Do you have a window facing a road, or where people walk by, that you’d like to light up this advent? We’d love to see lots of decorated windows lighting up Illogan. There are lots of ways to do it and get involved.
We’re holding free workshops to learn about different methods and ideas for decorating your window. Come along and enjoy a fun and creative morning while getting into the festive mood. It’s suitable for all ages and abilities. You don’t need to be a Michelangelo, everyone can create simple but effective windows.
The Workshops are from 10am to 12 noon on:
Saturday 29th November at St Illogan Church, Church Road
Saturday 6th December at Illogan Parish Council Community Room, Trevelyan Road
If you can’t get to a workshop but would like to be involved, here are some suggestions to start you off:
Get ideas – search the internet for ‘living advent windows’. There are lots of examples of decorated windows to give you inspiration.
The most popular ways tend to use coloured tissue paper and black paper silhouettes to create stained glass effects (and this is the type that we will be focusing on in the workshops). With a light on in the room behind, the colours really shine out. You can layer the tissue paper to get different effects and colours. Applying PVA glue with a paintbrush is a great way to layer the colours, and once it’s dry its nice and strong.
These tutorials on YouTube from previous community advent window projects, which give some practical help on getting started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1MS_VfxV5c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFnhWehYMY8
You can illuminate your windows using the main room lighting, a lamp, or fairy lights, depending on where the window is and your design.
Popular themes for advent windows include:
* Father Christmas and his reindeer
* Christmas stockings
* Candles
* Nativity / Christmas story
* Christmas trees and / or ornaments and baubles
* Snowflakes and snowmen
* Christmas crackers
* 12 days of Christmas or 12 days of Cornish Christmas
But use your imagination – you might come up with a really original idea!
And very importantly – let us know that you are lighting up your windows and share your photos with us. We would love to see them.
The whole idea is to have fun. Get your friends and neighbours involved – you can always get together with friends to work on each others windows. And of course, enjoy getting out and about in Illogan to look at all the other lovely advent windows that have been made.
