Store-bought Christmas cards, ornaments and gift tags are so last year.

This holiday season, local artists are encouraging kids and parents to put their imagination to use to create a homemade Christmas complete with handmade holiday greeting cards, snow globes and decorations.

“Christmas is only as commercial as you make it — if you don’t choose to make it that way, then it’s not,” said Fox Gradin, director of Art Camp at the Quinlan Visual Arts Center.

Chrissy Derrer is the museum curator for Interactive Neighborhood for Kids, and she said children learn through playing and creating. The holiday season is a great opportunity for parents to establish traditions in the home that get the creative wheels turning, she said.

“You’re creating lasting memories,” Derrer said. “You’re enhancing their educational experience and when a parent interacts with them, it further enhances the experience.”

Derrer said snow globes are a fun and easy holiday project.

All you need is a pimento or jelly jar, some clay, a holiday trinket, mineral water, a hot glue gun and some glitter. First, flatten out a layer of clay on the inside of the jar cap and situate a small Santa Claus, Christmas tree or reindeer figurine into the clay and hot glue the trinket to the cap to secure it in place.
Then simply add mineral water and glitter to the jar and seal it closed.

“You just turn it over and shake it and watch all the glitter fall,” Derrer said.

Gail Novak, who teaches workshops at the Quinlan, said homemade Christmas cards add a personal touch to the holidays.

Novak said potato stamps make great art tools for young children.
After halving a potato, carefully cut out the silhouette of a Christmas tree or other symbol to create a design with which to decorate cards. She suggested using the stamps dipped in acrylic paint to embellish blank cards or construction paper.

Novak said that after stamping cards, it’s easy to add a red bow to the top of a Christmas tree stamp to create a multi-medium effect. She suggested using small gift bows that have a peel-off sticker on the back side.

Derrer added that children’s fingerprints or handprints often add a decorative flair to basic cards. A small child’s foot dipped into brown acrylic paint can be placed onto paper and easily transformed into a reindeer. A small red pom-pom can be used to mimic Rudolph’s shiny red nose, and wiry brown pipe cleaners can serve as antlers.

Another easy card decorating technique is to make snowflakes from coffee filters or construction paper. Begin by folding the paper several times into a square or rectangle, and then use scissors to cut random geometric shapes out of the paper from the folded edge.

Derrer said that if using coffee filters to make snowflakes, it’s easy to use a little bit of paint to make polka dots or stripes on the folded shape so that when it’s unfolded, the paint has bled through to create an abstract design.

To add a personal touch to envelopes encasing holiday cards, real postage stamps can be made from family photos through www.photostamps.com. Photos can be uploaded via the Web site, and the personalized stamps can be mailed to a home address. A sheet of 20 photo stamps costs between $5 and $10.

Gradin added that photo stickers can be made at most local drug stores to add a personal touch to gift tags.

While it’s fun to make cards and presents, Gradin said it’s the homemade ornaments that stick around year after year. She said she likes to have a children’s tree to feature kids’ handmade ornaments created over the years.

Gradin said it’s not difficult to construct small picture frame ornaments from popsicle sticks to hold children’s photos.

Sea shells and sand dollars also make for good ornament material. Accent shell colors with glitter or painted designs and add a metal hook through the small holes to garnish the Christmas tree with a splash of nature.

But Gradin said her favorite Christmas ornament can be made out of Styrofoam balls and stickpins that have the little colored bead on the end. Cover the Styrofoam ball with sequins, and use the stickpins to fasten each sequin into place. Sequins and stickpin colors can be varied to create designs and various color combinations. Drive a hook into the top of the Styrofoam ball, and it’s ready to be hung on the tree.

“The patterning possibilities are endless,” Gradin said. “It looks like a little disco ball ... very cool.”

Gradin also said that it’s been a dream of hers to decorate a tree in the yard with edible ornaments for the birds. She said a bird tree can be decorated by making popcorn and dried cranberry strands with a needle and fishing line and accented with smothered pinecones rolled in peanut butter and bird seed.

Christmas doesn’t have to cost a fortune. As a matter of fact, some of these artists said they believe the best ones don’t.

It’s the time families spend together that creates the holiday spirit, and small inexpensive craft projects can create tangible holiday memories.

“Making ornaments makes memories for your kids,” Gradin said. “And I think it’s important to take holidays and make them special.”