Pinterest Party 2012!

My friends are too busy to get together over the holidays. They work, they have children, they have large families with lots of commitments. Me too, but sometimes going without seeing or talking to my friends for two months, or so, is too long! Friends are what help me get through all of that everyday stuff and offer me a bit of comic relief--and I certainly need that when I'm up to my eyeballs in "to do's" and tinsel!

Look at this LOOT!
I mean, look at all of these presents I was able to make...

I could have had a cookie swap, but I didn't want the stale cookies or calories. I could have had a gift swap, but that didn't seem right either. So, I had a Pinterest Party. Here's how it worked:

How It Works:
I invited 7 of my crafty friends. I asked that they choose an easy, gift-worthy craft from Pinterest, make a sample of it and bring the supplies needed to make 7 more. Making a sample beforehand let us know what we'd be making and allows the person to work all of the kinks out beforehand. I asked that they only spend $20-$25 total for all of the supplies necessary to make their craft. Then, the plan was for us to all get together, eat, drink and craft and go home with one of seven different crafty gifts.

I also asked that they bring a snack, drink or dessert from Pinterest to share.

What I Did To Prepare:
Along with making my own craft, I made sure I had a few tables on hand for us to craft on (instead of my one little dining room table). It's great to have some basic supplies like a hot glue gun, scissors, glue sticks, extra ribbon in various sizes and colors (I just grabbed my ribbon bin) and tape. Having a cleaning spray, paper towels and dustpan and broom easily accessible will also help when you need to tidy between projects.

I think next year I will have a gift bag station for wrapping the gifts and a dedicated place for people to put their gifts as they finish them (maybe a large gift bag or grocery bag with handles).

I also set up a group board on Pinterest and invited all of my guests to pin their craft and food item so that, after the party, we'd have access to the directions and recipes, if needed. Our Board is here.

The Projects:
Wow! I was so thrilled at the diversity of the projects! Here's what we made:

• Alcohol Ink Coasters (set of 4)
• Birdseed Wreaths
• Mason Jar Soy Candles
• Terrariums in a Glass Ornament
• Desktop Dry Erase Board
• No-Sew Lanyards
• Washer Necklaces

We took turns having the person who brought a specific project lead the rest of us through it in a mini tutorial. We learned so much about so many different types of crafts and we were able to try things that we might otherwise have never done.

Working on the No-Sew Lanyards

The Food:
YUM! Too many good things and WAY too much food! But I enjoyed working my way through the buffet! I had coffee and tea on hand as well as juice spritzers. One of my good friends brought eggnog from a local dairy. These are some of the recipes from Pinterest that were there (Check out the Pin Board for the links/recipes):

• Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
• Candy Cane Dip With Apples & Oreos for dipping
• Asian Slaw With Ginger-Peanut Dressing
• Buffalo Chicken Enchilada Roll-ups
• Goat Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Dates
• Seven Layer Bars
• Hummus & Salsa with veggies and chips, etc.

Some of the coasters drying--these really brighten up
after they are sprayed with the sealant.

Some Thoughts:
If you think you'd enjoy a Pinny Party, do it! It was fun and it's great to come away with lots of little gifts for giving. It does take some advance planning since you have to give your guests time to come up with an idea, try it at home, and shop for the supplies to create enough for your guests.

We had allowed three hours for the party (from 1:00-4:00 on a Sunday afternoon). That really wasn't enough time. Have your guests think of how they can prep some of their supplies ahead of time to save time and try to keep each project to about 1/2 hour. Limiting the guest list to 4-6 can help with time, but who wants to limit the guest list too much! Maybe if the party is held a bit earlier in the year (mid-November?) and there are two evenings of crafting (3-4 projects and evening) then that would allow for more time and more fun. But I wouldn't try to hold a party with two sessions in December--much too crazy!

But I LOVE the projects we made and I'm worried I won't be able to part with them! I'm so thrilled I was able to spend time with my friends and have some crafting therapy! I may not be entirely ready to face the holidays, but when things get stressful, I'll try to remember the good time I had with my friends this weekend.

And a present for our feathered friends, too!

