My mother-in-law Sally is not what you would call a crafter. Even after ten years of sharing a family, she still counsels me to buy something I could make just to save myself the trouble. The closest she gets to crafting is what she calls, “Making it Wonderful.”
Sally’s methods are simple. Buy something from Big Lots or Pik n save, or some other discount store, and Make It Wonderful™ by fancying it up. Sally will add some new ribbon, maybe some more lights, and with a couple little touches she’ll take a decoration that was in the clearance bin and turn it into something beautiful.
It’s so easy to do this around Christmas time because you can always default to covering everything with glitter.
Felt snowflake
Last year Michael’s had a bunch of plain wool snowflake ornaments in their $1 bin. I knew this tree was next on my list, so I snapped them up and figured I could do something to make them interesting. I drybrushed on a coat of pearl fabric paint, glued on some rhinestones, and then traced the outlines of each shape with liquid glue and dumped Martha’s glitter all over the thing.
Wood snowflake
These are the same boring naked wood ornaments that Michael’s carries every year. I painted it pearly white, glued on a piece of lace, and then added more glitter and rhinestones.
Icicles
I barely did anything to these guys. These were from Michaels again, just clear glass ornaments, but I didn’t want to take away from the actual icicle look by filling it with something just so I could change it for the sake of changing it. Instead, I glued some little pearls on some fishing line, tied the fishing line to the ornament cap, and let the little pearls dangle inside the icicle. It’s subtle, but I like it.
In culinary school, my chef is always talking about adding layers of flavor. Why cook rice in water when water doesn’t taste like anything? Why not cook it in chicken broth and add some extra flavor to the application? Why use water alone when you can add stocks and vinegars and creams and who knows what else to deepen the flavor while you cook it.
That approach seems to make sense in this creative work, too. Why use a plain wool snowflake, when you can add a little glitter to layer the flavor?
