Nine Sarah Wean Thanksgiving Crafts Compiled by
Pilgrim Pal
Create a flock of these bright votive holders: they’re a great project for kids and, filled with battery-operated tea lights, a luminous addition to your table. 1. Apply a dab of hot glue from a glue gun to the wooden doll head. Then adhere the head to the votive holder 2. Brush Mod Podge over the head and body, then cover them with overlapping tissue paper scraps. Apply another Mod Podge layer and let it dry for at least 45 minutes. 3. To make the tail feathers, cut 9- by 2-inch strips of tissue paper, bend each in half without creasing it, then twist the ends together. Use a dollop of tacky glue to attach each feather to the body. 4. Cut a beak from a double layer of yellow tissue and affix it with tacky glue. Add two beads for eyes. Cut a long oval of red tissue, twist one end, and affix it as a wattle. Allow the turkey to dry.
Craft Materials: • Hot glue • Glue gun • 1 1/4-inch wooden doll head (available at craft stores) • Small glass bubble votive holder (ours is 4 inches wide by 3 1/2 inches high) • Brush • Mod Podge • Tissue paper • Scissors • Tacky glue • Beadsw Time needed: About 2 to 3 Hours
Pinch Pot Favors
Indians and Pilgrims alike made pinch pots out of clay to use for everything from storing grains to cooking over a fire. This Thanksgiving, they serve a more decorative purpose—as place markers filled with sweet treats. 1. Since clay can be hard for little hands to mold, an adult can make each pinch pot base by pressing her thumbs into a plumsize ball of clay. 2. Roll some clay snakes and mold them around the formed bases to build up the pots. Once each pot has reached a satisfactory height, wet the clay with water and smooth the sides, kneading the clay so that there are no gaping holes. 3. When the clay has air-dried (this takes about twenty-four hours), decorate the outside of the pots with acrylic paints. 4. Line the bowls with cupcake liners and then fill them with candy corn, chocolates and messages to tell your guests why you’re thankful to know them.
Craft Materials: • Self-hardening clay in moist form (available at crafts stores) • Bowl of water • Nontoxic acrylic paints • Paper cupcake liners • Candies Time needed: Weekend Project
Toy Canoe
Like the birch bark canoes built centuries ago by the Indian tribes in New England, this lightweight toy craft cuts quickly and smoothly through water. 1. Fold a 6- by 12-inch piece of cardboard in half so that the long ends match up. Draw a side view of a canoe on one side of the cardboard, using the fold for the bottom of the boat. 2. With scissors, cut through both layers along the sides and top of the canoe, but not the bottom. Then, use the needle and string to sew together the curved ends. 3. For seats, cut two 3 1/2- by 1 1/2-inch strips out of cardboard scraps. Fold in the sides of each strip 1 inch from the short edges and wedge the seats inside the boat. Next, paint the canoe and let it dry thoroughly. 4. To waterproof the canoe, put the wax in the can and set the can in a saucepan filled with a couple inches of water. Heat slowly until the wax melts (parents only). Now, use a pot holder to set the can on newspaper. 5. With tongs, dip the boat, an end at a time, into the wax. (You may have to tilt the can.) When the wax hardens, place a few pebbles in the hull to prevent tipping, and the boat is ready to float in a backyard stream or bathtub.
Craft Materials: • • • • • • • • Cardboard Scissors Darning needle String Acrylic paints and brushes Box of paraffin wax Tall tin can Metal tongs
Time needed: Afternoon or Evening
Finger Stamp Place Cards
These handy little birds are great seat markers and a fun predinner activity. Have the younger set make them for the rest of the family, or let everyone try his hand—or at least a finger—at making his own. 1. For each bird, fold a piece of card stock as shown (ours were roughly 3 by 4 inches). Set out nontoxic stamp pads in brown, red, orange, and yellow. Using your thumb or index finger, stamp rings of yellow, orange, and red, and a brown turkey body. 2. Glue googly eyes in place, then use paint markers to draw on a beak, snood, and feet and to write a guest’s name below the bird.
Craft Materials: • Card stock as shown • Nontoxic stamp pads in brown, red, orange, and yellow • Glue • Googly eyes • Paint markers Time needed: Under 1 Hour
Hatband Napkin Rings
These miniature toppers are both functional and stylish—they’ll organize your napkins and brighten your table. 1. To make a pilgrim hat, cut a 3-inch-tall piece from a cardboard tissue tube. Along the bottom, make a series of 1-inch snips, spaced 1/2 inch apart, and bend out the tabs. 2. Cut a straight line down one side of the tube, overlap the upper corners and tape them in place. 3. Set the remaining portion of the tissue tube on end in the center of a cardboard circle and trace around it. Cut out the inner circle and fit the doughnut shape over the tube so that it rests on top of the tabs. Glue the tabs to the rim. 4. Paint the hat and glue on a paper buckle. 5. To make a feather headdress, cut a 1 1/4-inch-wide ring from a tissue tube and paint it. Glue construction paper feathers to the inside of the tube.
