Crafting for Christmas. Christmas Cinnamon Stick Bundle

Christmas, the season of giving and creating memories with family and friends. Along with the season comes holiday decorations, gift giving, and the merriment of the season. There are many simple crafts that can be made for Christmas. This craft from Creative Beading can be used as a decoration piece for the home, or as great homemade gifts for family and friends.

Note: Conversion of centimeters to inches were made from original craft.

Christmas Cinnamon Stick Bundle

Materials:

5 x 7 inches long cinnamon sticks                                                             

4 x large white lilies

12 x small flower stems of poinsettias

2 x stems of mini holly sprays

2 x meters gold ribbon

4 x meters gold Tigertail wire (beading wire)

100 x small gold crimps

2 x pieces 20 gauge green florist wire

50 x mixed crystal clear beads

Tools needed to assemble craft:

Crimping pliers

Hot glue gun

Wire cutters

Pencil used for the silver coils

Directions:

1. Gather the cinnamon sticks into a bundle and tightly wire them together.
2. Make a bow in the center of the cinnamon sticks. This is done by folding the ribbon in half; then through the center, place a piece of florist wire. Gather the ribbon together and pull tightly, this can now be wrapped around the cinnamon sticks.
3. Cut the holly to 4 inches in length - this is hot glued on the cinnamon sticks around the ribbon.
4. Cut the flower stems leaving 2 inch stems; on each one, hot glue onto the cinnamon sticks. With the four white lilies hot glued onto the center, sit two on either side of the cinnamon stick. The remaining smaller flowers can then be glued around the lilies.
5. Cut about 50 pieces of Tigertail wire, the sizes varying between 2 inches to 4 inches. This will give you a 3D look to the finish. Crimp crystals right up to the end of the Tigertail wire with one crimp on the very end of the wire, then thread a crystal onto the wire and crimp into place. For the larger beads, crimp them in the middle of a piece of Tigertail wire. Note: you will need to make about 50 pieces of varying size beads.
6. Gather together one or two of the wires with beads on the end of the Tigertail. With one of the wires that have a larger bead crimped in the middle, the larger beads folded in half give the effect of the bead standing up. Once you have the four to five wires gathered in your hand, wrap florist wire around them. By making a bend in the wire with the longest length of wire, wrap this around the gathered Tigertail, making sure you pull tight on the florist wire.
7. Holding the bunch of crystals in one hand, place a piece of Stemtex, tape onto the bunch, then stretch the tape. The tape that has been stretched is then wrapped around the florist wire to cover it.
8. Cut the florist wire to leave a stem about 4cm, these can be hot glued in the cinnamon sticks. Make sure they are placed evenly through the flowers.

This craft was found using Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center, opens a new window database available through the St. Tammany Parish Library, for use within library branches, or by using your St. Tammany Parish library card from home, or a remote location. The Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center is a database with "exclusive articles from EBSCO databases covering over 140 topics, as well as many other periodicals, books, and videos that focus on categories commonly referred to as hobbies and crafts; available in high-quality PDF format." You can use the search feature, browse by categories, or browse popular sources. The categories in the database are:

• Arts and Crafts
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In addition, the Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center, opens a new window has "full text of nearly 1,900 magazines and books, more than 720 videos, more than 180 full-text hobby profiles, more than 13,000 full-text recipes, and a unique dedicated user interface."

Source: 

Christmas Decorations. (2017). Creative Beading, 14(5), 8-12.

EBSCO Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/hobbies-crafts-reference-center, opens a new window