Archive for December, 2009:
Vintage Toys ATC
Vintage Toy ATC swap. The lady who hosted this swap kept the ATC on the left because she said that the little girl looks exactly as she did when she was her age. I was tickled when I heard the news.
Subscribe to the comments for this postBelsnicklers and Mummers, oh my!
He is described as a masked man who is known to be dressed in tattered and patched clothing, or a dress and a bonnet. He often travels with friends who play musical instruments and play practical jokes. I’ll bet you are thinking this isn’t a Christmas post, but indeed it is. Any guesses who this might be? Belsnickle of course!
Each year a visit from the Belsnickle was a much anticipated tradition of America’s early German settlers. 1. He would arrive as early as two weeks before Christmas and as late as New Year’s Eve. Belsnickle roamed the countryside carrying an over-sized sac on his back where fruits, candies and nuts were tucked away until they were passed out into eager little hands. The anticipation awaiting his visit was felt all around the countryside.
To announce his arrival, the Belsnickle raked a window with a branch or rang a cowbell. When the door was opened, the children scurried around hiding in fear of this odd spectacle of a man. To avoid being recognized by neighbours, the Belsnickle wore an over-sized hat and dirtied his face with mud, and sometime resorted to wearing a mask.
When the children came out of hiding, they were coaxed to recite their ABC’s, bible verses, or sing songs. “Nice” children received goodies from the Belsnickle’s sac, but the “naughty” children received a switch with the branch used to scrape the window upon his arrival.
As German-American families migrated during the 1720′s and 1730′s 2., so did the Belsnickle. During this time period, the Belsnickle began to travel with a character who would play music and play tricks.
During the mid 1800′s, the two man show evolved into a group activity known as belsnickling, shanghaiing or Kris Kringling, depending on the town or region. 3.
To avoid being recognized by family and friends, these bandits dressed in curious costumes and hats, and sometimes a mask.
The Country Living 1995 Holidays issue reported that Roy T. Stephenson, from VA, has fond memories of shanghaiing. He travelled around with his troop making noise by striking a sawblade with a hammer, ringing cowbells, whirling noisemakers, and hollering 4. until the homeowners came out to serve cookies and cider. When the homeowners came out to greet the travelling show, they were made to guess who stood under those masks and costumes.
Mummering in Canada was prominent in the prairies and in Newfoundland and dates back 200 years. Today the tradition is carried on between Christmas and January 6th.
In Canada, the Ukrainian settlers in the prairies and Newfoundland started their tradition based on fasting, church going, feasting and merry-making. Although the two areas had similar traditions, there were two things that set them apart: 1) special Malanka songs were sung on the prairies, 2) prairie mummers were never female.
By the end of WWI, the Malanka mummering tradition weakend due to the harsh climate and nature of settlement patterns. 6.
In the last decade, the Malanka tradition on the praries has been revived, 7. but with modern elements. The term “Malanka” is known as New Year’s supper dance held on or about January 14th–New Year’s Day according to the old Julian calendar.
Modern day Mummary parade in Philadelphia
Mummery is still alive and well in Newfoundland. A video can be viewed of a mummering event.
More interesting links
Loreena McKennitt\’s Mummery Play video
Excellent 38 second video showing how the original Belsnickle dressed
Bibliography
1. Country Living Holidays, 1995 Edition, page 34.
2. Country Living Holidays, 1995 Edition, page 35.
3. Country Living Holidays, 1995 Edition, page 35.
4. Country Living Holidays,, 1995 Edition, page 35.
5. http://cjtm.icaap.org/content/13/v13art5.html-page 1
6. http://cjtm.icaap.org/content/13/v13art5.html-page 3
7. http://cjtm.icaap.org/content/13/v13art5.html-page 3
Tutorial Tuesday: Paper Christmas Tree
There are a lot of paper Christmas trees around blogland this year, so I can’t say this tree is an original idea. However, my tree stands apart from the others because there are lots of layers, paper sizes, and ribbon. I’ll bet you will be surprised to learn that that curly gold ribbon is in fact Christmas gift wrap ribbon. It curls beautifully and adds a shine to the tree. The best part: it’s quick and easy.
