Christmas Craft Party

The craft party I had on Wednesday felt like the kick off to the Christmas festivities (it helps that I only had two more work days left so I was in wind-down mode).  

I invited everyone in my art class to come and do a little Christmas crafting. I made the invitations with Picmonkey using their Winterland theme borders.

Making it pot luck was such a help and it meant there was so much yummy food.

I set the dining room and family room up with tables for three different crafts.

I kept the messy craft on the dining room table (covered in a plastic tablecloth) and the other crafts were in the family room on low tables. 

The three crafts we made were:

1) Orange Carving 

We used specialty kitchen tools to carve the skins of oranges. Carved oranges are fun to make - sort of like carving a pumpkin only smaller and easier. The only thing to watch is that you don't pierce the actual orange segments themselves or the orange will go moldy.  My friend carved some oranges years ago and they hardened into hard balls, but she also carved some last year and they went moldy, so there is no telling what the secret is. I figured that we were close enough to Christmas that they would last until then and look pretty so it wouldn't matter either way.  

The finished oranges were beautiful and endlessly varied with different designs and even cloves added on some.

  

2) Paper Stars (or are they snowflakes)

I found the instructions to make these pretty paper stars on How About Orange.  The problem we ran into was that you really need a heavy duty large-size stapler to make them properly. We used paper (not cardstock) cut into one inch wide segments and trimmed so they would fit into the stapler.  The paper strips were folded in half, stapled together in the middle, and then the end of each strip was folded back on itself and attached near the centre with double-sided tape. My honest opinion is that these paper stars was difficult to make them look as pretty as they did in the inspiration photos.  They were fun to make, but a little disappointing in my mind. If anyone has made them before and has some tips I would love to know.

3) Beaded Snowflakes (or are they stars)

I made these beaded snowflakes years ago and loved them. I put them out every Christmas and have always wanted to make more using different colours so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. I want to show you step-by-step how to make them so I'll post about them later.

The craft party was a lot of fun and just might become an annual tradition.  Have you ever hosted a craft party?