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 Aspirations
Tis the Season
by Jeanette Shanigan
Yes, once again, it’s that time of year. This past weekend my granddaughter Savannah spent the night at Grandma’s because her parents were attending the first of the holiday adult parties. December 1 seemed a bit early for cookie-baking, but I figured I had to come up with something for us to do together. Since I had already decided to decorate my tree with “edible-looking” ornaments, namely candy canes and gingerbread, I thought we could try making some gingerbread-like ornaments of polymer clay.
 I dug around in my craft supplies and found several squares of brown polymer clay. The color seemed a bit too dark and plain, so we got the men in the household to blend each with a square of pearly gold. Next I found some old cookie-cutters, rolling dowels, a garlic press, size 6 beads, globs of glass, and some small bells — we were ready to begin. We rolled the clay to about 1/8 – ¼ inch thickness, pressed in the cookie cutter and pulled away the excess dough. Once the cookie cutter was removed, the fun began. In no time Savannah made and decorated 8 tree-shaped ornaments.
One ornament, in particular, caught my eye. It was completely covered with beads and bells. When I asked Savannah about it, she said she was making it for her adult-friend Mike Ann because she’s so crazy about beads. You see, Mike Ann has had hand-surgery within the past couple of weeks, but almost immediately after the surgery, she was trying to find a way to bead. It’s something when a 7-year-old recognizes true bead addiction!
We baked our ornaments at 275 degrees for about 20 minutes. Once they cooled, we added ribbon hangers, and Savannah spent some time writing to/from messages on the back of each. She had an ornament for all her BFF’s, her teacher, her principal, her parents and even one for Grandma.
 Though we had worked diligently, there was still some left-over clay, so Sunday morning before she went home, we made more — hearts and stars this time. It was great fun and something that will be long-remembered and even repeated, I’m sure.
Besides spending quality time with family, it’s the season of giving. Please consider taking a bit of time during the holiday hustle and bustle to make a rose square and donate it to the Bead Artists against Breast Cancer bead quilt project. The guidelines for the project and patterns, if you don’t want to design your own, can be found here: http://shanigansbeadshenanigans.com Also, I’ve recently added a guestbook to the page featuring completed bead quilts: http://shanigansbeadshenanigans.com/BCQuilts08.html Please take a moment to sign the guestbook and remember those  who have been affected by this dreadful disease. Many thanks to the folks who have already contributed the 132 rose squares received to date.
Happy holidays!
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