Thrifty Acres: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly: Part Three

Hello! Having covered the "good" and the "bad" in my 1968 McCall's Christmas Make-It Ideas, it's now time to discuss the "ugly". And believe me, there's plenty of "ugly" crafts shown in this magazine! 

So let's get started, shall we?

The text in the photo claims that "familiar candles are changed to fit into a world of enchantment". Perhaps these candles are "enchanting" to you, but to me, they're anything but!

I deemed many of the projects "ugly" due to the facial features on the crafts. Here's the first example:

As if the face on this duck hand puppet wasn't weird enough, the instructions show another angle:

Does that look like something you'd want your kids to play with? 

But in my opinion, the face on this next item looks even worse:

Now, I'm fine with this depiction of St. Nicholas, except for:

Those oversized eyes could give one nightmares! 

In my previous post, I showed off some candle holders with bases molded from plaster-filled balloons. The same technique was used for another set of projects:

The two larger figures seen on the right are readily identifiable as a snowman and Santa Claus, but if it weren't for the text, I wouldn't have known what the smaller figures on the left were supposed to be. The answers: one of Santa's elves and Mrs. Claus. I'll grant that the snowman is reasonably cute, but the others are not!

Moving on, next we have:

These figures have light-bulb bodies and trims of paper and felt. Again, some of the figures aren't too bad, like the snowman and the angel. But one of the other figures set off the "ugly" alarm bell for me - can you guess which one? It is:

"Put friendly bear on cardboard skis" the magazine extorts. Maybe the bear is supposed to be friendly, but what's with all the weird eyes in this publication? 

But the faces are even weirder on these figures:

Can you tell what these are supposed to be? No? Why, they're "tube-craft wise men", of course! Actually, this is a pretty clever use for paper towel tubes, and I like the designs of the robes, gifts, etc. (these are made from heavy paper or thin cardboard that's been painted, then glued onto the tubes). But once again, the faces are ugly! 

One more ugly face:

I like the outfit on this felt pixie doll ("woodland colors of brown, greens" the text says). But yep, you guessed it - a creepy face makes this doll more ugly than the "charming" label the magazine writers gave it! 

For my last photo, a real face is shown, and it's not ugly by any means:

Instead, I object to what she has on her head - it looks as if she's wearing an upside-down wastepaper basket, but it's a "jumbo smocked hat" and has "an exotic look". Oh, dear, forgive me for thinking this hat is ugly - I was supposed to think it was exotic instead! 

And so concludes my series on the "good, the bad and the ugly" in the 1968 McCall's Christmas Make-It Ideas. It was a lot of fun to write these posts - and who knows, I may actually get around to making some of the crafts in this magazine. Just not the "bad" or the "ugly" ones!