I’ve been making Christmas Angels and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. I get my need to be creative from Granny. When I was growing up she was always making something-actually she still is! These days she mostly sticks to crotchet but when I was a little girl she dabbled in all sorts of creative crafting.
The top of my kitchen table hasn’t been visible for a good 2 weeks now, but I’m not letting that bother me too much. If you craft you have to spread it all out to see what you’ve got-at least that’s what I tell myself.
I love to craft with things I have on hand. Sometimes you have to buy supplies from the store, but it literally thrills my soul when I can make something with things I already have.
My Christmas Angels are made from various items. The bodies are from Granny’s days of working in the sewing factory. She saved the plastic spools that thread came on. She just knew they’d be useful for something eventually. Granny also saved the silver lids from Pap’s snuff jars. He quit dipping several years ago, but  over the years I ended up with some of those shiny tin lids that came on his jars. They made the perfect bottom for my Angels-adding both stability and a more finished look.
Like Granny, I collect bits and pieces that catch my eye knowing I’ll use them eventually in some project or other. See the bag of green squiggly things in the middle of the photo? It’s shredded paper that came in a package a few years ago. As soon as I saw it I thought of Christmas and added it to my craft stash. I’ve used almost all of the green paper bits and now I’m wishing I’d get another package with some in it!
Our collection of old buttons is always a fun place to look for crafting items. I used a button for one of the Angel’s hats. I used bits of string and ribbon I had hanging around on a few of them. And some small Christmas decorations that came off larger Christmas decorations were also used. I was even able to use a few cake decorations I picked up at a yardsale for a quarter.
Along with the odd pieces I collect to use for crafting, I also find myself using old tools. I have a pair of Granny’s scissors that I know she had when I still lived at home and my glue gun is well over the 15 year mark. Another tool I love to use is the little ruler in the photo. Its so handy because its small and its so very lovely because the initials tell me it was Miss Cindy’s father’s ruler. Curtis Mease. It just has a good feel to it-maybe that’s because its old and of good quality. Or maybe its because I think he would smile to know his ruler was being used in happiness to create beauty.
Tipper
I love arts and crafts. I’ve got a big stash of things to craft with and I could make lots of pretty things if I’d just find the time. There are so many beautiful ideas and inspirations that come to the Appalachian girl/woman.
Tipper, My husband and I watch everything you put on YouTube and Facebook and we anxiously await Fridays so we can listen to your beautiful voice as you read to us. You always mention your accent. My husband is from GA and I am a 6th generation Floridian. To us you don’t have an accent. Maybe because all our relatives sound just like you. We have always lived in the country.
I am a crafter and am always surprised at the things I find to use when I am crafting.
Never stop being YOU. You are a very special person with a very special gift and we would not have you any other way. By the way my husband is 80 and I am 73. We love you and all your family.
Hi, Tipper. Those are so unique! That is what I like about crafting, no two are ever alike. I am always using items I already have on hand. I have old wooden spools that Mom brought out to me one time for the kids to play with. In addition to the kids playing with them, I’ve used them to make ornaments with, too.
I love your little angel! I love to craft stuff also and so do my girls. They have far surpassed me! They make award winning Christmas/Thanksgiving center pieces, etc. They need to open up their own shop too. Crafting is just fun and I love to make things to give and I always love receiving something someone made. Right now I am looking up Blind Pig articles I have saved to find your Dressing recipe! Hope I win an angel!
That angel reminds me of one of our Mother’s favorite CHRISTmas ornaments. It was an angel tree topper our middle sister, Nancy, made when she was in elementary school. I can’t remember exactly what it was made of, but the sweetest part was, the teacher had gotten one of each of the children’s school pictures, had cut the child’s face out of the picture and had glued it onto the angel’s head, and our Mother thought that was beautiful.
It graced the top of our tree for many years. I hope someone still has it.
God bless.
RB
<><
I got here late today. It was pretty outside today and I been working on a 10″ by 2′ piece of maple log I cut a few days ago and had been drying. It is dead and about half rotten. Carpenter ants have been working under the bark and have some holes cut into the wood itself. I used a chisel and draw knife to get the loose bark and a wire brush to get the rest. I brought it inside so it would dry out better and so I could kill the ants that survived all the cutting, scraping and scratching. So far I’ve only caught four but there are a lot of cracks and crevices for them to hide. When it dries a little more I am going to varnish it good and mount my little anvil on it.