Craft Materials: • • • • • • • Cardboard tissue tubes Cardboard Glue stick Masking tape Tempera paint Construction paper Scissors
Pilgrim Hat Centerpiece
Filled with potted mums or other fall flowers, this fun centerpiece will top off your Thanksgiving table in fitting fashion. 1. Tape a square yard of black felt to your work surface and set a terra-cotta pot (ours is 7 inches tall and 7 1/2 inches across) on its side at one edge of the felt, as shown. Roll the pot, tracing along the top wand bottom edges with a permanent red marker as you go, then cut out the felt arc. 2. Next, cut two 15-inch circles, one from black poster board, the other from the remaining black felt. Set the pot upside down in the center of the poster board circle, trace around its rim, then cut out the inner circle to create a large ring. Now trace the rim of the pot in the center of the felt circle and cut an asterisk in the center, as specified. 3. Tape the felt circle atop the poster board ring. Set the bottom of the pot on the asterisk and slide the brim up to the rim of the pot. Attach strips of carpet tape to the outside of the pot, then tape one end of the felt arc to the side and wrap the arc around the pot, sticking it to the tape. 4. Trim away any excess felt. For the finishing touch, tape on a buckle cut from yellow poster board.
Time needed: Under 1 Hour
Craft Materials: • • • • • • Black felt, square yard Terra-cotta pot Permanent red marker Black poster board Carpet tape Yellow poster board
Time needed: About 1 Hour
Traditional Pilgrim Hat
To shield themselves from the sun and rain, the Pilgrims wore broadbrimmed hats. Outfitting your dinner crowd with this popularized version is a fun way to top off your family’s holiday celebration. 1. On the black poster board, mark the dimensions of the Pilgrim hat shape and the separate headband, as shown in the diagram. Cut out both pieces and use them as templates to trace and cut each additional hat you plan to make. 2. Center each hat shape atop a headband so that the hat brim extends below the band, as shown. Staple the hat to the band, then fold the brim upward so that the crease is flush with the bottom edge of the band. 3. For each hat, cut a basic buckle shape out of gold poster board and use a glue stick to attach it to the Pilgrim hat. 4. Secure the headband with 2 paper clips around the head of each “Pilgrim.”
Craft Materials: • • • • • Poster board (black, gold) Staple Markers Glue Paper clips
Time needed: Under 1 Hour
Corn Poppers
We’ve given a New World twist to the old British tradition of Christmas crackers. At the meal’s start, each guest grabs one end of his own cracker and one end of his neighbor’s. On the count of three, everyone yanks. Out pour the party favors—and, in our version, a “gratitude form” to be filled out and read aloud as part of the festivities. 1. To make this corn cracker, create kernels by snipping a 1/2inch fringe along one edge of a 4-foot length of yellow crepe paper streamer (folding the streamer a few times makes this go quicker). Wrap the streamer around the cardboard tube. 2. Fold a 10- by 12-inch piece of green tissue paper as shown, then roll the tissue around the tube and tie one end with a green ribbon. 3. Fill the cracker with favors, a small writing implement, and an”I’m thankful for:” form, then tie the other end with a ribbon.
Craft Materials: • • • • • • Scissors Yellow crepe paper streamer Toilet paper tube Green tissue paper Green ribbon Paper and markers to make an “I’m thankful for:” form • Favors including a small writing implement Time needed: About 1 Hour
Autumn Lights Craft
These luminarias are perfect for lighting the way to your front porch. 1. Collect fallen leaves, and arrange them on top of colored-paper treat bags. 2. Put 1 teaspoon acrylic paint (choose colors that contrast with bags) in a 2- to 3-ounce misting bottle. Fill halfway with water and shake to mix. Mist bags and leaves. Let dry 20 minutes. Remove leaves. Repeat on other side. Fill bottom of each bag with sand. 3. Illuminate: For safety reasons, use either glass holders that are three times as tall as candles or substitute battery-operated lights.
Craft Materials • • • • Paper lunch bags Acrylic paint Leaves Candles
Sarah Wean is the exultantly happy wife of VF staff member Josh Wean and mother of three little dears, James (4), Jesse (2), and Mercy (5 months). Of course, as any mother of small boys understands, the terms “energetic,” “unpredictable,” and just plain “crazy” can also apply. She finds her never-boring days filled with all the joys of motherhood and life as a newlyhomeschooling mother, which usually includes finding a jar with which to house the latest pet bug, explaining why little boys can’t wear their sister’s hairbows, and trying to come up with a profound theological answer for questions like, “Since God has the whole world in His hands, does He have a sink or maybe a hose in heaven to wash them with when He puts it down?” And you just thought your children weren’t paying attention to the words of songs! Recipes taken from www.familyfun.com and www.marthastewart.com