Little Folks' Handy Book

ornament is showy and pretty; it is also very quickly made. Fold through the middle a piece of bright orange tissue-paper six inches square. This will give you an oblong. Fold again through the middle crosswise, and you will have a smaller square. Bring the two opposite corners of the square together and fold like Fig. 204; then cut off the point curving the edge, as shown by the dotted line. The folded part of the triangle is at the diagonal in Fig. 204, the edges at the bottom. Now cut slits in your triangle like Fig. 205. Open it, and you will have Fig. 206. Make two fringed circles like Fig. 206, lay one on top of the other, pinch the centre in a point, twist it, and draw the fringed ends together (Fig. 207). Make a writing-paper lighter for the stem, cover the point of the ornament with paste, insert it in the large end of the lighter, and press together with your fingers until it holds tight. The result will be like Fig. 208. In fastening the chrysanthemum ornament on the tree, stand it upright and run a pin through the stem into one of the small branches.

Fig. 207—Pinch the centre into a point.

Fig. 208—The chrysanthemum ornament

Strings of

Colored Paper Disks

Fig. 209—The colored paper disks.

looped from branch to branch, take the place of colored glass balls, and add materially to the beauty of the tree.

Fig. 209 shows how these strings are made. Red, gold, yellow, orange, green, blue, and white make pretty disks, and show off well on the tree.

Cut your disks perfectly round, and in pairs; for they must be the same on both sides, G, H (Fig. 209). You can make the disks on some strings all of one size; on others they may graduate down to quite small ones at the ends. When the disks are cut out, lay one down, bottom side up, H (Fig. 209). Cover this with paste, then lay a white cotton string across the disk, directly through the middle. Allow about six inches of the string to extend beyond the disk, and let each string be one yard long. Before the paste has time to dry, press the mate of the disk, G (Fig. 209), on top of H, over the string, taking care to have the edges even. Go through this process with each disk. Paste them on the string one inch apart, and leave six inches of string at the last end.

Fig. 210 is a dainty

Fringed Ornament

made of colored and gilt paper. The foundation is a round disk of white writing-paper, two inches in diameter. To this is pasted the ends of a narrow light-blue ribbon, long enough to form a loop by which to hang the ornament. For the rest, cut two circles of light-pink tissue-paper, six inches in diameter, fringe them on the edges to the depth of one inch, making the fringe quite fine; then paste one circle on one side of the foundation, the other circle on the other side. Now, from your gold paper cut six long, narrow triangles, and cut the wide end into fringe two inches deep (Fig. 211). Paste these tufts of gold fringe at equal distances on the pink circle, making the points meet at the centre. Make a smaller, light-blue, fringed circle, and a still smaller pink circle. Paste the centre of the blue circle over the centre of the gold fringe, and the centre of the small pink circle over the centre of the blue. Cut out a small, eight-pointed gold star and paste directly in the middle of the pink circle. You can vary this kind of ornament in a number of ways. Fig. 212 shows another made on the same principle.

Fig. 210—A fringed ornament.

Fig. 211—Six triangles like this.

Fig. 212—Another ornament.

The crowning glory of every Christmas tree is its

Candles

Fig. 213—Little paper candles.

and, whether lighted or not, they are always prominently in evidence. Of late years the people have grown wise in the matter of fires, and many parents refuse to light the Christmas candles on their children's tree because of the great danger of conflagration.

Fig. 213 shows some paper candles on an evergreen branch, standing upright and burning briskly. The candles may be made of white as well as colored paper. Make an oblong, K (Fig. 214), four inches long and two and a half inches wide, the wick one-quarter of an inch high, and the back of the flame, L, three-quarters of an inch long. From orange-colored tissue-paper cut the flame (Fig. 215). This should be a little over a half an inch wide at the base and two inches long. Lay an oblong on the table in front of you; take a large-sized pencil; place it on the long edge farthest away from the flame, and roll it on the pencil (Fig. 216) until the opposite edge overlaps the roll. Then run the paste brush along the edge and paste it down. Your candle is now a hollow roll. Slip the roll off the pencil and cut two slim notches opposite to each other, in the bottom edge (Fig. 217). Make the notches on some of the candles at the front and back, on others at each side. This is so that the flames may always face outward, though the branches that hold the candles may turn in various directions. Lastly, paste the flame on the back of the flame, allowing the tip to flare out at one side as though stirred by a current of air (Fig. 217).

