Christmas Wrap ups
Easy Christmas Wrap ups Christmas wrap ups. If you have more dash than cash this Christmas try wrapping up your gifts in these stunning covers. They look as if they cost a million dollars…
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Christmas Napkins
Festive Flair Christmas Napkins Individual Style Delight your guests this Christmas with individually styled Christmas napkins, each one decorated with a winter motif. These napkins will enhance a beautifully laid table and, as each…
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Landscape Picture With a Low-end Mobile Phone
How to use your low-end mobile phone camera to take a landscape picture. Picture & Story © Janek Szymanowski Everyone uses their mobile phone camera to take pictures, mostly of friends, family and meaningful events….
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Christmas Tree Decorations
How to Make Christmas Tree Decorations Making your own Christmas tree decorations is all part of the planning and preparation for Christmas. When in full swing there’s nothing more satisfying and relaxing than making…
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Festive Candles
Festive Christmas Candles Bright red festive candles are perfectly suited to the jollities of Christmas-time. Displayed in brass or glass candlesticks and set against glossy green foliage, they conjure up images of traditional Christmases,…
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Symbolic Christmas Tree Ideas 5 Quick Steps
Making a Home-made Symbolic Christmas Tree This bare and wintry symbolic Christmas tree was made from one salvaged tree trunk but you could achieve a similar symbolic Christmas tree effect by nailing two branches…
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Making a Pomander 3 Steps
How To Make a Pomander Historically a pomander was made of any aromatic bunch of flowers or herbs and spices to ward off bad smells. A present day pomander can be made by using an…
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Culinary Food Decorations
Culinary Food Decorations – Decorate Your Tree With Food Hey good looking! Look at these delightful culinary food decorations ideas. For a simple effect, decorate your Christmas tree with some food. How to decorate your…
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Make Paper Pears For Christmas 4 Steps
How to Make Paper Pears Materials Sheets of newspaper Wallpaper paste, mixed to full strength following manufacturers instructions and left to stand before use. Bowl and spoon for mixing the paste Scissors Masking tape Thin…
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Christmas Tree Trimming – How To
Trimming Your Christmas Tree Have you grown up with the tradition of decorating the Christmas tree with all the decorations you have collected over the years? Or loading the branches with as many sparkly baubles…
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Christmas Craft Ideas
Christmas Craft Ideas for Décor There is something magical about bringing greenery into the home for Christmas: the smell of pine needles on the tree, the glossiness of rich, dark evergreens, like holly and…
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Mural Art At Home
Mural Art – Bringing Art Home Story by Penny Swift & Pictures by Janek Szymanowski © Mural art and the living use of color have been decorative features of architecture for many centuries, projecting…
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Costume Jewelry Makes a Comeback
Costume Jewelry Today is Bold and Beautiful Story by Penny Swift Back in the day when I was a child, my grandmother owned a costume jewelry store. It was a place I loved, with its…
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Caring for Houseplants
How to Look After Houseplants All Pictures by Janek Szymanowski © Living with houseplants can be an enriching experience even for the novice gardener. A gloriously red amaryllis set against drifting snowflakes outside the window,…
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Wood Carving & Sculpture
Wood Carving & Sculpture a Craft From Before the Dawn of History The oldest known stone carvings date back more than 25,000 years. Although no examples of prehistoric wood sculpture remain (wood decomposes much…
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Fabric Printing
Block Printing on Fabric Fabric printing has been practiced since antiquity, notably in India, Egypt, and China. Throughout the centuries it has evolved from a simple process of pressing inked wood blocks on cloth…
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Quilting & Patchwork
A Craft Born of Frugality—Quilting and Patchwork The Start Of Quilting Quilting was carried to Europe in the Middle Ages by the Crusaders, who returned with quilting from the Middle East with padded linings…
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Spinning From Fiber To Yarn
Spinning From Fiber to Yarn Today hand spinning—the drawing out and twisting of fiber—is still done in the way it was thousands of years ago. Material. Fleece is sold by the pound in three…
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Basket Making An Ancient Craft
Basket Making is Man’s most ancient craft Basket Making Worldwide Basket making survives in many parts of the world today in forms, techniques, and materials similar to those used in past ages. While continuing as…
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Paper mache Ideas 4 Easy Steps
Paper Mache, the Supreme Paper Art Basic techniques Two basic methods are used in paper mache — one employing paper strips, the other, mash. In the first method paper is torn into strips and the…
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Watercolor Painting
How to Paint With Watercolor The step-by-steps on this page show the typical stages in the development of a watercolor landscape. For the landscape shown here the artist used a17- by 22-inch sheet of French…
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Color and Design – Use The Color wheel
Color and Design Understanding color White light is made up of light of different colors. Anyone who has seen a rainbow has seen white light divided into its component colors, the colors of the spectrum….
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String Art With 9 Steps
String Art is Symmetrical Art String art makes circles out of straight lines-and this is probably as close as we will ever get to squaring the circle. The art form originated early in the 20th…
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Brass Lamps
Collectable Brass Lamps Rotation creates beautiful one-of-a-kind brass lamps from repurposed collectables. Owned by sister’s Joanne (right) and Christina Pretorius (left), Rotation creates only brass lamps from unique items sourced on their travels around South…
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Collage Art Form
Collage – A contemporary art form Collage, from the French verb coller (“to glue”) is the general term for an artistic arrangement of various materials glued to a surface. See the collage “Cosmos” left by…
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Candle Making
Candle making the Traditional Way People have been making candles since the times of the ancient Romans, and chances are they will continue to do so, not out of necessity, but because of the wonderful…
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All About Fruit Preserves
Fruit Preserves All The Basics Equipment and Supplies Needed for Fruit Preserves Any reasonably well equipped kitchen will have most of the utensils needed for preserving fruits. The only essential equipment that may be…
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Bread Making At Home
All About Bread Making At Home Early Days Of Bread Making Man has been making bread of some sort since the end of the last ice age. The earliest breads were undoubtedly crude, unleavened…
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How to Make a Mortise and Tenon Joint In 19 Steps
Make Mortise and Tenon Joints Story & Pictures by Janek Szymanowski © While there are many items that you can use to fasten pieces of wood together, it is essential to choose the right…
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How To Make a Miter Box 4 Easy Steps
How to Make a Miter Box Story & Pictures by Janek Szymanowski © A miter box will help you with the fundamental woodworking principles of keeping work level and square and are vital irrespective…
