Preparing for the Journey Home

The annual holiday journey home to Central Arkansas is the highlight of every holiday season for us. Since the flight would be long and convoluted with three layovers: Phoenix, Houston and then Memphis, we opt to travel in comfort by car, leisurely making our way halfway across the country, taking time to enjoy the Christmas scenery, stop at all the interesting little waysides, and rehearse Christmas roundelays. A family favorite is Christine Lavin's "Heigh-Ho Cry Santa's Elves," with "Tacobel Cannon" a close second. (To listen to "Tacobel Canon" click here: Lavin Link, then click on Tacobel Canon in the playlist. It's side-splitting hilarious!) We take two days to make the trip, stopping overnight in Amarillo at a favorite and familiar hotel. Swimming pool for exercise, chilling out in the hot tub, a home cooked meal from the cooler to reheat in the room...up early to grab fruit and peanut butter from the breakfast bar and we're away in the morning, refreshed and relaxed. A blissful way to travel. This year, weather permitting, we're detouring up to Santa Fe on the way home, to check out the Georgia O'Keefe museum. How exciting is that?

The trip entails alot of preparation; I make our meals and travel snacks ahead of time so we have yummy healthy eats along the way. Granola bars, jerky, crudites, tamari almonds,veggie wraps, homemade sausages, soups and stews. Yum...Can you tell I love to cook? LOL!

It's also a part of the tradition that I arrive in Arkansas with fun crafty things to do with Princess Christmas Joy's children, and this year it will be paper stars made (mostly) from advertising inserts. Aunt Sharon cannot arrive empty handed...so I've spent a couple of days in the studio playing with things to do with the kids, and here's what I've come up with:

This first photo is a folded German Star made of paper strips cut from sales flyers. If you'd like to try making a few of your own, here's a link to an excellent video tutorial: German Paper Stars. Once you get the hang of them they go together quick and easy, and since I use sales flyers instead of color coordinated papers each one is delightfully different from the others. They're such fun to make. I love watching each one take shape, step by step, fold by fold. Once I start making these it's very hard to stop...

This next piece is called a Finnish Star. Sweet and simple, and oh-so-elegant, it's made of 18 half inch strips of paper which are woven together, twisted, and then glued. This one is made from art paper scraps from my scrap bin...Isn't it beautiful? I think the kids will like this one best. Here's a link to a good tutorial: Finnish Star. I was having so much fun making the German Stars that I ran out of sales flyers and haven't had a chance to try these ala upcycle...art paper scraps count, don't they?

These last two are from the coffee club I attended on Tuesday at About Memories and More, our local scrapbook store, and Kirsten didn't really

give us a name for it, so I'll call it the Art Star. The first one measures about 16" from tip to tip and uses two sheets of double sided paper. The second measures about 10" across, and used just one sheet. I suspect that paper from the sales flyers will not have enough body to support the weight of these, but as soon as the Sunday paper replenishes

my stock of advertising inserts, I'll give it whirl, but on a smaller scale, say with 3" square base units.These look complicated, but they're deceptively simple. Here's a link: Art Stars. The larger of the two pictured is constructed of 6" square double sided art paper made with 7 half inch wide cuts in the base triangle for a total of eight segments (a deviation from the pattern link...), and the smaller is of 4" squares. They're so elegant and easy-to-make we just might run out of space to hang them! I SO look forward to making these decorations with my nieces and nephews! And I know the Princess will have fun too, playing along with the rest of us kids...AND do we know what will be dangling from every square inch of her ceiling next year? And Granny's ceiling, too? :)

If you have a fun holiday paper craft you'd like to share, I'd LOVE to post a link to it on the blog. just drop me an email, or leave a comment, and I'll pass it on...

I'm off to find places to hang these beauties! Thanks for visiting, come again soon.