Supplies:
Styrofoam cone (mine is 7″ tall)
Different widths and lengths of paper.  Mine are 3/4″ x 7″ and 3/4″ x 5″
push pins
white glue/glue dots
Fold the 7″ strips of paper so that the ends touch. Line up the bottom of the paper so it just touches the table. Push the pin into the styrofoam. Alternate colours. Use the smaller lengths as you reach the top of the tree.
As you work upwards, let the bottom edge hang over top of the bottom layer.
These strips look big, but they are only 1/4″ wide. Cut them into strips of 5″ and 4″.
Use push pins to pin the smaller pieces of paper in between the larger pieces of paper.
Once you get to the top, pin curled gold ribbon to the top of the sytrofoam.  Place glue or glue dot on the back of the gold ribbon and ahere to the strip of paper directly underneath. This ensures that the push pins are hidden. When you push pins into the gold ribbon, make sure it is secured to the very top of the styrofoam as seen in this photo.
You are now ready to finish the top of your tree. There are so many things you can do such as:
- Ribbon
- Christmas ornaments
- Dollar store decorations
- polymar clay star
- assorted colours of decorative gift wrap ribbon
- beads
Please link me to your tree. I’d love to see it.
Due to time constraints of the holiday season, I will continue with coloured pencil in January. One kind reader let me know that it is just too hard to do homework at this time of year.  If anyone every has a comment that will be helpful to everyone, please feel free to let me know.
Vintage Toys ATC
Vintage Toys was the theme for November’s Artist Trading Card (ATC) swap. For those who are not familiar with ATC’s, the size is 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″. I used a variety of images, so the 10 ATC’s that I made to trade were all different.
I started by using watercolour paper with the Distress Ink technique and then I tore pages from an old book, and distressed the edges of the paper with ink. Next, I added the vintage image, which I downloaded from an Etsy purchase, and adhered the image with Golden Gel. Once the gel was dry, I embossed gold along the image (stamp is Odd Bird Planet). Red brads were added. The image was then layered on top of black cardstock, and then layered over another page from a book, and then placed my final layer onto purple cardstock. The last step was to use a gold Krylon pen to trace around the edges.
Have a great day. Thanks for stopping by!
Let Them Eat Cake Challenge Winner
Opps, looks like I forgot to draw a name for Let’s Eat Cake challenge. The winner is
Yael. Please send me your mailing address to scrapbook4ever@yahoo.ca and I’ll get your cupcake stamps off to you.
Polka Dot Challenge Winner
Polka Dot Challenge Winner
Irit of Irit’s Shalom
Please e-mail me with your mailing address for you prize. scrapbook4ever@yahoo.ca
SD Challenge 20: Merry Christmas
Wow, here we are at challenge 20 already, and what a festive challenge it is. Today we are all about the holidays–Christmas, Hanaka, or however you celebrate. This week, we’d like to see your holiday cards, and would like a description of how you celebrate the holidays by linking into the comment section of this post.
Jessica Grundy created four fabulous fairies for the holidays. Check out her blog Solocosmo. Her darling artwork is sold on her Etsy store.
Today’s post is a sneak peak into our newest release. On Monday, four new holiday stamps will be ready for purchase.
Let’s see what the design team has for you this week.
Beth used Wreath Fairy
Jennifer used the Wreath Fairy
Kim used the Wreath Fairy
Beth used the Wreath Fairy once again
Beth used the Poinsettia Fairy
This week’s prize
Wreath Fairy and Poinsettia Fairy
Everything You Wanted to Know About the Candy Cane
Candy canes are one of my favourite things to have on hand during the holidays. There are so many yummy recipes and fun crafts to make. I hope you find inspiration to bake or create after reading my post.
Delight your guests with this candy cane cake.
Kids, both big and small, will like these candy cane cakes. Bon Appetite!
Candy Cane bark is a favourite of mine.
