People, THIS was a really hard assignment.  I mean REALLY HARD.  And it shouldn't have been.  All I wanted to do was find some great crafty fun Holiday Decoration ideas that grown ups could enjoy doing themselves.  Not the glue-and-glitter crafts for kids, but something with a little panache, a little taste, something, well, grown up.  I didn't think it would be that hard. 

I Googled, I Technorati'ed, I del.icio.us'ed, I BlogLined, I Craftstered, I HGTV'ed, I Instructabled.  What did I miss?

I tried "holiday craft tutorials", "hand-made holiday", hand-made holiday crafts", "hannukah crafts", "Kwanzaa crafts" and I don't recall what else. 

The search engines let me down.  My trolling through the blogs left me crumbs.  My praying to the deities of scissors, glue and fiber fell flat. 

I'm sorry. 

I didn't completely wash out, however.  While I'm sure I missed the mother-lode of great grown-up crafty holiday decoration how-tos, I found a few offerings for you:

Tim Holtz just began a series: 12 Days of Christmas Techniques.  Tim is a stamper and scrapbooker (scrambper??); these tutorials will give you 12 gorgeous holiday tags plus even more techniques.

Craft and Found pointed us to BluePrint's downloadable wrapping paper patterns at MarthaStewart.com.  There are 4 coordinating designs which print up best at 11x17.

Yarn Stars would be an easy craft to work on while watching all those old holiday movies. 

WikiHow has a great tutorial on making a 3D Paper Snowflake.

PhotoJoJo demonstrated how to turn a photograph into an ornament.

As part of HGTV's AT HOME series, Pam Melton created a papier mâché bowl that can be used on the tablescape for Kwanzaa celebrations, while designer Jacqueline McCoy suggested how to "style" a perfect Kwanzaa Tablescape.

HGTV also offers directions for a Menorah that Carol Duval and Mari Blaustein made using their hands for the shape of the mold. I truly wish there were a photo to go with this, but the directions seem clear.  I also think newly engaged/married couple and/or newly blended families may wish to make one of these to commemorate the year. 

Sunshine Creations is writing how to make your own Yo-Yo Advent Calendar. She writes one new decoration for the tree each day.. so this will either be a month-long craft-travaganza or printed and saved to do for next year.

For the first-timers amongst us, instructables even has step-by-step instructions for how to set up your Christmas Tree.

But these suggestions make me feel sad.  I have let you down.

If you know of a great holiday how-to decoration that would appeal to those of us adult crafters (of all ilk, knitters, sewers, quilters, scrappers, anyone!)  would you please share the link in the comments?  I'll try to do better next year.

Debra Roby blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her mundane life at Deb's Daily Distractions .