Hybrid Crafts

I really need to work on this blogging once a month thing!  With the upcoming Christmas season you will most likely be seeing more and more of me.  This is going to be a very handmade Christmas - at least, it will be if I get everything done that I have planned.  I guess that's the catch, isn't it?  I've always had great intentions to get started with my handmade gifts a few months before Christmas, but it never happens.  This year I finally figured out why.  It's all the canning and preserving I do!  From about the middle of July until the end of October there is always something I am either bottling, juicing, drying, making salsa out of, or turning into jam.  I guess that's not so bad, especially since I use a lot of the jams and salsas as gifts.  Now that I am done with the preserving, it's on to crafting, sewing, and soap and lotion making.  I'll be posting pics of these various projects soon.

So, what do I mean by hybrid crafts do you wonder?  I have been crafting for about 20 years now, and with living in Utah I am pretty well acquainted with most forms of craftiness.  And I have been doing this long enough to see different handicrafts fall in and out of fashion.  Toll painting was HUGE 20 years ago around here.  But then it kind of disappeared.  Have you noticed though, that wood crafts have made a resurgence in popularity?  This has been going on for a few years now - I'm actually a little late to this party.  What is new and different about it, compared to the toll painting of 20 years ago, is a lot of these projects have combined the absolutely beautiful paper that is available on the market today with the wood.  There are a few businesses that have popped up that have absolutely adorable wood & paper projects.  Here are the two that I know of:

http://www.thewoodconnection.com/

and the project below came from:

http://craftywoodcutouts.com/

I painted the sides of the wood blocks brown, and then traced the letters onto various fun papers, which were then distressed, and then mod-podged onto the wood.  The papers were primarily from the Apple Cider line from American Crafts, and some are DCWV.  Then I finished it all off with a finishing spray, and some raffia and buttons.  Funny side note:  I think the raffia that I have is older than my children!  Do you remember when for a while raffia was everywhere?  I bought a package of it about 15 years ago, probably the last time I was toll painting.  Low and behold, I was able find it and dig it out of my bin o' odds and ends.

So there you have it - my first successful creation made from wood and paper.  And I got it done just in time to have to start getting the Christmas decorations out...  ;-)