Legend of the Candy Cane
Long ago, in the 1600′s, Germans attended living nativities at church. The mass was long and it was difficult for children to sit still through the long service. Young choir members fidgeted and became restless. One day the choir director decided to give the children white sticks of candy, in the shape of a “J”, to signify the staff of Jesus Christ.
The tradition of passing out white candy sticks at live nativity masses spread throughout Europe, and eventually people started to decorate their Christmas tree with these candy sticks.
Eventually the idea of decorating a tree with these candy sticks spread overseas, and in 1847, August Imgard decorated a spruce tree in Wooster, Ohio. He placed many white sticks and paper ornaments on that spruce tree, and created the first candy cane tree in the USA.
In the late 1800′s a candy maker wanted to create a candy signifying his faith in Jesus Christ. This candy maker started with a white stick of candy, signifying the fact that Jesus was good and pure. Next, he shaped the candy into a “J” for Jesus Christ. He decided to add red stripes to represent the suffering that Jesus encurred. Finally, the candymaker added peppermint because it was like hysopp, a herb mentioned in the old testament.
Today, people everywhere are decorating their Christmas trees with candy canes. Unfortunately, the significance of the shape and colour of the candy cane was forgotten and is a commercial symbolism rather than a religous one.
When we decorate our trees this year, let us reflect on the symbolism of the candy cane.
Children’s Candy Cane Colouring Pages
Colouring Page site
Candy Cane from The Color site
Candy Cane Gingerbread House
For many years I used to make a gingerbread house from scratch. I’m thinking of doing one again this year and found a wonderful recipe and tutorial.
Fun Flickr Links
A darling little candy cane is running to catch up to Santa
Yummy candy cane cupcakes
The cutest little houses in Candycaneville.
Candy Cane merry go round
Martha Stewart Loves Candy Canes Too
Turning a plain candy cane into a cute reindeer is a good thing
Ways to use up leftover candy cane
For the chocolate lover there is Triple Chocolate Peppermint Triffle
Peppermint Eggnog anyone?
This was a very fun post to put together. Even I learned something new on my quest to entertain you.
Happy Holidays
Beth
Tutorial Tuesday: Coloured Pencil on Designer Paper
Welcome back to a fourth installment of Colouring with Coloured Pencil.  How are you doing with your coloured pencils so far? Are you comfortable with creating shadowed areas? Let’s review what you learned so far:
- How to use Coloured Pencil Part I–Introduction
- How to use Coloured Pencil Part II–Finishing Touches First
- How to use Coloured Pencil Part III–Let’s Start to Colour
- Colour Me Beautiful
- Colour Wheel
- Prismacolor Coloured Pencil
This week I will show you how unique your cards can be when you combine coloured pencil with designer paper (DP). Did you notice that on Saturday’s Polka Dot Challenge post, I coloured the DP that was used on the dress? That very same paper was left uncoloured in the background.  Don’t you just love the look of DP in the background and on the image? For more information about paper piecing, you can read my post entitled just that: Paper Piecing.
I hope you have fun with this technique. For those of you who put your coloured pencils aside for the Copic marker, are you ready to try your coloured pencils again?
Next week I will have another installment of Colouring with Coloured Pencil where I will have another unique technique.  Subscribe today so you don’t miss another tutorial. Stay tuned for some fun Christmas tutorials as well as my weekly Coloured Pencil tutorials between now and Christmas.
To add colour around your image, stamp out image two times. Cut one image out to use as a mask.
Place the mask over top of the background image. Hold in place and lightly rub colour around the masked areas.
Stamp out your images onto designer paper.
Using a dark shade of coloured pencil, shade in various areas of your image. I shade under the collar as it is a shadowed area.
Shade belted area, just along the sides. Shade in the pockets.
Cut out the designer paper.
Adhere designer paper to coloured image.
Here is another example of shaded designer paper.
Have fun colouring your designer paper!
Splitcoaststampers
The Altered Alice
The Altered Alice
Twitter
Craft Gossip
Laycock Designs
ODBD
Scrapbook News and Review
