News Photo by Pamela A. Brunn Kathy Momrik shows off some of her Detroit Tigers hats that she knitted for family members. She is one of the members of the knitting group at Spruce Shadow Farms Yarn Shop.

ALPENA — Christmas brings with it so many memories and, while every gift received is special or meaningful, many believe it is the ones made with hands that bring a smile and warmth to the heart.

Sometimes it’s nice to go to a shop and create a special gift, as can be done at Soaps and Such and Art in the Loft downtown, or at Cobbygoose in the Alpena Mall, which has paint classes on either canvas or ceramics.

Art in the Loft offers classes of all kinds, from baking and food preparation to stained glass and painting. Justin Christensen-Cooper, executive director, said most of the classes offered during December are meant for those who are either honing their skills or making gifts. Two cookie classes were taught by an instructor who already made the cookies, but showed others how to make the icing and decorate each cookie.

Another instructor showed how to draw a design, create a stamp out of that design, transfer the design onto styrofoam, and use it to imprint onto blank white cards. The cards were given away as gifts to family and friends after completed.

Jennifer Dingman, unit director at the Alpena Boys and Girls Club, oversees crafts at the club. Every year, they utilize their children to create homemade decorations for the club and the Christmas tree at the club.

This year, the children made artificial wreaths and dressed them with ribbon and ornaments. They planned to give the wreaths to their family. They also made ornaments from porcelein, painted them and added glitter and attached them to a bottle of holiday soap.

“We try to find some kind of craft that they can make, Dingman said. “We try to use resources and materials available at the club to craft those things there. We have an art room that we help by organizing them for the kids. Twelve to 20 kids working on crafts, we do it every year, the older members help the younger ones by tying ribbons, bows and help with cutting and tracing.”

Becki and Mike Massong of Traverse City and their four children, Izzy, 8, Gus, 7, and twins Brandon and Brady, 5, make their gifts every year.

Becki usually goes to Pinterest to gather ideas around the beginning of August. Each child makes a special gift according to their talents.

Last year, Izzy made a book out of lunch bags with pictures of herself and things that made her year special. Gus created a snowglobe with a photo of himself jumping and snow made of cottonballs. It looked like he was jumping in the snow. Brandon and Brady usually make the same gift so each of them made wooden frames with their picture in it and then decorated the frame with paint, stickers and glitter.

“I want to teach the kids that it is more meaningful to make something than going out to the store and buying a gift,” Becki said.

A few years ago, “we made videos of the whole year and put it to music,” she added.

In the past, they have made family calendars, each month special, for the kids’ birthdays and things they love to do. They have also made magnetic boards out of cookie sheets.

The kids give their gifts to aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.

Shelia Robbins, owner of Spruce Shadow Farms Yarn Shop in the Alpena Mall, has a Wednesday night knitting get-together at the shop. The group meets at 6 p.m. to make gifts all year long. The group has been meeting for about 13 years, Robbins said. Most of their families request the homemade items — some will even ask for something specific in a certain color.

“My family asks me, they come and ask me to make something for them. My granddaughter asked me this year, ‘Grandma, would you knit me some socks?,'” Robbins said.

Another longtime member spoke up:

“Handmade doesn’t mean cheap. A lot of times people have that perception,” said Beth Hurd. “I’ve given my stuff to people who will appreciate it. Some people just don’t get it, they think we whip it up in a couple of hours.”

Pamela A. Brunn can be reached at pbrunn@thealpenanews.com or 989-354-3111 ext. 343.

Homemade salt dough ornaments

Your challenge, should you choose to accept: Try out this recipe for making salt dough ornaments.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Yield: 30 ornaments

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup table salt

1-1/2 cups warm water

Glitter, paint, ribbon for decoration

Polyurethane spray, for preservation (optional)

To make dough:

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Slowly stream in the water while stirring until it comes together. Finish mixing together with hands. Knead until dough is soft, about five minutes.

To make ornaments:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place half of the dough between two large pieces of parchment paper. Roll out until 1/8-inch thick. Remove the top sheet of parchment.

Using cookie cutters, cut shapes (leaving room on the parchment). Peel away the excess dough. Transfer the parchment with shapes to a baking sheet.

Using a straw, toothpick or skewer, poke a hole for ribbon or ornament hanger. Bake in preheated oven for an hour, or until hard.

Once cooled, decorate using glitter and paint. To make sure the ornaments last a long time, spray with a light coat of polyurethane spray. Thread a ribbon and hang to hang on the tree.