Fig. 214—Begin the candle in this way.

Fig. 215—The flame is cut like this.

Fig. 216—Roll it on a pencil.

Fig. 217—The finished candle.

In placing the candles, stand them up astride the branches by means of the notches at the bottom, turning the right side of the flame always toward the room. The tiniest twigs will hold these paper candles easily, and when the needles of the fir interfere with their adjustment, pull off some of the needles and set the candles astride the bare places on the branches.

Finish the tree by throwing over it a web of long, very narrow strips of white and orange-colored tissue-paper.

The narrower the strips the better they will look.

It hardly seems necessary to offer a word of caution, but it will do no harm to say that the flame of gas, candle, or fire, should not come near this paper-decked tree, though it is scarcely more inflammable than a tree trimmed with tinsel.

CHAPTER XV

A HOME-MADE SANTA CLAUS

"Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!" calls out Santa Claus cheerily as the guests come trooping into the room.

Laughing and joking, his eyes twinkling with fun, Santa Claus names each person as he hands out the gifts from his fat Christmas bag and from the generous pile at his feet. All this merriment happens at Christmastide when you play the part of good "Kris Kringle" in your own home, in the schoolroom, the Sunday-school, or in any place where Christmas is celebrated and where children are gathered to enjoy the festivities.

Take a good long look at Santa Claus, as shown in the picture (Fig. 218); then turn your eyes to the illustration (Fig. 219). Can you believe it possible that the two photographs are of the same person in identically the same pose? Such is truly the case. The second gives the woman's back, while the first shows her face, arms, and hands transformed into those of the jolly saint.

You can see at a glance how very easy it will be for you to have a real, live, little Santa Claus for your Christmas.

Any one—grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, big sister or brother, or you yourself—can assume the character of this live little saint, can grow suddenly short of stature, jolly and fat, be arrayed in scarlet, ermine-trimmed, and crowned with a red-peaked hat, all in less time than it takes to tell it; and, stranger still, the transformation may be accomplished in a very comfortable way, without even the bother of changing the usual attire.

It is essential merely to paste on the face tufts of raw cotton for eyebrows, mustache and goatee, and to slip over each arm an extra sleeve. This accomplished, and the proper position taken behind the curtain, lo, "magic change"! There you are as fine a little Santa Claus as any one would care to see, and your best friend would not recognize you, so complete is the change. Disguise your voice and no one can find you out, not even your nearest relative.

Fig. 218—Santa Claus as the spectators see him.

Fig. 219—The real Santa Claus behind the curtain.

When the gifts have been distributed and you are ready to go out among the excited children or family circle again, step from the curtain, pull off the extra sleeves, remove the cotton from your face, and in a moment's time you will again be your own natural self.

When preparing this entertainment you will find the demand on your purse very slight, the principal outlay being for the curtain. Purchase moss-green lining cambric, at four, five, or six cents a yard, to stretch over the doorway you intend to use. Two yards and a quarter cut in one full breadth and one half breadth, when sewed together into a curtain, will be enough for an ordinary doorway. Doorways vary in size, however, and it is best to take the measurements of yours before buying the material. The space between the folding doors will probably call for five yards of cambric. When the strips of cloth are sewed together, stretch the curtain taut over the opening, tacking it at long intervals on the topmost level of the wood-work over the door and on the extreme edge of the door jamb next to the wall. If fastened in this manner, tacks will not injure the wood-work.

Fig. 220—Holes in curtain for face and arms.

