5 Artistic Ways to Embrace Christmas
Christmas is just a blink away and we can smell the festivity in the air! Hands up if your house is wafting with gingerbread, pine or delicious candy cane scents. When it comes to Christmas, there’s no end to the ways we can inject a little festivity into our lives. Keep reading below for just 5 of the many fun-filled ways you can express yourself this festive season.
1. Make Your Own Festive Gift Tags
Inspired by our Interior Designer Alexandra who got a little crafty earlier this month, these polymer clay gift tags can also double as tree ornaments. All you need is clay in your favourite festive colours, themed cookie cutters and some pretty ribbon! Simply roll out your clay, cut it into shape (remember to poke a hole for the ribbon!), bake in the oven and when it’s done and cooled, thread the ribbon through and attach to your gift. Super easy, and one the kids can have fun with too. Bonus points go to anyone who wants to step it up a notch and paint them too!
2. Paint Christmas Baubles
Paint them, dip them in glue, cover them in glitter, add felt shapes – the sky is the limit when it comes to decorating baubles!
There are so many ways you can create personalised Christmas baubles! One of our favourites is to get some paints or metallic permanent markers and go to town creating intricate shapes and patterns. You can find plastic baubles at your local craft store, such as our Bluethumb Art Prize 2021 sponsor Eckersley’s. Some fun ways to up the ante include filling them with glitter, pine cones, feathers, leaves, cinnamon sticks or dried oranges berries.
3. Draw Your Own Christmas Cards
Who doesn’t love getting mail? Go old school and send Christmas cards out to your nearest and dearest. While you’re at it, why not blow their Christmas stockings off and hand draw (or print or stamp) your own cards. It doesn’t matter your skills with a pen or pencil – you can always take inspiration from the talented drawing artists on Bluethumb or even create your own linocut prints instead. Want to keep it simple? Carve out shapes in a vegetable such as a potato and dip it into an ink pad for a super simple stamp. Yes, potato stamps are a real thing! If you don’t believe us, check it out here.
4. Get Creative with Cookie Decorating
If you’re already a fan of baking at Christmas, then we have the challenge for you! Treat your gingerbread men like the unique personages they are and decorate them as such. Pull out your piping bags and start creating an edible work of art worthy of coming to life a la Gingy in Shrek. If you make a mistake, embrace it. No one said you couldn’t take a detour into abstract portraiture. Some of our favourite portraits on Bluethumb experiment with elements of abstraction.
5. Make Your Own Table Decor
Even if your clay skills are simple, you can add a wow factor with a festive berry wreath!
Take inspiration from Bluethumb’s sculpture artists and make your own seasonal table decor ahead of the big feast. It may sound intimidating, but with air dry clay and a little creativity it’s super easy to pull off an elegant candle holder. The simplest design is to create a simple bowl, then fill it with stones or decorative pebbles and place a tealight candle on top. There’s a lot you can do with a bowl. We love the idea of imprinting leaves into the clay for a decorative embossed pattern. Or while you’re at it, why not go the whole hog and make your own scented candles? Add a drop of peppermint essence and vanilla for delicious candy canes, or get back to nature with pine infused scents.
Looking for more Christmas inspiration? Shop our Christmas in Australia curation here or give the gift of choice with a festive art voucher here.
