Turning plastic apples into decorative candy apples for the Christmas tree is an easy way to reuse something for a better purpose. After all, who uses plastic apples to decorate with anymore? But in a Christmas display these look good enough to actually eat!
Supply List:
cotton balls
white school glue
permanent ink marker
plastic apples
masking tape
copper/caramel colored acrylic paints
Elmer's gold glitter glue
wire for the hangers
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Use the permanent ink pen to draw a wavy line around the apple, marking the place where the caramel is molded over the surface.
Mask off every thing above the line.
Glue and bind with masking tape the wire attaching it to the plastic apple stem.
Now unravel your cotton balls and layer white glue and cotton on top of the masked areas, so that these will give the faux melted caramel dimension.
Layer the batting over the stem as well and twist it onto the wire. Let dry.
Paint the faux caramel with acrylic copper paint or something comparable.
Squeeze Elmer's gold glitter glue on the painted surface to add a little extra bling.
Shape the wire into a hook.
Left, plastic apple. Next, ink pen marks for the caramel. Center, masking taped surface. Right, after the cotton batting was layered over the tape with glue, I let it dry and then painted it.
Layers of cotton batting and glue are used to shape the caramel.
See more ways to transform fake fruit into something special:
The land of Palestine is divided from north to south by a central range of mountains which runs up through this narrow strip of country like a spinal column. About five miles south of Jerusalem a ridge or spur shoots off from the central range towards the east. On the terminal bluff of this ridge lies the town of Bethlehem. On the west it is shut in by the plateau, and on the east the ridge breaks steeply down into the plain. Vineyards cover the hillsides with green and purple, and wheat fields wave in the valleys. In the distant east, across the Dead Sea, the mountains of Moab are penciled in dark blue against the sky. At the present time, 1919, the town has eight thousand inhabitants. Its flat-roofed houses are well built and its narrow streets are clean. It is a busy place, its chief industry being the manufacture of souvenirs of olive wood which are sold throughout the Christian world. Its principal church is the Church of the Nativity, which is built over a cave that is one of the most sacred and memorable spots on the globe. It is believed that this cave is the place where Christ was born, and a silver star inlaid in the stone floor is intended to mark the exact spot. It was then used as the stable of the adjoining inn, and in its stone manger the infant Jesus may have been laid. At the time of this event Bethlehem was a mere village of a few hundred people. It might have been thought that Jerusalem, the historic metropolis and proud capital of the country, the chosen city of God and seat of the temple and center of worship, a city beautiful for situation, magnificent in its architecture, sacred in its associations and world-wide and splendid in its fame, should have been honored with this supreme event in the history of the Jews. But an ancient prophet, while noting its comparative insignificance, had yet put his finger on this tiny point on the map and pronounced upon it a blessing that caused it to blaze out like a star amidst its rural hills. "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." And so proud Jerusalem was passed by, and this supreme honor was bestowed upon the humble village. Great men, as a rule, are not born in cities. They come up out of obscure villages and hidden nooks and corners. They originate closer to nature than city-born men and seem to spring from the very soil. The most noted birthplace in Scotland is that of Burns: it is a humble cottage with a thatched roof and a stable in one end of it. The most celebrated birth- place in England is that of Shakespeare, and again it is a plain cottage in a country village. Lincoln was born in a log hut in the wilds of Kentucky, Mohammed was the son of a camel driver, and Confucius the son of a soldier. The city must go to the country for its masters, and the world draws its best blood and brains from the farm. It was in accordance with this principle that the Savior of the world should be born, not in a city and palace, but in a country village, and that his first bed should be, not a downy couch, but a slab of stone. by James Henry Snowden
Though surcharged with such tremendous meaning, carrying a heavier burden of news than was ever before committed to human language, yet the simplicity with which the story is told is one of the literary marvels of the gospels. This event has inspired poets and painters and has been embroidered and illuminated with an immense amount of ornamentation. Genius has poured its splendors upon it and tried to give us some worthy conception of the scene. But the evangelists had no such purpose or thought, and their story is told with that charming artlessness that is perfect art. They were not men of genius, but plain men, mostly tax collectors and fishermen untrained in the schools, with no thought of skill or literary art. Yet all the stylists and artists of the world stand in wonder before their unconscious effort and supreme achievement. No attempt at rhetoric disfigures their record, not a word is written for effect, but the simple facts are allowed to tell their own eloquent and marvelous tale. The inspired writers mixed no imagination with their verities, for they had no other thought than to tell the plain truth; and this gives us confidence in the trustworthiness of their narrative. These men did not follow cunningly devised fables when they made known unto us the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, for they were eye-witnesses of his glory. by James Henry Snowden
The term Magi was anciently used generally throughout the East, to distinguish philosophers, and especially astronomers. Pliny and Ptolemy mention Aribi as synonymous with Magi; and it was the opinion of many learned in the first ages of Christianity, that the Magi who presented offerings to the infant Savior in Matthew 2:1 came from Southern Arabia for it is certain that "gold, frankincense and myrrh,'' were productions of that country. They were philosophers among whom the best parts of the reformed Magian system, which was extensively diffused, were probably preserved. They were pious men, also, who had some acqaintance, it may be, with the Hebrew prophecies, and were favored themselves, with divine revelations. They are to be regarded as members of the old patriarchal church, never quite extinguished among the heathen; and they had the special honor to present the homage of the Gentile world to the infant Savior. - Hend. Buck; Watson
A Byzantine mosaic of the three Magi depicted in Persian clothing.