Mini Hand Drawing With Pattern & Ribbon

Well, here's another project I saw on Pinterest only to follow the link to nowhere. If you know where this came from, let me know so I can give credit where credit is due! When I originally saw this project I thought it would be great for my 13-year-old private art student. It was, but I also modified it and had my 9-year-old student do it as well. Here are my notes and method:

This is a lovely project that encompasses a variety of art concepts: inking patterns, drawing hands, shading with colored pencils, depth, positive and negative space, and value (in the ribbon and in the patterns). But, in order to make it manageable, I suggest only drawing one hand on an oversize index card. This keeps the size relatively small and you should be able to actually get the piece done at some point. My 13-year-old student used a large piece of paper (maybe 11" x 14"?) and had two hands in the composition and divided up the space with lots of ribbons and she worked on it for over three weeks (each an hour long session) and it was only about 1/3 of the way done. It got to be pretty tedious for her, I think.

With this smaller format, you get all of the fun and it is just enough to keep it interesting. Here's how we did it:

Mini Hand Drawing With Pattern & Ribbon

Supplies Needed:

• Oversize (6" x 9") white index card, blank (or card stock)
• Pencil with eraser
• Sharpies (fine and ultra fine tips)
• Colored pencils, assorted colors

Directions:

1. Place the hand you don't draw with onto the index card. You can make the hand go off the page a bit, but extend your fingers so that the space around your hand is broken up a bit by your fingers. Trace your hand with pencil.

2. Move your hand off of the paper and use it as a model to fill in some of the details of the hand you traced on your paper. Add wrinkles, rings, bracelets and fingernails. Don't add too many wrinkles though!

3. Draw a ribbon curling around your hand or through fingers and take care to have the ribbon divide up the negative space in your piece. Make it interesting!

4. Erase the lines of your fingers where the ribbon overlaps them. You'll want to take a minute and really make sure that your lines make sense--you don't want to ink something that shouldn't be there!

5. Trace the hand and the details on your hand with the ultra fine point Sharpie. Also trace the ribbon with the Sharpie.

6. Use your pencil to draw different patterns in the different sections of the background. Patterns can be made of lines, dots, squares, triangles, zig zags, and more!

7. Once you have your patterns down, ink them in with the Sharpies.

8. Erase all pencil lines.

9. Use the colored pencils to add color to the ribbons. Once you've built up nice layers of color, use darker colors in areas to create shadows.

My 9-year-old art student created her piece in two one-hour sessions. I'd think that this would take 3-4 regular class sessions if you were doing this project in a classroom setting. 

Origami Butterfly Wreath for Easter or Spring

My family loves origami! So when I saw the directions for an origami butterfly on Pinterest, I knew I had to create a project that used them! So, here 'tis! This is a relatively simple and VERY inexpensive project that would be suitable for children grade 2 and up (the origami may be a bit challenging for a young one and the tissue paper can be time consuming).

The butterfly origami directions are from Go Origami. Many of the gorgeous projects on this site are too advanced for me, but the butterfly is easy enough.

Enjoy making this lovely wreath and bringing a bit of Spring into your home!

Origami Butterfly Wreath for Easter or Spring

Supplies Needed:

• One paper plate
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Elmer's glue
• Glue tray (I used the lid of a yogurt tub)
• Tissue paper in green (I used three colors of green for interest)
• Three pieces of origami paper (or thin colored paper), assorted colors
• Hole punch
• Ribbon

Directions:

1. Trace a 5" circle in the center of the paper plate. Use the scissors to poke a hole in the center circle and then cut and remove the center circle so you are left with an outer ring of a paper plate. This is the base of your wreath.

2. Cut the tissue paper into 1" squares. I can't tell you how many squares you'll need, but you'll probably end up cutting WAY more than you need.

3. Pour a bit of glue into the tray. Take a 1" square of tissue paper and CENTER it over the eraser end of the pencil, smoothing the edges of the tissue paper around the eraser and pencil. Use your fingertips to HOLD the tissue in place and then dip the covered end of the eraser into the glue. Gently touch the tissue-covered eraser to the plate, and remove the pencil. The tuft of tissue paper should remain. You'll be attaching the tufts of tissue paper to the underside of the plate--not the side you'd eat on.

4. Repeat with additional tissue paper squares until the surface of the plate ring is covered. It helps to place the tissue paper tufts next to each other as you go--this will ensure that the wreath is nice and full and doesn't have any bald spots! If you are working with a younger child, you can work with him/her on this part. Many children won't mind the help and it's a wonderful time to sit and chat quietly with your child. 

5. Once the front surface of the wreath ring is covered with tissue paper tufts, use a hole punch to make two holes about 5" apart on the top edge of the wreath. This will allow you to hang the wreath up later. Set the wreath aside to dry.

