Today’s make for the Advent Calendar comes with a puzzle. Anyone who has visited Planet Penny for Open Studios will know that we’re in a very rural location. Passing traffic tends to be dogs and their walkers, horses and their riders, tractors and assorted farm vehicles and the odd car. (Invariably being driven far too fast given the narrowness of the road!)
We have our bins near the road to save the morning panic of remembering it’s bin day and having to scurry around in a dressing gown towing it to the road. But I never imagined this would mean that someone would stop off and deposit something in the bin whilst passing by. So I was very surprised one day a few months back to go out with the recycling, open the bin and find lying on top of the cereal boxes and newspapers, two music books…
They were perfectly clean and dry and came straight in to the studio go on the shelf as ‘Something-which-will-come-in-handy-sometime’. But it continues to baffle me. They’re are not dated, but the music, the look and the prices mentioned makes me think they could be anything up to 70 years old, and I just can’t imagine the scenario of riding past on your horse or tractor, or walking past with your dog and having an urgent need to dispose of the music books you just happened to be carrying on your person!
Anyway, they have come in handy for todays piece of Christmas Crafting.
I know quite few people make beautiful things with upcycled books, but I really struggle with cutting up or dismantling them. So I made a scan of one the pages of music and printed it on each side of a sheet of paper and used my big paper punch to make a collection of paper circles…
(I like the fact it comes from ‘The Sleeping Princess’ in this Pantomime season!)
Then I just stitched them together on the sewing machiune leaving a little gap of stitches in between to make a simple paper garland…
That’s a really simple idea, but by putting three discs together, stitching through them all and fanning them out you have a really pretty and stylish tree decoration…
…and as we put our own tree up this afternoon I was able to put it straight to good effect…
A number of these hung together on a twiggy branch against a white wall would look simply stunning…
The bidding has closed on the mini Christmas Jumper Auction and the little green jumper will be wizzing off to the lovely Joan who made an extremely generous donation of £20 towards the Save the Children charity. Thank you so much, Joan, I’ll be in touch.
And I’ll be back tomorrow too…! x
Don’t forget to call over to Handmade Monday to find lots of other Christmas makes, and if you haven’t entered the Prize Draw you can find out all about it, and the fab prizes on this post…
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Maybe the donator knew they would be put to good use? I am with you with cutting up books – copying is a great alternative and I really love what you have done with it. The bell is a great finishing touch. 🙂
Sorry. I forgot to wish you a very happy Christmas. 🙂
What a gift and more fool them for throwing away but you scored as such a lovely idea
That is strange…still to your advantage. Music sheets come in handy for all sorts of different crafts.
You have obviously been visited by the elusive and shy Christmas Music Book Fairy. 🙂
You have so many clever ideas. The Advent Calendar is a great resource for future Christmases
What a lucky find, great ideas. I have the same hesitancy about cutting up books. I have a pile of old AtoZ map books, which I keep thinking I will make into something one day.
What a mystery. Still, they have been put to excellent use. A good idea to scan & keep the original. x
That is bizarre! Life is full of surprises isn’t it 🙂
I love your ideas for sheet music decorations, there is something so visually appealing about musical symbols 🙂 x
Your decorations are really lovely and how amazing that someone would just throw the books away. I am like you with the not feeling completely happy using books, but they do make for some lovely crafting. I hope you have a very happy Christmas and look forward to ‘seeing’ you in the New Year.
I might have to try this 🙂 I think my class might be capable of making these even just using needle and thread. Thanks for the idea 🙂
viv in nz
The music sheets make great decorations, I’m a fan of scanning them too, as well as not destroying a great book you never run out of the pages 🙂
Jan x
I love the tree decorations, they’re very pretty! I can imagine I’d find it hard to cut up a book too though!
What a clever thing to do by scanning and printing rather than using the actual music. I could use my favourite sheet music without actually using it and then it would be extra special! Love the decorations. Happy Christmas.
Some things are just meant to be. Now you have pretty paper garlands, and beautiful ornaments. I love a mystery of the nice kind!
Wendy x
I can never bear to cut up old books either. Today’s craft is lovely. I have some paper stars (made with pages photocopied from an old hymnal – Christmas carols of course) that I love to put up every year. But I really like your idea of sewing the shapes together.
Beautiful!