I want to say to the parents who entrusted their kiddies to me over the last two weeks for holiday gift classes - thank you for sharing your little wonders! While I provided them with a starting point and materials, their creativity was a pleasure to watch unfold. I hope that they enjoyed the classes as much as I did.

We finished up the second week of classes with two projects: yarn bowls and what I called gratitude ornaments. Yarn bowls were messy and tactile, some people wanted to spend the entire class with their hands immersed in the glue. Here are a couple of finished projects from the less traditional side of the project spectrum:

Here is the glue recipe if you want to try your own:

Combine 1/2 cup flour and 2 cups cold water in a bowl and whisk.

Boil 2 cups cold water in a saucepan, add the flour/water mixture.

Bring to a boil again. Remove from heat and whisk in 3 TBSP sugar. Let cool.

Cheap, easy, and it works really well.

Gratitude ornaments were silly and fun. I bought large metal binding rings (office supplies) and jump rings (jewelry findings), then cut up leather strips, sliced wine corks and punched shrinky dink circles. The kids used stamps and markers to write the people or things they are grateful for on each charm and we used jump rings to attach them to the binding rings, adding a fancy gold ribbon for hanging. The MiMBY Girl has been wearing hers as a bangle.

I am planning on offering classes in the new year and will be posting those dates as soon as I recover from the holidays and return from visiting family. I wish you all the best of the Christmas holiday season - love and laughter and joy with family and friends.

Whew!