6. Trim the origami paper so that one piece is 6 inches square, another is five inches square, and the third is four inches square. Fold into butterflies. Directions can be found here.

7. Attach ribbon to the wreath. Trim if necessary.

8. Use glue to attach butterflies in a pleasing arrangement. 

You're done! Welcome Spring!

**Another option to make this much easier for little ones is to reduce the size of the plate wreath. Making the wreath ring 5-6" across will be much easier for a single child to do on his/her own. Then adjust the size of the butterflies accordingly, maybe a butterfly made from a 5" square flanked by butterflies made from 4" squares. 

SHARK! A Dollar Store Birthday Party

My littlest guy turned 5! He's a firecracker, and he decided he wanted a shark party (mostly because he saw a shark cake dripping fake blood when I was browsing online). SIGH.

I was excited to make a shark cake, but the kids and I created a few other things for the party that you might like. I have Pinterest to thank for many of them! Many of these supplies can be found at the dollar store.

The cake:


My family loves to watch the Cake Boss. I took cake decorating classes but the Cake Boss has really made me step up my cake decorating style! So, in true Cake Boss style, I shaped Rice Krispie Treats into the shape of a Shark's head, covered it with a light coat of frosting and then covered that with fondant tinted pink, white and grey. I added teeth and black bits for the nostrils and eyes. Then I put that on top of a 10" round of strawberry cake (little guys' choice) and covered the cake in bluish frosting. Voila! Great White lunging out of the water! (I was asked "Where's the blood?" since mine was gore-free--Hey, I didn't want to freak out the four- and five-year-olds that were going to be in attendance!)

Shark Attack Cake--Just like Little Guy Wanted
(OK, minus the blood)

Decorations:
Shark jaws: Made from dollar store paper plates! I couldn't believe this when I saw it! Easy, inexpensive and fast! And the kids LOVED them! We got many a picture of the kids holding scary shark teeth! I saw this idea on www.dollarstorecrafts.com.

Shark Jaws made from paper plates and view of the Table Runner
(After this photo was taken I set the table with plates and napkins, etc. )

Wall art: I saw the jellyfish pictures on a favorite art blog of mine: "For The Love of Art" and I thought they were so pretty. I made a few of them, hung them on the wall and added some blue metallic fish shapes I bought at the dollar store.

My version of the jellyfish pictures don't do this art activity justice--
go to "For The Love of Art" to see the originals.

Table runner: We used tempera paints in a variety of colors with a big paint brush to make waves along a piece of paper from a roll. We then stamped on a few shark shapes cut from craft foam to give that "sharks are circling" effect.

Goodie Bags: I kept these simple since the children were making some crafts. I stamped a shark fin on the side of each and added blue "waves" from the scraps of the table runner. I then included a Star Wars coloring book (little guy's choice), a set of colored pencils, a couple of lollipops and a bag of Swedish fish (all from the dollar store). I put each child's name on his/her bag and as s/he would finish a craft I'd pop it in the corresponding bag.

Printmaking and Eric Carle-inspired waves!

Crafts:
Shark clips: I saw these on Pinterest originally and had to do them with the kids. They took no time at all and the children loved them (the four-year-olds as well as the ten-year-olds loved them!). I drew them on card stock, had the children color them in and hot glued them to clothespins (card stock and clothespins are from the dollar store).

Easy to make and fun!

T-shirts: OK, I didn't get the t-shirts from the dollar store, but I did get them from the craft store on sale for 4 for $10. I had originally wanted to have the children create shark t-shirts like one I saw in Family Fun Magazine years ago, but ran out of time to do the prep work necessary. So, I let the older kids design their own shark inspired t-shirts using clear contact paper and sprayable fabric paint. I purchased the clear Contact paper at the dollar store and one roll was enough for 8 t-shirts. The older kids went with a "Shark Attack" theme with their shirts. For the little ones, I cut shark head shapes from the contact paper and the little ones got to spray and draw on their shirts with fabric paint.

A shark coming up from the deep to investigate a swimmer...

This isn't going to end well...

This shows the empty shark cage and the shark with feet sticking out of its mouth.
YIPES! I assure you these are by well-adjusted children!

And the "Rest of the Story..."
I was also able to get "Happy Birthday"-themed paper products at the dollar store (cups, plates, napkins) as well as streamers, and balloons. They weren't "Shark"-themed, but were bright and colorful!

All-in-all I think the party went well! And little guy said he had a wonderful time hanging out with his friends!