YOUNGSTOWN — Sue Reardon recalled when she and her husband, Bob, used to compete with themselves to ride their bicycles in Mill Creek Park up the steep incline near Lake Glacier that leads to Fellows Riverside Gardens.

More recently, however, Reardon reached the top with far less strain, a different mode of transportation and for a vastly different reason in a vastly different season: to try her hand at arts and crafts.

“I thought it would liven things up a little bit,” Reardon, of Austintown, said.

Specifically, she drove to the D.D. and Velma Davis Education and Visitor Center, in the popular botanical gardens, Saturday morning to make a winter swag, which is a small decoration that can look similar to a wreath. Swags add festive and colorful touches to homes as they typically are hung on front doors, outdoor light fixtures, fences and lampposts.

The craft Reardon made likely will provide needed added color, because she has already taken down her Christmas tree, lights and decorations. The swag — especially the green parts — also will reinforce her yearning for spring, she said, adding that Fellows Riverside Gardens is one of her favorite places in the park.

“I’m not crafty at all. That’s why I like Judy’s classes,” Reardon’s good friend, Mary Swartz of Canfield, said.

Swartz was referring to Judy Stanislaw, who conducted Saturday’s 90-minute class.

Swartz intends to hand the swag she designed on her front door. The move likely will fill the color void left after she also recently removed her Christmas tree and decorations, she added.

Swartz and her husband also have a strong connection to Mill Creek Park because they alternated months in which they took their daughter there for crafts-related programs, she continued.

Stanislaw explained that a winter swag can be devoid of a wreath, even if it’s shaped similarly to one. Those made Saturday relied mostly on white pine, hydrangeas, asparagus ferns and eucalyptus, with a touch of glitter, she noted.

Stanislaw has been teaching such classes for about 50 years, she added.

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