March is National Craft Month

Did you know March is National Craft Month? I didn't until recently and think it is perfect because March is the month I go on an annual craft retreat.

While we didn't pick March for our annual retreat for that reason, I think it is serendipitous that I get to have four days dedicated to crafting this month instead of the hour or two here and there between other commitments. You can see a few of my recent retreat photos here (and here is one from a couple of years ago when we were snowed in).

I usually try to work on a bigger project while away and this year tackled something that has been waiting for seven years (yes, I'm hanging my head in shame as I type these words). This is not an original project idea by any means, and some of you may recognize it immediately. In December 2007, Ali Edwards created a 'Twas the Night Before Christmas card spinner that you can see here.  It was love at first sight for me and I starting planning a CASE of the project, collecting all the pieces I needed to make my own.

Here is a first peek at my (almost) finished project.

I pulled out one of my favorite Christmas decor pieces to help set the mood for this Christmas project. This Kringle Christmas Goose is a very special gift from my mom many years ago. I'm getting a little side tracked, but the artist who created this whimsical goose is Patience Brewster and you can spend hours scrolling through her website here.

I seriously thought this project would be organized on Thursday afternoon/evening and finished by the end of Friday, leaving plenty of time to work on other things. The truth is, it was Sunday morning before I stepped back and knew I had done as much as I could on the mountain and the finishing details would be done at home.

I had created a Word document of the Clement Clark Moore poem so that I could trim it to fit on 32 ATC cards and a couple of transparencies.

The cards were cut from a variety of Teresa Collins Christmas lines and embellished with stencils, modeling paste, stamps, dies, Wink of Stella, glitter tape and felt pieces.

Even though the papers were from different lines, they went together nicely and kept me to a simple color palette of cream, kraft, red & white.

 

I am really looking forward to putting this little spinner out next Christmas!

Even though the month is so close to being done, to help celebrate National Craft Month let me know if you would like a copy of my Word document by leaving a comment or sending an email.

It is never too early to start Christmas shopping and I'm thinking this Dash Away Dashing Santa is the perfect addition to my Santa collection.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie