Christmas Crafts Part Two

All right, so this post will focus on the odds and ends I made for my family. Most were inspired by the people who ended up getting the gifts, and no two are the same. Here we go again:

The only scarf I have ever knitted. A fun experience, but I'll stick with crochet, thanks.

A Pokeball for my dearest and favorite brother (fortunately, I only have one).

A necklace for my sister.

Matching earrings also for my sister.

I just realized I did not take pictures of the other necklace I made, but that's fine. My last project for the season involved painting tins for other people. I ended up painting five with acrylic paint.

These are the lids before I painted, but after I put gesso on them.

I first put gesso on the tins as shown above. For those non-artsy folk, gesso is an acrylic base that helps the paint perform better on the material. Usually, it's used on  canvas so that the paint doesn't just soak into the canvas and makes it easier for the artist. In this  case, it made it a lot easier to paint on the metal tins.

Sailing on Lake Erie

A sled in the snow

Tragoss, Austria

Skating on the Green Lake

Puppies in the snow

The ones with the mountains are from pictures I took while traveling in Switzerland and Austria. I did add the snow because when I was there, it was May, but that's a technicality. Each tin took about forty minutes or so to paint. I altered the images to also include a little character for the people who would eventually own them, such as the dogs in the last image.

I filled them with homemade Turkish Delight, but I'll probably not be making candy again anytime soon. Let's just say it was an educational experience and leave it at that. It's my favorite candy ever since living in London for a semester (see my blog, Mind the American for more on that) and I wanted to share it with others. The tins were the real present though, and I'm happy with how they turned out.

Stay tuned for more creativity and nonsense!