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Inspired by Advent Conspiracy and the Make Something Day movement, we are asking you to consider going counter-culture this Christmas season. While many people around us are stressing out over what to give Uncle Clarence for Christmas, you have an opportunity to slow down long enough to realize that he doesn’t need another sweater, tie or bottle of cologne. Maybe Uncle Larry would be more grateful if you made something meaningful for him this Christmas.

And maybe spending less on Christmas for those who already have a lot will provide you with the opportunity to give more to those who have little or nothing.

Make Something Day is approaching! Are you looking for ideas? We came across a huge store house of ideas at Just Something I Made. Click on the link below.

Thanks to our friends over at TwoShirts.org, who gave Make Something Day a mention the other day. TwoShirts is a great online community, helping turn the tide of consumerism. Check them out! The hype for MSD is growing. Are you making plans for Make Something Day? Let us know.

It’s that time of year again! Make Something Day will soon be upon us. TheOOZE.com just featured an article by Jason Evans on the subject, “Beat Your Apples Into… Applesauce.” Help us spread the word by adding one of the MSD buttons to your site. And send in your ideas for the MSD blog too.

Materials:

• Styrofoam balls

• Straight pins (small heads)

• Fabric scraps - recycle whatever you already have

• Ribbon, buttons - get creative!

Time: 20-30 min each.

**Because of the pins, I would only recommend doing this with kids 8 yrs old and older**

This is a great craft that you can make with any fabric scraps you already have. You’ll only need a styrofoam ball and a handfull of straight pins (the smaller the head the better). Just cut up your scraps into small pieces - if you don’t use small enough pieces it will be hard to follow the curve of the ball shape. The idea is to get a patchwork theme going, but get creative and do what you like. Just overlap pieces as you go so that the ball doesn’t show through. I just push the pins straight in. Once the entire ball is covered, take a piece of ribbon fold it over and push in 2 pins at a diagonal to give it extra strength. Also, if you don’t want to make ornaments, these also look great just sitting together in a bowl and make a great home decor gift!

Sojourner’s continues to promote Make Something Day. They have put up a short video and PDF template showing you how to cut up your credit card and make it into a tasteful Christmas ornament: http://www.sojo.net/blog/godspolitics/?p=4047.

They have several other pieces of Make Something Day/Buy Nothing Day coverage on our God’s Politics blog, including Make Something Money Can’t Buy (Glue Gun Optional) by Julie Polter.

There’s also a spiritual commentary about Buy Nothing Day, Advent, and the financial crisis in the December issue of Sojourners magazine: Re-Rooting Ourselves in God.

Last week I put up a recipe for making Lavender Lotion on my blog because I wanted to contribute something that was a little different from my usual home made gifts.  I have not tried this yet so I am sorry but there are no photos of the process and I have had to do a little hunting around to find the beeswax but I am really looking forward to having a go the day after Thanksgiving.

Lavender in bloom

1/2 cup dried lavendar flowers

10 drops lavender essential oil

4 tablespoons beeswax

1 cup olive oil

Pour 1 cup olive oil into the top of a double boiler

Add 1/2 cup dried lavendar flowers.  Gently heat olive oil and lavendar over simmering water for about 15 minutes.  While you are waiting cover the measuring cup with a piece of cheese cloth and secure it with a rubber band.

Remove olive oil and lavender mixture for the heat.  Carefully strain through cheese cloth into the measuring cup.

When most of the oil is filtered through the cheese cloth, remove the rubber band, pick up the cheesecloth keeping the lavender enclosed and squeeze out as much olive oil as possible.

Place measuring cup into a double boiler, add 10 drops of lavender essential oil and 4 tablespoons of grated beeswax or beeswax beads.  Stir over simmering water until melted.

Test consistency by adding a drop to the top of an ice cube.  It should be the constituency of a heavy syrup.  If too hard add more olive oil.  If too soft add more beeswax.  Pour into clean containers and allow to harden for two hours before topping with an airtight cover.

Several other suggestions came out of this post that you might like to consider.  Sonja Andrews gave a link to a simple pattern for making home made teabags - no not the second hand kind that overseas friends sometimes get in their care packets but the real thing.  She gave me another great link to Sew Mama Sew that has some really creative ideas for those that like to knit.

Instead of shopping the day after Thanksgiving, why not make something instead? If the family’s still around it could become a yearly tradition. Here’s an idea that I’ve tried recently. If you’re looking for more ideas check out the Make Something Day link above.

Wasted material drives me crazy. But I’m having to be creative to figure out what to do with it all. I understand sending good quality items to Goodwill where they can be reused, but what do you do with the kids jeans that have holes in the knees? Or the zipper is completely kaput? How about my husband’s plaid shirts that are frayed around the edges but have plenty of usable material in the middle? I’ve been looking around for lots of different ideas to use up this fabric and here is one that I’ve finally been able to bring to fruition.

For some reason our sheets wear out unevenly leaving one half only ussuable for the kids’ forts and the other half with tons of good material to use for something else. For my birthday a friend gave me a gift certificate for the bookstore and I decided to buy the book: Simple Sewing, by Lotta Jansdotter. The following “Cloth Napkin” process is taken from her instructions with a few variations of my own.
STEP 1. Cut out all pieces from the fabric.

Measure and mark the dimensions using a yardstick and fabric marker. (Since I couldn’t figure out which was the right or wrong side I didn’t worry about it, but if your fabric has a wrong side mark on that.) Cut out each piece, following markings. Dimensions: 21in. wide x 21in. long. Out of a queen sized sheet I was able to get 12 napkins this size and 4 smaller ones that I plan to use for the kids.

STEP 2. Make the napkins

With the wrong side facing up fold each edge over 1/4″ (I used 1/2″ and it looks OK) toward the center of the piece then press. Fold over another 1/4″ (1/2″) and press. Machine stitch a 3/16″ seam around all four sides, backstiching at each end. I pressed two parallel sides, sewed those then pressed the other two parallel sides and sewed those. You can use a basic stitch, but I used a zigzag and it looks nice. I was even thinking I could have used a bright color like red to jazz it up a bit since mine are plain blue, but I’ll have to do that next time. This was a lot of fun and very easy. I’ve been wanting cloth napkins for a long time but couldn’t stand paying $4 each for them. This was a great project that fits really well with my “green” ideals.

The Ecclesia Collective and Citizen Video are sponsoring three workshops in San Diego to help you get the creative juices flowing for making gifts. Stop by Citizen Video for details and to sign up. Space is limited.

To download a workshop flyer click here.