Fig. 221—Cap and body of coat pinned on curtain.

Stand on the floor facing the centre of the curtain and mark the place where your face comes; then where your arms will most easily pass through the curtain. Cut holes in the cloth, one for your face with chin entirely through, and two for your arms (Fig. 220). Cut the holes small; they can be enlarged if necessary.

Make Santa Claus's cap of a piece of scarlet cambric twelve inches wide and seventeen inches long; tie one end with a string into a tassel; then pin the cap on top of the face opening (Fig. 221), and cut the lower edge into a curve to fit the hole as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 221. One width of scarlet cambric twenty-six inches long, used just as it comes, will make the jacket.

Fig. 222—Pattern for sleeve-cap.

Fig. 223—Santa Claus's paste board boot top.

Draw in one edge of the coat to meet the inner edge of the armhole and pin it there; do the same with the other side, and you will have fulness in front to allow for padding. Bring the sides around the armhole outward again and pin in place; then fold up a wide hem and pin the sides of the jacket to the curtain and fill out the inside of the jacket with half sheets of newspaper lightly crumpled (Fig. 221).

Fig. 224—Santa Claus's costume ready for the impersonator.

Pin enough paper to the curtain under the coat to give the body of Santa Claus a decidedly rounded appearance; be sure that the padding is securely fastened to the curtain. Then pin the sleeve caps, cut according to Fig. 222, around the outer edge of the armhole. Pin raw white cotton around the face opening to form the hair and long, full beard. Allow the cotton to come well over the edge of the hole, that it may lie naturally on Santa Claus's face.

With ink, mark the fleecy side of the strips of white canton flannel to resemble white ermine. Notice particularly the shape of the black ermine dots and have yours like them. Pin one ermine strip down the front of the red jacket and another across the bottom edge. Make two long, separate scarlet sleeves, unhemmed at top and bottom, and pin a band of ermine around each for a cuff. The only necessary sewing for the entire costume is the seams of the sleeves.

Polish up a pair of ordinary old shoes, stuff them out with newspapers, and use them for Santa Claus's feet. Roll two pieces of cardboard, or pieces of limber pasteboard boxes, into cylinders; ink or blacken them. When dry, cut a curve in one end of each, like Fig. 223, and fit these tops over the stuffed shoes to make them into boots. Set the boots on a bench or a low table, placed across in front of Santa Claus, and adjust them under the coat, so the little fellow will appear to be standing on the bench (Fig. 224). Pin Christmas greens, either natural or of tissue-paper, over the top and down the sides of the curtain, and you will have a unique, very effective, and novel arrangement for Christmas, easy to make, and costing but a trifle. Try it.

CHAPTER XVI

NATURE STUDY WITH TISSUE-PAPER

A natural flower, some tissue-paper, a pair of scissors, a spool of thread, and nimble fingers are all you need.

There are no patterns, only circles and squares and strips of paper which you gather here, spread out there, wrap and tie somewhere else, and, with deft fingers, model into almost exact reproductions of the natural flower before you.

With its unfamiliar terms to be committed to memory and the many parts of the flower to be distinguished, botany is apt to prove dry and tiresome to the little child, but to study nature by copying the flowers in this marvellously adaptable material is only a beautiful game which every child, and indeed many grown people, will delight in. The form of the flower, its name and color, may, by this means, be indelibly stamped upon the memory, and a good foundation laid for further study.

The Best Models

Ordinary garden flowers and those most easily procured make the best models. The carnation, the morning-glory, and the rarer blossoms of the hibiscus are well adapted to the work, also the daffodil and some of the wonderful orchids.

Even holly, with its sharp-spiked leaves and scarlet berries, and the white-berried, pale green mistletoe may be closely copied. All these and many more are made on the same principle, and in so simple a manner that even quite a little child may succeed in producing very good copies from nature.