I’m not crafty like you and some of your readers but I really enjoy making things from stuff that most people relegate to the burn pile.
Tipper,
Thank you, thank you, I am thrilled that I won the hat and scarf….I hope everyone did not think I was ungrateful for not answering yesterday to thank you….BUT, I just now got my computer back and hopefully running.
I can’t find everything, desktop icons etc…and right this minute I’m having trouble typing for some reason….
I will close off and try to find out what is wrong with this…..the crafts are great…hope to comment more later,
Miss Cindy’s Dad’s ruler is a real treasure! Tipper I agree with you, I bet he smiles every time you use it to craft.
I love the comment about the ruler belonging to Miss Cindy’s dad — a true family heirloom that can still be used and treasured. For some reason when I read the note about Granny and her crocheting I had a vision of Pap lying in bed, peacefully sleeping and Granny beside him crocheting away, getting just one more thing done. Silly, I know but it made me laugh.
Those items are beautiful. My mom was always doing things like that when she was living. We have many of the things that she made here and put them out at Christmas time. My wife generally starts decorating just after Thanksgiving and by New Years, everything is put away for the next year.
Tipper,
I admire you, the way you take after old things, and I know your parents are so proud, the way you save stuff. There’s no other person I know who I’d rather have telling about Appalachia. Thank you! …Ken
Love your crafts. The only time I craft is at Christmas. The rest of the year I quilt. I enjoy piecing quilt tops so I’ve been told that means I’m a “topper.” Occasionally I use several of my daddy’s tools — an Edelmann brass screw driver with a patent date of 1917, a Lufkin crank tape measure, and a wood yard stick that folds down to 9 inches. These are tools he had before I was born … 70 years ago. I know he’s smiling every time he sees me use one of them. Your blog re-connects me with my roots. Thank you!!
Your angel is adorable! I like it when I can make something with what I already have and not have to buy anything. It’s one way to use up my craft and sewing supplies. I’ve been making things ever since I was a child.
Love your adorable Christmas angel! It is so much fun to create from items we have around the house! I have done it all my life. One of the things I make are beautiful clothespin dolls. I have made a variety of them and you can use them as cake toppers for birthdays, weddings, etc., and on top of decorative boxes, with pincushions or, just to set on a shelf Keep on creating!!!
Pam
scrap-n-sewgranny.blogspot.com
I always know that the Christmas season is approaching when angels appear in the stores and in displays. I love to look at angels, especially homemade ones. I have some very old ones, a couple from when I was a child. I would love to win one of your homemade ones. It would have special meaning for me since I so much enjoy reading your daily site. As a matter of fact, I look forward to it.
My mother, a native of northwestern NC, always crafted with bits and pieces. She made angels with bits of eyelet fabric, lace, and yarn; and quilted tiny quilts for wall hangings. She died 6 years ago next Tuesday, and I miss her laugh, her love, and her ability to create something from nothing.
Tipper, I just love that your family has saved and passed along things 🙂 My family also has done that, unfortunately, when I moved away from home many things I remember are no longer to be found. I loved my grammy’s button tin, it was passed down from her mother, but somehow it is gone. Thank you for sharing your treasures. Love your little angels, such happy faces!
I loved that ruler because my dad used it then gave it to me and we had the same initials. As a child it’s interesting the things you value.
I love your crafting ! I love the beautiful results and I also love your process. When you sit at the kitchen table and create you enter a different world, one full of all kinds of possibilities. I think you’ve outdone yourself this year, but then I think that every year.
Your angles are beautiful and they are all self portraits!
Just love your Christmas angels!
This brings back wonderful memories of crafting with my aunt.
She had open heart surgery and was crafting to make money to pay the bills.
She would send for me & I would draw a pattern for some new project.
We also used spools on some things. I haven’t seen any spools like that in years.
She made me feel good about myself & I had so much fun.
Then we would put together what ever project we were doing and package them.
They sold very well but the time spent together making wonderful cute little “ditties”
was the very best part.
Christmas crafts are so much fun! When my kids wre little we always had several going at once. The only thing that stuck with my oldest and youngest was the cooking for the holidays part. But my middle son loves crafts of all kinds
Your angels are beautiful! I also do alot of “scrap crafting”..which is in full swing. I have a table in a section of the upstairs that looks like your kitchen table. Where you seem to do angels, I do winter..be it snowflakes, snowfolk, pinecones and boughs, etc. I also have a love for Christmas fabric. I buy it year round when I find it. Happy crafting!!