TO DIY or not to DIY

I have always admired the DIY skills of some of my FaceBook friends. I have secretly wished to have had the time and talent to be able to churn out wonderful pieces of art that some people really seem to be so very talented at creating.

As usual there are a million reasons for me not to DIY. One prominent reason being the fact that a day has only 24 hours and my To-do lists already require way more hours than that on any given day. :-)   ... Who has the time to go to the crafts store when one can barely finish going through the grocery list !! Who can look at How -to Youtube videos when there are new movies on Netflix !! There is never a dearth of excuses if you need one, is there?

Pano - view of our room

Well, the month of December did have a pleasant surprise though. Not sure what exactly got to us .. maybe it was the holiday season or a combined creative bug in the family, that led us to embark on a huge project that brought out a lot of our DIY skills.  Presenting our home-made Christmas Nativity. The picture above is a panoramic view of our dining room/breakfast room.  The nativity brings in a lot of emotions for me, especially shopping for Nativity figurines during my childhood.

This started off as a very small project but grew and rapidly progressed to take up the entire room. The panoramic view above is a combined picture of that nativity from three angles.

Front view of the nativity

 The components are home made starting from the stable made of burlap. There are total of 85 characters including all the little animals. Card paper has been used a lot.




Closer View of Crib

There are a total of 30 unique materials ranging from Spanish moss, Soil, Yarn .. the list goes on. Every day a new excitement would be generated with my younger daughter's question being - what is my Nativity chore for today?  The ladder is made from yarn and was inspired by a painting of the nativity stable in one of the children's Christmas books at home.   The lantern is made of construction paper have flickering battery operated candles in it. The gifts from the 3 kings include my own jewelry.

Green Pastures

The grass that surrounds the stable was cultivated at home. The brick wall is foam board that is painted.

The well is a glass bowl covered with paper and then plaster cloth. The woman's clothes were tailored at home with some 5 minute You tube videos on how to make nativity clothes for kids.

The hill is made with several newspaper bundles


Close up of Lake and Haystack

The lake is metallic blue paper with plastic wrap. This section is on a glass table with lights tied below it to give a glow effect.

Town of Bethlehem

Bethlehem town view with numerous pieces.

Close-up of Bethlehem

Hand painted homes and DIY mountain with plaster cloth again...

Closer view

Lego toy and doll with DIY clothes and headgear. The homes are painted packaging material.

River Jordan with an Indian saree put to use. The boat is home made with spray paint and card paper.

Close up of Boat

Nativity with Lighting

 

So after the endless hours spent on the project and the huge team building activity for the family it seemed like a lot of fun. Ask me again and you will be sure to hear me say... Of course you must DIY..  We even won the first Prize at the St Jude Northern Virginia Crib competition. But most importantly, each time we look at our nativity, the Christmas spirit fills the house.. Definitely a wonderful nostalgic feeling .. Thanks to my DIY enthusiast friends who make home decorations, jewelry, bridal stuff - you name it ... I am inspired by you each time I catch up on FB  !




Creating a Nativity Scene

                      Creating a Nativity Scene - Reliving memories from childhood

This Christmas season I relived my childhood memories of making a Nativity scene with my family. Growing up in Goa, a nativity crib was always part of our Xmas. This year as well we had this wonderful experience with some added creativity, and plenty of involvement from my kids and my family we created a remote controlled musical nativity :-)

1)  The black background is the starry night. The silver stars were made by my kids with some help from me. In green there is a caption written by my child which says "Jesus is Born"

2) In the background are angels, harps, a camel ,and the city of Bethlehem (cut out on cardboard)

3) The angel is standing upon a sturdy speaker which is connected to a music system below the tables holding the nativity.

4) The lights at the bottom are dancing lights and the lights on the stable are pearl lights. 

 5) The stable is made from cardboard with a thatched hay roof made on contact paper (liners for shelves) . The stable area is filled with hay at the bottom. With 2 levels inside the stable.

 6) The three kings are standing in sand (kid's play sand) The box at the back is from my kid's toys and is filled with shining stones. The blue is a water pond (outlined with blue paper and filled with water)
 

7) The blue building is the inn and the shepherd has his herd of sheep, with donkeys and horses behind them. There are a total of 13 animals in this nativity besides the characters. The palm tree was made by my kids using card paper. The brown patch are chocolate wrappers put together.

8) Overall it was a wonderful effort and lot of man-hours but a very rewarding experience for me and my family :-)