Christmas Craftdown week 4: popcorn and tiers!

Here we are at week four of the 2010 craftdown – hard to believe! Hopefully, these two crafts will put a little jingle in your bells…

This first craft is so simple, I almost feel guilty. Operative word being almost. I’d seen the idea somewhere – it required getting small wooden trays and blocks, painting them as desired, and assembling in the same fashion, ending up with tiered serving plates. Well, guess who couldn’t find the plain wooden trays and blocks… (that would be me).

So I figured the same thing could be achieved with Dollar Tree plates and candlesticks. I was right. And I really like the finished product! For about 5 bucks and 15 minutes, you, too, can create a tiered candy/nut/appetizer dish for Christmas or any occasion! So without further ado, I present:

Tiered serving plates

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Dinner sized plate
• Salad plate or shallow bowl
• saucer or flat candle holder
• Two candle sticks
• Glass and bead glue (which is not pictured. But you should already have on hand if you made the mosaic light).

How to complete:

• Place a bead of glue around the bottom perimeter of  one of the candle sticks and position on the center of the largest plate. Allow to set a few minutes. You’ll have a little wiggle room to re-position, but act fast.
• Put a bead of glue around the top perimeter of the candle stick, and position the medium plate or bowl and allow to set.
• Repeat with second candle stick to adhere it to the medium plate, then add the smallest plate last.
• Once the glue has completely dried, fill the tiered servers with your favorite goodies and enjoy!

How easy was that? So easy, we have time to move on to craft 2!

Popcorn Wreath

Perhaps the most difficult part of this craft is not eating all the popcorn! But the end product is really cute, and worth it even if you have to make more popcorn to complete. It’s a little more time-consuming, but very therapeutic at the same time!

What you’ll need:

• Popped corn (I used less than one batch, popped in an air popper
• Paper plate
• Waxed dental floss – about 10 feet
• Needle
• Ribbon of choice

How to make it:

• Cut out the center of the paper plate. The finished/presentation side will be the back of the paper plate.
• Tie one end of the floss to the plate.
• String the popcorn onto the floss. Fun, and a bit messy I started with about 4 feet of dental floss, which wasn’t anywhere near enough. When I ran out, I simply tied the end around the plate, pulled out some more floss, tied a new end to the plate and started stringing again. If you want to start with enough to finish the wreath, I would suggest using 12-15 feet of floss, which could end up tangling. (Trust me.)
• Begin looping the  popcorn around the plate as you go, adjusting individual kernels so there are few discernible gaps if any.
• Once you’ve covered the entire wreath, you can fill in any small gaps with a glue gun and popcorn.
• Attach a ribbon to the wreath and hang.

How cute does this look on the kitchen cabinet? After Christmas, you can place the wreath outside to feed the critters.

So what are you waiting for?? Christmas eve is TWO WEEKS AWAY!! Get Crafting!

-Liz