Material

Buy a sheet of light pink tissue-paper, another of darker pink, and one of the darkest red you can find; then a sheet of light yellow-green and one of dark green. Have a table "cleared for the action" and place your paper on the right-hand side, adding a pair of scissors and a spool of coarse thread, or, better still, of soft darning cotton.

With all this you are to copy the

Carnation

which some one has given you or you have growing in your own garden. Make one of your light pink paper, one of the darker pink, and another of the rich, deep red to have a variety (Fig. 225).

Fig. 225—Carnations modelled from tissue-paper.

Lay your natural flower down on the left-hand side of the table, away from your material, but within quite easy reach, for it must be consulted frequently. Seat yourself comfortably and don't work hurriedly.

The first thing necessary in this system of squares and circles is to know

How to Cut a Circle Quickly

easily, and accurately, and always without a pattern. Here is a method which never fails:

Fig. 226—Fold the square diagonally through the centre.

Fig. 227—The folded square makes the triangle.

Cut a square the size you wish to make your circle. That is, if you want a circle with a diameter of four inches, cut a four-inch square (Fig. 226). Fold the square diagonally through the centre according to the dotted line on Fig. 226, and you have a triangle (Fig. 227). Fold this at the dotted line and it will make another triangle (Fig. 228). Again fold through the middle and you have the third triangle (Fig. 229). Fold once more and Fig. 230 is the result. Measure the distance from the edge, B, to the centre, A, in Fig. 230, and mark the same distance on the other side of the triangle shown by the dot, C (Fig. 231). With your scissors cut across from C to B, curving the edge slightly, as shown by the dotted line from C to B (Fig. 231). Fig. 232 is the circle still in its folds. Fig. 233 is the circle opened, the dotted line indicating where it has been folded.

Fig. 228—The second triangle.

Fig. 229—The third triangle.

Fig. 230—The fourth triangle.

Fig. 231—Cut along dotted line.

Fig. 232—The folded circle.

Fig. 233—The circle opened.

Your eye will soon become sufficiently accurate to enable you to gauge the distance from A to B, and you can then cut from C to B without measuring.

Before Beginning Your Flower

take up the natural one and examine it carefully. You will notice that it has a great many petals crowded closely together, and that their edges are pointed like a saw. You will also see that the calyx is wrapped snugly around the lower part of the flower, and that it, too, has a pointed edge.

Now hold the pink off at arm's length. The separateness of the petals disappears and you see them only as a mass; the points on the edges are not noticeable except as they give the flower a crimped appearance, and the edge of the calyx looks almost straight. It is this appearance or the impression of the flower that you are to produce rather than its many and little separate parts. So now set to work.

Cut Two Squares for Each Pink

one measuring five and a quarter inches, the other four and three-quarters inches, and turn them into circles (Fig. 233), by the method just explained. Take one of the circles at the centre, where the folding lines cross, with the tips of the fingers of your left hand, and pinch it together; then, while still holding it, crimp the edge with the fingers of your right hand (Fig. 234). Do this always with every kind of flower, whether it be made of circles or squares. Without loosening your hold of the centre, draw the paper lightly through your right hand several times, then crimp the edge again, this time with the blade of the scissors. Treat all the circles alike, then place a small circle inside a larger one and draw them through your hand to bring them close together, pinching them closely until within a little over an inch of the edge (Fig. 235). Make a slender lighter of ordinary writing-paper (Fig. 236), snip off the point of the flower, D, in Fig. 235, open the other end a little, and push the lighter through until its head is hidden. This forms the stem. Wrap and tie with thread at the bottom of the flower (Fig. 237), and again where the petals spread. This last is to be but temporary, as you will remove the thread when the flower is sufficiently pressed together to hold its shape.

Fig. 234—Crimp the edge with your fingers.

Fig. 235—Draw these through your hand to bring them closely together.

Fig. 236—Make the stem of a paper lighter.

