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As promised, some more vintage BHG to finish out this series. Thank you so much for all the comment-love on these posts!
This BHG is one of my all-time favorites. Copyright in the groovy year of 1974.
So. Many. Amazing. Trees. in this one – like this crazy thing, built from fabric-covered coat hangers. Yes, Virginia, that is dingle-ball fringe on the branches.
This one is impressive in its scale – compare with the handy small child in the foreground.
And this one has always confounded me. A garden trellis, covered with cowhide and festooned with wooden beads. And a gift-tray. The instructions say to “use a Christmas handkerchief mounted on cardboard as a treetop ornament.”
I love the very name: “Expanded aluminum extravaganza.” We don’t have enough extravaganzas in our lives, methinks.
Now, HERE’s a project: get some 14-gauge expanded metal, cut it into pieces, and then weld a metal pipe to the underside of each one. Make yourself a 3/4″ pipe, welded to a three-leg stand, and then attach the branch pipes to that. Paint the whole thing flat white, and then add several coats of spray flocking. Assemble it, and you have a tree.
That, my friends, is an extravaganza.
We interrupt this crafty mayhem to bring you something I adore – these little gnomes! They’re made on wire, so they’re poseable!
The Wise Men stare into your very soul.
An angel made of kitchen utensils to hang in the . . . you know . . . kitchen.
A tisket, a tasket, how come Santa is a basket?
I have only scratched the surface of this book. But let’s save a bit for next year, shall we?
I LOVE IT! Thank you for giving me a crafty chuckle and a few cool ideas!
Cheers,
Madge
I LOVE IT! Thank you for giving me a crafty chuckle and a few cool ideas!
Cheers,
Madge
love the Dutch tree, love the gnomes – what a fun post!
love the Dutch tree, love the gnomes – what a fun post!
I actually love the Pennsylvania Dutch tree. The extravaganza, well, of course, it’s extravagant! ;)
I actually love the Pennsylvania Dutch tree. The extravaganza, well, of course, it’s extravagant! ;)
I must say that it has been most entertaing. And I thought that I had a sick fantasy! But offcoarse, it does something to one, having ones youth in the seventies.
Have a nice Christmas
Margit
I must say that it has been most entertaing. And I thought that I had a sick fantasy! But offcoarse, it does something to one, having ones youth in the seventies.
Have a nice Christmas
Margit
I loved this whole series of posts, and your humorous commentary. Thanks for spreading the holiday crafting cheer!
I also loved the pictures of your snow, and of your tree~beautiful!
Hope you have a warm and merry holiday!
I loved this whole series of posts, and your humorous commentary. Thanks for spreading the holiday crafting cheer!
I also loved the pictures of your snow, and of your tree~beautiful!
Hope you have a warm and merry holiday!
but i heard it this way:
The Wise Men stare into your VERY SOOOOUUUUUL.
aaaaaaaaiiieeeeeee!
but i heard it this way:
The Wise Men stare into your VERY SOOOOUUUUUL.
aaaaaaaaiiieeeeeee!
WOW
I have loved all the vintage posts! And everything in between, since I discovered your blog about a month ago. And being from the west coast myself (though farther north in BC) I understand how having a white christmas feels…I can’t remember the last one we had!!
Keep it up, you’re awesome!
WOW
I have loved all the vintage posts! And everything in between, since I discovered your blog about a month ago. And being from the west coast myself (though farther north in BC) I understand how having a white christmas feels…I can’t remember the last one we had!!
Keep it up, you’re awesome!
Ok, so you’re thinking that 80′s crafts were bland, watered down, country-style craftin’ full of gingham and geese. Me, I think everyone needed a break from the LSD-fueled craft insanity of the 70′s, or was recovering from some kind of PTSD – post tinsel stress disorder.
I will not, however, let this stop me from attaching dingle-ball fringe to the inside of my truck once the weather warms.
Ok, so you’re thinking that 80′s crafts were bland, watered down, country-style craftin’ full of gingham and geese. Me, I think everyone needed a break from the LSD-fueled craft insanity of the 70′s, or was recovering from some kind of PTSD – post tinsel stress disorder.
I will not, however, let this stop me from attaching dingle-ball fringe to the inside of my truck once the weather warms.
Now I understand why I was always so overwhelmed by my mom’s craft books when I was a kid…
LOL!
Now I understand why I was always so overwhelmed by my mom’s craft books when I was a kid…
LOL!
OMG. I *LOVE* the gnomes and their little toad stools! So cute!
OMG. I *LOVE* the gnomes and their little toad stools! So cute!
Oh. my. word. Outright guffawing and chortling at the Expanded Aluminum Extravaganza. I want to host a large crafty Christmas party just to blow up poster pictures of this and other crafts to hang on the walls! Or they would be good for one of those “Ugly Christmas Sweater” parties. “Have Yourself a Very Tchotchkes Christmas”. Then those poor neglected old crafts at the thrift stores would have somewhere to go…. Oh the ridiculous ideas. Who knew ugly crafts could spark so much?
I like the mushroom house – do it say how they made it?
And actually, I think the hanger tree has possibilities. Cover in green and bent a bit wonky, they could be great Who-ville Christmas trees. Thanks for all the retro Christmas love! My favorite posts of the season on any blog. :>
Oh. my. word. Outright guffawing and chortling at the Expanded Aluminum Extravaganza. I want to host a large crafty Christmas party just to blow up poster pictures of this and other crafts to hang on the walls! Or they would be good for one of those “Ugly Christmas Sweater” parties. “Have Yourself a Very Tchotchkes Christmas”. Then those poor neglected old crafts at the thrift stores would have somewhere to go…. Oh the ridiculous ideas. Who knew ugly crafts could spark so much?
I like the mushroom house – do it say how they made it?
And actually, I think the hanger tree has possibilities. Cover in green and bent a bit wonky, they could be great Who-ville Christmas trees. Thanks for all the retro Christmas love! My favorite posts of the season on any blog. :>
ha ha ha, I am literally LOL. Cowhide? Come here, Buttercup. This won’t hurt a bit. Thank FSM I have found a use for all my CHRISTMAS HANKIES (what the?). Also… those wise men? the reanimated cutlery “angel”? the BASKET SANTA? Straight from your lips (fingers) to my nightmares.
ha ha ha, I am literally LOL. Cowhide? Come here, Buttercup. This won’t hurt a bit. Thank FSM I have found a use for all my CHRISTMAS HANKIES (what the?). Also… those wise men? the reanimated cutlery “angel”? the BASKET SANTA? Straight from your lips (fingers) to my nightmares.
What great projects! I have several BH&G craft magazines from that time and I still go through them at holidays to look for ideas.
What great projects! I have several BH&G craft magazines from that time and I still go through them at holidays to look for ideas.
Welding!!!!! Why there’s a homely craft that’s gone out of style! HAHAHAHA!
Welding!!!!! Why there’s a homely craft that’s gone out of style! HAHAHAHA!
Ha! I just picked up a copy of this one from the thrift store a couple of weeks ago and have had it laid out as a coffee table book for friends to browse through, along with a few other vintage holiday crafting books of the same era. I’ve gone through it a few times but still there are a few that you’ve pointed out here that I’ve missed.
The thing that strikes me the most here – beyond the sheer unbelievability of the projects themselves – is just how involved and complicated so many of these projects are as well as the quantities of them. There is enough in just one volume of these to fill a decade worth of crafts for one magazine. How could they have sold enough copies of these books to justify what went in to them?
Heh! Seriously! The economics are stunning there. I shudder to think what such a publication would cost today!