Christmas in August

I realized that I've totally been slacking on crafternoon posts, so I will try to remember to do a post with some of the previous month's crafts.  This month's event was sort of a Christmas themed fiesta, which was completely random and so fun!  We made pretty Christmas corsages/brooches and feasted on a Chipotle-inspired lunch.  I could make a hundred more brooches and eat that food every damn day, so I especially loved it!  Head over to Heidi's blog to see more pictures from the event, including a picture of yours truly!

April Crafternoon

For this month's crafternoon, we played with Perler beads.  You can find tons of cute examples of Perler bead creations online and our group made some pretty awesome ones themselves!  You can head over to Heidi's blog for a look at what everyone made.  This month's crafternoon was also a potluck.  I had Donnie make his delicious baked mac & cheese and I made a pineapple fluff pie, both of which I forgot to photograph, so you'll just have to take my word for it that they were tasty!  As always, we did the gift exchange too.  I ended up with a really lovely little terrarium that was made by Lindsey.  She always has great gifts!  I plan on gluing magnets to my creations, so the boys can put them on their play fridge.  This is the first time I have ever used Perler beads, but I bet we will making lots of fun little things once the boys get a little older!

March Crafternoon

Sunday was the March crafternoon and because Easter is actually in March this year, we dyed eggs and exchanged baskets.  Easter is my absolute favorite holiday, so I was extra excited for this one!  As always, go to Heidi's blog for a proper look at how she once again outdid herself with decorations and yummy treats and to drool over Jessee's delicious macarons.  The cat bucket was mine, but I forgot to take a picture of it.  It was filled with candy, a cute mug, a set of salt and pepper shakers, and some jewelry, hairpins, and an ornament that I made.  I ended up with Heather's basket, because I knew it would be full of good stuff and I had gotten a head's up that it contained five Cadbury Cream Eggs!  And because it's not enough that she has us all over to her house, makes us food, and provides us with supplies, Heidi gave us all cute little watering cans full of candy.

It was fun seeing how everyone's eggs turned out and the different ways they dyed and decorated them.  I used Kool-Aid to dye mine, which was really easy.  I was limited with my colors, though, so I used some the vinegar based dye too.

January's Crafternoon

Heidi is always such a great hostess!  Look at that freaking cake!  It was yummy, as was everything else.  I forgot to take a picture of Jessee's delicious macarons, but I managed to stuff a whole bunch in my mouth (not all at once)!  There was also hummus, various chips, and some salsa cheese.

 This month's gift exchange seemed like it went much longer than previous months, even though there were less people.  Everyone kept stealing gifts until there were no more left to steal!  So fun!  I ended up with a super cute mug, some hot cocoa, and the afghan that has been keeping me warm on the sofa every evening.  Thanks, Lindsey!

Here is my finished charm bracelet and some cute little flowers that I plan on making into brooches.  Jessee was sweet enough to bring along some of her stash of supplies, so after I finished my bracelet, I made these goodies!  I absolutely love my bracelet and the noise it makes as the charms clang together.  I can't wait to wear it out!

How Charming!

Today is this month's crafternoon and, as always, I am looking forward to seeing everyone and making something fun.  We are making charm bracelets this time and I wanted to do something really fun and colorful, because I already have a traditional charm bracelet full of silver charms.  I have been gathering supplies and have them all ready to go.  My gifts for the white elephant exchange are all wrapped too.  Now I just have to wait for the afternoon to roll around!

For anyone who wants to make their own bracelet, you can find potential charms all over the place!  I am using cell phone charms, doll shoes, re-ment miniatures from Japan, vintage gumball charms, small toys, and some actual jewelry charms that I either bought at the craft store or made.  The little green in the top left corner of the charms picture is actually two puffy stickers that have been stuck together.  I actually saw Martha Stewart make an entire charm bracelet using charms made from these types of stickers.  Just think of what interests you and go from there!

