We’re celebrating a year of the podcast with a Snart episode!
Snart is Snack+Art (the snack bit isn’t as important, but if you want to be a purest, grab some Christmas Tree Cakes) and I’m sharing some artists who have amazing holiday ideas, thoughts on books about Christmas crafts, activities to do with people you like, and fun projects to try as we get into the season.
Enjoy!!
And be sure to scroll down for all the links you could possibly want!
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Artists
* Jennifer Perkins - If you love a kitschy, crafty Christmas like me, she is your one stop shop for inspiration! I love her! She’s my friend in real life and I still crawl her site during the holidays looking for inspiration. She does lots of events around Austin, so be sure to follow her on Instagram if you’re in the area and want to make cool crafts with a cool chick.
* Substack: iamjenperkins.substack.com
* Blog: https://jenniferperkins.com/category/holidays/christmas/
* Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheHuntressGatherer
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferperkins
* The Crafted Life - If you like super simple, super colorful crafts at Christmas time, this is your gal! Another actual friend (how lucky am I?! 😭), Rachel is full of ideas that bring color into your life and holidays. Also, her books are incredible!
* Blog: https://thecraftedlife.com/category/holiday/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecraftedlife/
* Newsletter: https://thecraftedlife.com/newsletter/
* Colorful Living Book: https://thecraftedlife.com/colorful-living-links/
* Perkins on Parkway - I don’t actually know Krystle in real life, but her IG is full of fun home decor and DIYs. I recently saw, on Instagram, a felt Christmas chain DIY that I’m absolutely doing this year!
* Blog: https://perkinsonparkway.com/category/christmas/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perkinsonparkway/
* Mollie Johanson - We’re back to real life friends here! Mollie is an incredible artist, embroiderer and crafter. We even collabed on a pin together many years ago! Her felt holiday projects and sew-a-longs are beyond cute (as you’ll see below).
* Blog: https://wildolive.blogspot.com/search/label/christmas
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/molliejohanson/
* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wildolive
* Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/wildolive/
Books
I’m not going to share a list of books this time because I put together a pretty thorough list for the Christmas in July post. But, I will say, my best advice for finding good holiday craft books is to go thrifting. Any vintage Christmas craft book is going to be golden!
Activities
* Cocoa Crawl - I’ve only just heard of this, but apparently, shops will provide hot chocolate samples and you can just walk around town drinking cocoa and eating treats?! Sign me up! There are bunch around me, too!
* Neighborhood Lights drive - I know there are lots of places to see giant light displays (we loved Trail of Lights and Peppermint Parkway in Austin every year), but when I was little and we didn’t have a lot, we’d just take a night and drive around the fancy neighborhoods to see what their lights were like lol!
* Holiday Craft Night - There are so many projects you can do with friends for the holidays! Make ornaments and trade them, have a cookie baking day, make paper chains. Have a host, pick the supplies, get the cheesy music on and make it a night!
* Ceramic Painting Studio - I flipping love a paint-your-own ceramics place. There’s one near us that has a giant light up Christmas tree and I need to paint my own pink, ceramic tree! It’s a must.
Projects
* Christmas Heirloom Dollhouse - This can be huge and involved (like Perkins on Parkway) or use a simple IKEA house as a base and be moderately involved (like Blushing Embers). Either way, I’m obsessed. You could even make a big dollhouse like A Beautiful Mess did years ago and make holiday themed rooms or swap out and redecorate that mini house for Christmas, too!
* https://perkinsonparkway.com/diy-christmas-dollhouse/
* instagram.com/blushingembers/
* https://abeautifulmess.com/how-to-build-a-diy-dollhouse/
* Wreaths - There are so many ways to make cute wreaths! You could make them humongous using pool noodles. You could hot glue a ton of vintage ornaments to a tinsel wreath (omg I want to do this so bad!). You could make tiny ones from bitty wreaths and kitschy odds and ends (I share this one for Christmas in July, but I’m still obsessed).
* https://abeautifulmess.com/easy-oversized-christmas-wreath-diy-with-pool-noodles/
* https://inspiredbycharm.com/diy-vintage-christmas-ornament-wreath/
* https://www.bhg.com/christmas/ornaments/easy-christmas-ornaments/
* Ornaments - Duh. First, please try making some pushpin ornaments! I got a bunch of satin ornaments from At Home last year to use as a base for pushpin decorating and I love them. Felt ornaments can also be fun if you’d rather sew and embroider. And I love making no-sew quilted ornaments. I made a few last year and while they took longer than expected they were easy to put together.
* https://wildolive.blogspot.com/2019/10/ornament-stitching-clubs-for-making.html
* Stacey Lee Creative - no sew quilted Christmas ornament
* Memory Chain - So, we made paper chains in my family, but it was never just about the decoration. We’d write a Christmas memory or just a memory that brought us joy from the last year on each piece of paper. Then, we’d read them off as we stapled the paper together. Everyone got links in the chain! And it was always so fun to think back on the joy of the year and the holiday traditions we love. The projects below are just different takes on the paper chain craft.
* Perkins on Parkway Felt Chain
Links
* Newsletter:https://beckyhelms.substack.com/s/newsletter
* Previous Snart Episodes:
https://beckyhelms.substack.com/p/snart-theme-for-july-with-becky
https://beckyhelms.substack.com/p/28-snart-theme-for-june-with-becky
https://beckyhelms.substack.com/p/24-snart-theme-for-may-with-becky
https://beckyhelms.substack.com/p/10-becky-snart-snackart-afterschool
https://beckyhelms.substack.com/p/12-snart-theme-for-february-with
https://beckyhelms.substack.com/p/16-snart-theme-for-march-with-becky
https://beckyhelms.substack.com/p/20-snart-theme-for-april-with-becky
♡ Becky
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