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The Bead Society of Los Angeles presents Bead Bazaar 2009

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beadbazzar_0158The Bead Society of Los Angeles is one of the oldest bead societies in the country. They were founded in 1975 by a group of bead enthusiasts. They collected and made jewelry and were educators that had a robust love of beads. Through the years they have given grants, had many educational lectures and demonstrations and they put on one of the best bead shows in Los Angeles…disclaimer, I’m a member and I participate in these shows whenever possible. I’ve even shown a TV show I was on to the group and gave a lecture on making glass beads since that was what I was doing on the show.

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But if you’re in the LA area and you need beads, and who doesn’t, come on down to the Bazaar and pick some up. there will be handmade glass, vintage, glass, ancient glass…ethnic, semi-precious. The list goes on. It’s a good time for all!

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Printable Houses to Use as Christmas Decorations

I guess this isn’t exclusively a kid’s craft or learning activity (though cutting and folding are great for developing fine motor skills!) but I think kids would love having some of these printable holiday houses around the house or classroom to play with in the holiday season. Because they’re made of paper, they’re inexpensive to make, and while there is assembly involved the results are well worth the work.

If you have a cutting machine you can use the cut files from Delia Creates to make making your own paper village that much easier. She actually cut out all her buildings in different colors of card stock and used them to decorate a wreath, but you could also put them on the mantle or on a low table for kids to play with. Make a whole small world scene complete with fake snow, little characters and other elements, and kids are sure to start making their own stories to go with the setup.

This set of houses is printed and cut out using a craft knife. It’s meant to be an advent calendar, with each of the buildings numbered and you can stick a treat inside. But you could also just play with the buildings! You can get a free download of four buildings from Little House on the Corner, or head to the post to see where you can buy the whole set.

The Mavelo website isn’t in English, but their printable gingerbread house template is super cute to use as a gift box or to play with. If you need the instructions the website is in Polish but Google Translate seems to do a pretty good job.

Bora Illustrates has an adorable little house to print, cut and assemble featuring a cat, bird and gingerbread person. You could probably print it in black and white and have your kiddo color it, too.