From your light green paper cut a circle measuring three and a quarter inches through its diameter and cut it in two to make the half circle for the calyx (Fig. 238). Remove the thread that holds the flower just below its petals and wrap the calyx closely around the lower part, tying it at the bottom; then cut a narrow strip of dark green paper and wrap it spirally around the stem, beginning at the top (Fig. 239). Let the wrapper extend a little below the lighter and twist the end to hold it in place. Spread the petals of your flower as much like the natural blossom as possible.

Fig. 237—Tie the flower to the stem.

Fig. 238—The calyx.

Fig. 239—Wrap the paper spirally around the stem.

Leaves

Fig. 240—The leaves.

Fig. 241—Twist each end into a point.

For the leaves cut a strip of dark green paper six inches long and three-quarters of an inch wide (Fig. 240). Find the centre by folding the paper end to end and making the crease shown by the dotted line in Fig. 240. Gather it along this line, not with needle and thread—we use no needle in this work—but with your fingers, and pinch it together; then twist each end into a point (Fig. 241). With the sharp end of your scissors punch a hole directly through the centre, E (Fig. 241), and push the point of the stem through the hole, bringing the leaves as far up on the stem as you find them on the natural flower; then wrap and tie them in place.

The Bud

is made of a circle of dark green paper the diameter of which is three and a quarter inches (Fig. 242). Gather this circle between your fingers as you did the others and crimp the edge with the scissors. It will then form a little bag or cup like Fig. 242. Slip the bag over the head of the lighter and tie at the bottom, as in Fig. 243. If the bud does not take the proper shape at first, model it with your fingers until it is correct. Start the wrapping of the stem just above where the bud is tied and finish as you did the stem of the pink. Use small leaves on the bud stem, having the strip of paper just as wide, but considerably shorter than for the leaves on the stem of the open flower.

Fig. 242—Make the bud of a circle.

Fig. 243—Slip the bag over the head of the lighter.

It is wonderful how very natural these blossoms appear. At a short distance no one would think they are not the real, old and familiar pinks. Only the fragrance is missing, and that may also be supplied and a spicy odor given by inclosing a whole clove in the heart of each flower.

The Morning-Glory

Fig. 244—Morning-glory modelled from tissue-paper.

From the pale pink paper you can make a delicately beautiful morning-glory (Fig. 244). Have the natural flower with its stem and leaves to copy from, even if the blossom is not the color you want. As with the pink, it is the general form and appearance we strive for in the morning-glory, not the detail.

Make your pink circles with a diameter of about seven inches. It is always better to have your flowers a trifle larger than the natural ones, rather than smaller.

Fig. 245—Flatten out the top.

But one circle is required for each morning-glory. Crimp this in your fingers and draw through your hand as you did the circles for the pinks; then, pinching it together to within one and a half inches of the edge, hold it in your left hand and flatten out the top, as in Fig. 245. See that the fulness is evenly distributed, and pull and straighten out the edges until you are satisfied with its appearance.

A piece of bonnet-wire makes the best stem if you wish to give the true viny effect of the growth. If it is only the blossom you are making, a paper lighter will answer. When you use the wire, bend one end over to form a small loop; this is to keep the stem from slipping through the flower. Pass the straight end of the wire through the centre of the flower and draw it down until the loop is hidden.

Make

The Calyx

Fig. 246—Green square for calyx.

Fig. 247—Hold the square at the centre.

of a square of light green paper measuring about four and a half inches. Fold the square four times through the centre to form the creases shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 246. Hold the square at the centre and draw the edges down as in Fig. 247; then bring the two edges together in gathers, just below one of the corners, to form a leaf-shaped point, as in Fig. 248. Gather below each corner, tie as in Fig. 249, and twist each corner into a sharp point like F (Fig. 249). Draw the calyx through your hand, bringing the points together (Fig. 250). Push the calyx up on the stem and tie just at the base of the flower, then tie again about three-quarters of an inch below and wrap the remainder of the calyx close to the stem. Wind the stem with light green tissue-paper and bend it as the natural one is bent and curved.