This time of year I start feeling the need to be crafty! I am having a hard time coming up with some good pagan craft ideas - I searched the web and am disappointed to say I didn't come up with much. Certainly nothing creative or new - anyone can make cinnamon ornaments - and indeed i'm sure i will make them again this year but that's beside the point!

What kind of pagan crafty ideas have any of you gals come up with?

Not a paganchick, but what about sets of handpainted rune stones and hand made (crocheted, sewn, knit, needlepoint...) pouches to put them in. I have a set of Celtic rune stones that I think is just gorgeous, and it gave me the idea to handpaint or handcarve a set (I never have, because my list of craft ideas is miles long). Although I have bought several bags of stones to make the sets (these are stones in net bags that you find in dollar stores, craft stores.... for aquariums, landscaping etc... flattened marbles, polished river stones...).

Here's something that I thought was great, and since I'm not yet eligible to put up links, here's the short article (which, btw, came from an article from Cauldrons and Broomsticks e-zine in 2000):

try a google search for lady of the earth. she has a nice site with lots of crafty crafts on it. Good luck!

I really like these ideas, are you looking to make things for yourself or for others? And how long do you want to spend on each item?

I love charm and herb bags, you can become so inventive with materials and decorations and they make lovely gifts for like minded people Also, quilt making (a bit involved) or quilted cushiong covers/cushions that are made with magical intent, you can also sew herbs into the items to help... on the more ornametnal side, I've always wanted to make my own God and Goddess symbols but have never gotten round to buying my own clay. Ooh, and making wreaths, you could use branches or even just ribbons so you can use different colurs to correspond with sabbats/festivals, all varying in sizes for differnt uses. How about candle decorations, I can't think of the proper name, but small rings you put at the base of a taper/dinner candle as a decoration, again can be made with different items to correspond with the season. I'm also intending to make a huge set of gift cards for different festivals and seasons.

I love crafting, I wish I spent more time on being creative

I like to make bath tea and bath salt, I use herbs and essencial oils to correspond with the moons phases, so, say, I'll make a full moon bath tea and a full moon bath salt and give that to one of my girlfriends. I also make new moon and dark moon. And massage oil...infusing oils with herbs and essencial oils is easy and pretty inexpensive and who doesn't like a massage?

I am really into season tables. Especially autumn but also other seasons, and also connected to the pagan celebrations. What goes on them? Stuff I find outside and that intrigues me. Winter is a little hard (ice and snow tend to melt ) but I can do that with pieces of mirror and white cloth.

I also like to populate my season tables with human figurines. I make them from felt and pipe cleaners (the pipe cleaners being the skeleton and the felt the dress, trousers, whatever). I use wooden beads of various sizes for hands, feet and head. The hair is from different kinds of wool. I make figurines symbolic for certain aspects (virgin, mother, crone, full moon, dark moon... I just have trouble coming up with males ). They are about 2 inches high. Those are my crafty crafts... I also like making incenses, working with herbs, but I have to confess I haven't really done that for a long time.

Tea making is a great idea for inexpensive gifts. You can buy your herbs from a fall/winter farmers market or dry our own. The best way to learn to make your own teabags is to take apart one you bought at a store. You can use cheesecloth or another thin fabric for material and tie or even staple the end closed with a ribbon and string to pull it out of the cup. Remember to not put stapled ones in the microwave! Experiment with classic favorites like lemon balm, peppermint, spearmint, jasmine, and chamomile. Then, when you get the right combos, try blends that you make! Its a lot of fun and very relaxing as well as inexpensive!