12 Days of Home for the Holidays Welcomes Ken Oliver

Before my next guest, Ken Oliver, shares his family traditions I want to say "Thank you to each and everyone of the readers and commenters of 12 Days of Home for the Holidays. I would ask that you come back tomorrow for information on the giveaway. Teresa's giveaway will be announced tomorrow and the grand prize giveaway will be announced on Monday. See you tomorrow. dll

 Ken Oliver

Hello blog friends and welcome to day 12 of D's Paper Studio's, 12 Days of Home for the Holidays. It’s been really cool reading all about the traditions of each of the artists who participated this year.

Handmade gifts are from the heart, and there’s no better way to share your love and joy for the season than to give something that you’ve made by hand. In our family we have a longstanding tradition of handmade Christmas ornaments. Hand-stitched felt teddy bears, painted wooden ornaments, handmade photo ornaments, some nearly 50 years old hang on our Christmas trees, and every year when we get them out to hang them, it’s an opportunity to share and re-live the memories of Christmas’ past.

This year, since we were all together at Thanksgiving, I took the opportunity to share our tradition with some of the younger members of our family. We created Christmas rosettes that are beautiful enough to hang as ornaments, but could also be used as Christmas banners, present toppers or even clustered together as wreaths.

I knew there would be some teaching opportunities with the younger ones. We got to learn about cutting, measuring, and folding, and my nieces even mastered the scoreboard.

Our Christmas rosette ornaments turned out beautifully...and once we got started, everyone created more than one. We kept our craft table set up and going all throughout Thanksgiving weekend. The kids were so excited; they made them for their friends, for their teachers and lots of their own tree at home.

And, when we discovered that we could use die cut photos to decorate the Christmas rosettes, the ornaments became another way that we could share memories of holidays past.

Creating Christmas rosettes was really one of the most fun ornament projects we've ever done in our family. We ended up with lots of new ornaments to share and lots of new ornaments for our own Christmas trees. And, together, we created some Christmas memories that we can treasure forever.

Our Thanksgiving weekend was really special this year, we had everyone from our generation of Olivers together at one place at the same time...it was something that had not happened in over 15 years...so we were very blessed to share the family time together and to continue our family tradition of handmade Christmas ornaments with cousins and younger members of our family.

 Thank you for letting me share our Oliver family tradition of making Christmas ornaments. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season this year, and make some time to create and give something handmade. It's a wonderful tradition that is from the heart and will bring joy to everyone for years to come. Make sure to learn about all the other family traditions from the other artists of 12 Days of Home for the Holidays, you will be amazed and inspired!

 Thank you again and 

Merry Christmas to you and your family, 

Ken 

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Photo Tip of the Day

Break all the (photography) rules.

Photography is an art. The photos you take are only as good as you make them. So, get out there and practice. Find your style and have fun. And don’t’ forget to break a few of those photography rules. If you still want more knowledge join a photography forum. There are tons. Personally I’m a member of Clickin’ Moms. They are a great community offering tips and classes. Clickin’ Moms

Sponsored Giveaway 
-Leave a comment for our guest, Ken Oliver .
-Choose at least one of Ken's social media/blog outlets and follow (you can do more than one.)
 -Leave a comment on Tabitha Safdi's Blog.
-Bring a friend.
-"Like" and leave a comment on our sponsors Facebook page. (LINKS) (only once for the entire giveaway)
-Leave separate comments of each item you accomplish.
Note: May Arts Ribbon is for 3 rolls of your choice.
There will be a random drawing on December 13 for the entire sponsored giveaway. For details CLICK here.
*All giveaways are open to USA residents only.

Happy Holidays!