The backside and frontside of our Popsicle Alpine Cottage. It has been painted and the glitter added.
To make an alpine Christmas cottage out of Popsicle sticks you will need the following supplies: tacky craft glue, twine for the hanger, acrylic paints in white, red, brown and green, a small bottle brush wreath, two cotton balls, transparent glitter, 10 small Popsicle sticks, 21 Larger Popsicle sticks, masking tape, hot glue and white school glue. Clamps to hold wooden craft sticks in place while these dry come in handy for this project!
The front and back of the Christmas cottage before the painting and other details are added. See cross-bracing craft sticks on the back; the beginning Popsicle sticks are first glued on top of these for strength and accurate position.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Line up 10 large Popsicles side by side and then use masking tape to hold them together right down the center of the group.
Now glue two more Popsicles, spaced two inches apart perpendicular to the rest, to hold the bulk of the sticks in place permanently. Let these dry in place. Remove the tape once everything has dried.
Build a roof in the same way using five Popsicle sticks. Clip the ends on each side to form a pitched roof.
Glue on two supporting sticks on top of the right and left sides to form an inverted "V'' shape that reinforces the pitched roof line. See photos above for correct placement. Let these sticks dry.
Now glue the roof and front of the alpine cottage together, overlapping just one Popsicle at the ends. The cross-bracing on the walls of the cottage should face to the back of the ornament. The cross-bracing along the roof-line should be facing the front of the cottage.
Now glue on the large window and shutters to match the scaling you see in the detailed photos above.
Draw, with a soft pencil, a wavy line across the roof cross-bracing, in order to mark the place where you will be gluing the ''snowdrift'' across the roof.
Unravel a cotton ball and glue this directly to those wooden sticks carefully in order to keep the snow in place.
Cover the entire pitch of the roof on the backside of the ornament and layer unravelled cotton batting on top of it. Let all of the cotton dry while the cottage is standing on it's bottom edge.
Apply more glue and transparent glitter if you like.
Next, paint the wooden surfaces to match those shown in the photo above.
For our window, I cut window mullions in a diamond shaped pattern from white paper and glued these to the painted surface for more detail.
Hot glue on twine for hanging to the backside of the ornament.
Hot glue on a white, bottle-brush wreath to the front above the window.
Glue on more glitter snow inside the nooks and crannies of the window pains and shutters too!
The story starts with the place and time of the Savior's birth. Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king. There are many myths and legends floating through the world that are often beautiful and useful, but they hang like gorgeous clouds in the air and are ever changing their shape and place. They are growths of the imagination and lack historic roots and reality. They are chary of names and dates and hide their origin in far-away mists. However powerfully and pathetically they may reflect the needs and hopes of the human heart, they are unsubstantial as dreams and afford no foundation on which to build our faith. Heathen religions are generally woven of this legendary stuff. The Greek and Roman divinities were all mythical. But the scientific spirit has swept these imaginary deities out of our sky and rendered belief in them impossible. Our religion must be rooted in reality and cannot live in clouds, however beautifully they may be colored. We refuse hospitality to anything but fact. Give us names and dates, is our demand. The Bible responds to this requirement. Christianity is an historical religion. The gospel narrative begins with no such in- definite statement as "Once upon a time'' but it starts in Bethlehem of Judea. The town is there and we can stand on the very spot where Jesus was born. The narrative places the time of his birth in the days of Herod the king. History knows Herod; there is nothing mythical about this monster of iniquity. These statements are facts that no keenest critic or scholarly unbeliever can plausibly dispute. So the gospel sets its record in the rigid frame of history; it roots its origin down in the rocky ledge of Judea. Christ was not born in a dream, but in Bethlehem. We are not, then, building our faith on a myth, but on immovable matters of fact. This thing was not done in a corner, but in the broad day, and it is not afraid of the geographer's map and the historian's pen. The Christmas story is not another beautiful legend in the world's gallery of myths, but is sober and solid reality; its story is history. Our religion is truth, and we will worship at no other altar. by James Henry Snowden
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