HOBBY CLUB

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 72, 18 December 1937, Page 31

HOBBY CLUB

Christmas Gifts To Make

Christmas Cards and Envelopes.

STAKING your own Christmas cards -l ’ X and envelopes is great fun and gives the people you send them to ever so much more of a thrill than if they had been ones from a shop. Tire best way to make the card is to paste a photograph Of yourself, or your pets, or of some pretty spot around your home, on a stiff piece of paper or cardboard, and then for you to write on it, in your very best handwriting, your season’s greetings. Use scarlet shiny paper or striped paper to make envelopes just like those at the post office. The papers, which cost very little, are to be found usually in the fancy departmentspf stores, and the envelopes you can make from them just bv folding and gumming them in place will be much more original and attractive than any you can buy. Try and see 1 A Tree for the Table.

Flat Christmas trees of cardboard covered with paper make excellent decorations for Christmas Day and are fun to make. Tiny ones with card back supports can decorate the table, larger ones hang up in windows or over mantelpieces or red-heads. Larger ones

still stand up beside the fireplace or Hat against the wall. They look well, on green paper, the edges dropped round the card edges and then gummed, the stem of black, and the square pot of red, shiny paper. The candles, stars, and balls can be cut out of tinsel paper and stuck on, and toys can be pain’ed and cut out and “hung” on the tree, affording endless amusement and employment. The shape of the tree is a long triangle. The line of each point will he found, when carried to the centre, also to make a complete triangle, and by keeping the sides true and the centre completely central the tree will stand or hang without overbalancing. A Knitting Holder is Useful.

Does mother or aunty knit? Of course she does, and slip would like nothing better this Christmas than a gay holder to put.jt in. It is ever so simple to make and good fun, too. You need two pieces of thin wood, each about 44 by 3J inches, with the corners rounded off; a sheet of tough

but pliable cardboard 17 by 14 inches, and sufficient cretonne of a bright, attractive pattern lor covering. Cover both sides of the cardboard and the wooden ends with cretonne, pasting it on. When the paste is thoroughly dry, tjiek the cardboard to the wooden ends with thin tacks such as are used for upholstery. Our small diagram shows you just how to tack it, beginning at A and ending at B. Then fold the cardboard over from B. make four holes, and pass cord through them for fastenings, securing it by pasting or

knotting it at the bach, and so the holder is completed. Smaller holders could also be made, to be used as pencil cases or for other odds and ends. A Newspaper Holder. Everybody knows the habit newspapers have of straying round and looking untidy just when an important visitor is arriving! How often have you heard mother say she wished she bad something to put them in so as to keep them neat? Well, here is your chance to give her a Christmas present that she will really appreciate.

Here are directions for a very simplymade newspaper holder. For materials you require two boards, one about 24in. x 18in., and the other about 2in. smaller all roun'd; two hinges; two ring-headed screws; about 12 inches of fine-mesh chain; and four flat-headed half-inch screws. The last three items should preferably be brass. Ornament your boards as effectively as you can. Lacquering or varnishing can make them very attractive, or if you can imagine such ornamentation as inlay or poker-work, so much the hotter. With the hinges, fasten the smaller board in front of the larger, as you see in Figure 1. Halve the chain, and chain the boards together at each side, as in Figure 2, securing the chain with the flat-headed screws; then screw in the ring-headed screws, as hangers. Figure 3 shows the completed holder, a most acceptable Christmas gift in any home. For Holding Odds and Ends.

This holder is simplicity itself tomake, but will prove a most acceptable Christmas gift to either a grown-up or a child. It can be- bung in a bedroom or sewing-room, to hold such things as brushes, combs, scissors, safety-pins, and tape measures, or in a kitchen, to hold Odd articles such as tin-openers and strainers, while children will love it as a special place for odds and ends and treasures. To make the holder you have only to sew a number of different-sized

pockets on to a piece of cretonne, linen, or any such suitable material, then bind the edges firmly and make two loops for hanging. The material must be of a solid type, to bear the weight of the articles in the pockets, while the pockets are of different sizes for bolding a variety of things. You can arrange them as you see in the illustration, or, as you think fit, you can vary them and also vary the size and shape for your material. You can think out delightful variations in your colour scheme, too —for instance, a pretty cretonne will always make an attractive holder, while patterned pockets on a plain ground will not only look very effective, but will also serve the double purpose of putting odd scraps to good use.