A How-To Guide for Scrap-Happy Holidays and Merry Making
A How-To Guide for Scrap-Happy Holidays and Merry Making
Introduction
This time of year, we are bombarded with snow, advertisements, and Mariah Carey. We at The Hawk Makerspace can’t protect you from any of that, but we can encourage you to fight back with your creativity! This year, we’re going to show you how to make your own wrapping paper, gift tags, and a one-of-a-kind ugly holiday sweater so you’ll be the coolest gift-giver around. Stick with us, and your heart might just grow three sizes!
Supplies You’ll Need
Before we begin, go and grab some old holiday cards (or collage materials), paper shopping bags (or ironed-out brown packaging paper), scissors, tape, ribbon/string, and coloring utensils like pens or paint markers- whatever supplies speak to you, really!
Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With Strings
What better way to spread holiday cheer than to reduce, reuse, and recycle? By utilizing last year’s festive cards and some charming paper grocery bags, you can dress up your presents in a gift that keeps on giving! These can be embellished with drawings, stamps, or stickers to add even more of a personal touch. If you’re anything like Makerspace manager, Emma, you might not be great at wrapping presents. That’s okay, it’s all part of the charm! After watching some tutorials, she decided to make her own how-to video for all of you who refuse to measure and cut on a straight edge (like her). Click here to watch the video! If you’re already a present-wrapping savant, go ahead and skip to the next paragraph.
Last Year’s Greetings, This Year’s Givings
Now that your gift is all wrapped up, it’s time to punch out a DIY gift tag with all those holiday cards you’ve been hanging onto. We know, it’s hard to let go- just trust the process and dust off last year’s cards to bring them back to life for this year’s festivities! No magical old silk hat required. If you don’t have any cards, you could make a collage or drawing on some heavier paper or cardstock. Once you have your materials ready, simply grab a button punch (2” or larger will do), or cut your tags out by hand if you have a different shape in mind. When you have your tags punched out, use a one-hole punch to pop out a perfect hole for your string to go through. If you skipped ahead and missed the fancy string-wrapping technique, here is that video again: https://youtu.be/EpD9_u_JAFE?si=sbmtHcP02djdf1-y
What to Wear Under the Mistletoe
If you made it this far, you are nearly ready for your holiday party/gathering/bonanza. We have one more idea to help you out: the quintessential ugly holiday sweater! Here’s the rundown:
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First, hit up the back of your closet, your mom’s old storage bins, or the local thrift and find a knit sweater to transform into your new favorite holiday garb.
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Next, you’ll want to plan and cut out your appliqué pieces to sew onto the sweater. We used our laser cutter at The Hawk Makerspace to cut out our appliqué (because of course). You can also find some beads, jingle bells, pipe cleaners, pom-poms, etc. to glue or sew on after you attach your larger pieces of appliqué! We took it a step further down fancy lane at The Hawk Makerspace and used our embroidery machine to sew down our applique piece, but you could also use a sewing machine or hand-sew yours. Click here to find out how you can use our laser and embroidery machine for your projects!
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Once your larger piece(s) are sewn down, you can then add your collection of bits and bobs to your sweater. We went with a combination of hand-sewing and hot glue for our creation!
When the glue dries, you are ready to don your delightfully ugly apparel and hustle on over the river and through the woods to your holiday gathering.
My Dear, We’re Still Goodbye-ing
Before you go, we wanted to remind you that it is not too late to donate your handmade hats and mittens to The Hawk Makerspace for our annual Crafted in Kindness drive! We will be taking donations at our desk during open hours from now until December 20th, and for each donation made, participants will be entered into a prize drawing.
Our team at The Hawk Makerspace wishes you a merry holiday season and a very happy New Year