December Crafternoon

I feel like I have been gathering supplies for this crafternoon for ages.  I knew we would be making wreaths, but I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I picked up a little bit of everything.  It's good to have options, you know.  I ended up making two tinsel wreaths.  They were easy and pretty fun and now I want to make more!  If I was confident about time, I'd make them as gifts for everyone.  I really enjoyed seeing all the different wreaths people made.  At our table alone, we had one covered in felt, one wrapped with yarn, and one covered in peppermints!  Here are mine-

 
So besides making wreaths, this month was also a pie party.  There were seriously so many delicious pies.  I don't think I even got to try them all!  You can see pictures on Heidi's blog.  I brought a spinach pie and a cannoli pie and Don was sweet enough to make me a chocolate marshmallow cheesecake to bring along too.  Yum!  I plan on sharing recipes for the pies and the cheesecake if Don will give it up.  I forgot to take a picture of my finished spinach pie, so you'll just have to imagine it.  It was delicious! 

I also made up goody bags for everyone filled with Christmas candy and some vintage gift tags and seals.  Don helped with those too.  He should probably be the one going to these crafternoons! 

A few months ago, we started doing a white elephant gift exchange.  This is the type of exchange where you can steal gifts away from others.  Everyone brings something thrifted or handmade that cost $10 or less.  I got to pick pretty early and I went for the one with the prettiest wrapping.  As pretty as the wrapping was, the gifts inside were even better!  I spent the rest of the exchange nervous that someone would steal my gift.  I'm pretty sure I didn't make eye contact, in hopes everyone would just sort of forget about my gift.  That's so silly, I know, but it worked!  I think everyone always brings great gifts, so I would have been happy with anything really, but check out what I ended up with!  The recipe box even has some random recipes in it from whomever owned it previously.  There was also some Toblerone chocolate in my gift, but I've already started eating that, so no pictures!

Heidi is seriously so amazing for hosting these crafternoons.  I can't imagine the time and effort she puts into preparing for these get togethers and I am forever thankful that she continues to invite me.  They're always so much fun and full of great people.  There were so many great people this time that there had to be multiple little tables of four.  On each table, besides super cute Christmas tablecloths and decorations, were pretty little glitter-filled bell jar ornaments that Heidi had made for everyone.  Thanks again, Heidi!

 

October's Crafternoon

This month's crafternoon was so much fun, as always!  I was pretty overwhelmed by all of the great supplies we had to choose from.  Heidi really outdid herself, but then again, she pretty much always does!  I think I may actually make some more little Halloween decorations on my own, now that I've had a taste, and I think Oscar would have fun making little pipe cleaner ornaments.  Besides the amazing craft supplies, there was the yummiest selection of food, and a really fun gift exchange.  Heidi and Jessee have much better pictures and more details from the get together, so check them out too!

 Lindsey and I had the same idea this month and made little goody bags.  How cute is her owl bag?!

 I wish I had gotten a better picture of Heidi's amazing centerpiece.  It was so pretty!  This is just a small selection of the delicious food!  Everything was so yummy, but those little red coconut covered cake balls were my favorite. 

 

 This is my awesome gift from our exchange.  It's a Dia de los Muertos travel kit from Jillian, with candles, matches, buttons, key chains, and little flowers.  It goes perfectly with the little shrine I have in my craft room!

Here are my little Halloween guys and gal (clearly the orange gourd is female).  I had so much fun making them!

Happy Saturday!

Hello there!  I am off to the October crafternoon today.  Each month, Heidi is sweet enough to host an amazing get together at her house.  We make a fun craft and eat delicious food.  What's not to love?  Not to mention, there's a really great group of people who attend.  I really look forward to seeing everyone each month!  I'm super excited about this month's craft, little spun cotton Halloween decorations/dolls, and will post pictures later.  I like to make something yummy to bring along, but this month I decided to bring some little bags of goodies.  I found adorable vintage treat bags at the Salvation Army today for 35 cents and have filled them with candy and silly Halloween toys.  We're doing a gift exchange too and I really like what I found to bring, but don't want to ruin the surprise, so I'll include that in a later post.  You can find posts about previous crafternoons here on Heidi's blog.  I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!