tradition of decorative Christmas villages is rooted in the holiday traditions of the Pennsylvania Dutch. In early-colonial American Moravianhomes, the construction of a nativity scene, or putz, at the base of a Christmas tree was a very common holiday activity. The term was derived from the German verb putzen, which means "to clean" or "to decorate." These nativity scenes soon became very elaborate, and often included sawdust or fine dirt spread to represent roads leading to the manger; stones and fresh moss to represent grottos or caves; and sticks and branches to represent miniature trees. These details were in addition to the carved wooden figures that represented the Holy Family, animals, shepherds, and other traditional nativity figures.

retro renovation is one of my favorite vintage living blogs and i found this tutorial for mid-century style putz houses. so dave and i decided that we'd spend christmas eve making our own little houses this year. we used cereal boxes, martha stewart glitter, random christmas decor bits from the craft store, felt and lots of glue. they were a bit more painstaking than i originially thought they'd be, but we had fun anyway. i'll let you guess who made which house.

project two was an easy little drawstring backpack. i originally got the idea from California Pixie. i used the GoGo's t-shirt that i "won" at this year's YG white elephant gift exchange. thankfully the 14 year old that i stole it from had no idea who they were and wasn't mad at me for taking it. it makes a nice little bag. plenty of room for a pair of climbing shoes, wallet and phone.

Comments

[Heather]

Let me see, detailed architectural drawing vs freehand sketch. That's a tough one. :P

Both houses are really cute, though. Is this going to be a yearly tradition?

I like the t-shirt bag idea. I think we have some shirts that would like to participate in this kind of craftiness too.

[Darrin]

I really Dig that pack! I always find myself wishing I could re-purpose my old shirts somehow (especially the geeky ones). Not sure what I could do with them though =^(