The second annual Winterfare day of craft making was held Dec. 29 at the Howard County Fairgrounds, in West Friendship. Last year's event was such a hit that the 4-H Extension Office decided to repeat the event.

Not wanting to repeat the same crafts as last year, Chris Rein, 4-H program assistant, gathered ideas throughout the year. Together with Extension Educator Sheryl Bennett, they recruited volunteers and purchased supplies.

Forty-three young people attended Winterfare 2009. The program was sold out weeks before the event.

This year's crafts again included all levels of difficulty to challenge everyone ages 5-18. The youngest members enjoyed such crafts as decorating aprons with fabric paint and making popsicle napkin holders. Older 4-H'ers learned floral arranging and making a mosaic serving tray, in which they learned how to do tiling.

Other crafts included decorating a nightlight with sea shells, making a snowman doorstop using landscaping pavers, and making a very attractive room memo board. There was also bandana wreath making, soap casting, party placemat making, card making, scrapbooking, and jewelry making.

These creative ideas were well-received by the participants.

"I liked making the snowman doorstop. I liked painting it," said Mitchell Feaga, a 9-year-old member of Bullseye 4-H Club.

Nathan Thomas, Mitchell's 10-year-old cousin, a member of the West Friendship Livestock Club agreed.

"I also liked the painting and gluing the buttons on the snowman," he said.

Alison Howard, a 11-year-old member of Dayton 4-H Club, as she busily made a bandana wreath, decided, "I liked making the mosaic tray."

Abeni Schoch, a 13-year-old member of the Spotlighters Club, summed it up nicely.

"It's nice to be able to use your creativity to do different projects."

Plans are already underway to hold another winter break craft day next year. If you have a craft that you think young people would enjoy making, I invite you to contact the 4-H office. I'm sure they'd appreciate ideas and offers to help 4-H'ers learn something new.

If you'd like to see some of these "works of art" that the kids created, I'd invite you to stop by the indoor exhibits at the Howard County Fair in August. I suspect that quite a few of them will be on display. See you there.

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