Christmas crafting with the girls

I am very fortunate to be surrounded by talented people in my life.  I cannot express how much fun this makes my life.  I know that I can always create wonderful times with these people!

About a year and a half ago one of these talented ladies, Tove, invited several of us to her home for a day of crafting.  We were each responsible for creating some sort of loveliness of our own desire and then make a kit for each person.  We each then taught our design to the ladies.  Of course there was lots of laughter and lunch for all.  It was SO much fun!  So much in fact that we decided to do it again.  And again.  We have done this a couple times now.  Sometimes there is a theme like a holiday, but mostly it is just what we want to create and share.

I thought it might be nice to host this one.  I decided it had to be Christmas themed and off we went.  We had 4 of us for our Christmas crafting day with the ladies! (Melissa, Tove,  Barbara, and myself)  Oh what fun we had!  I thought I would share our craftiness with you today.

First up is Tove.  She was so sweet and brought a hostess gift for me.  She is from Norway and recently had returned home.  She brought me the most adorable little boy and girl dressed for the season.  They are absolutely precious!

 I love that they stand up on their own!  Even with my monster cats on the table next them they remain upright.  So cute!

And this is Tove's creation for us.  This star is huge!  It is made with 5 yardsticks that are glued together then strung with a strand of Christmas lights.  I hung it from my bannister so it can be seen inside my house but also through the front window.  It looks so cool at night!  Love it!

Next up is Melissa.  She is a "newbie" to the group.  She is incredibly talented and just doesn't know it!  She kept telling us that she felt like a kindergartener in college!  Too funny.

 This is her creation.  I fell in love with it.  I have a soft spot for vintage looking pieces and this one hit the right note with me.  The cone is paper mache that we covered with a kraft paper that had french phrases on it.  We tore the paper into small pieces and modge-podged it on. She gave us each a package of Prima wood buttons to add.  I chose to add some mini twine bows to some of my buttons.  She also included an initial of our last name.  I added glitter to it and to the edges of the burlap flower for the top.  A large pearl made the center of the flower just right.  Everyone made their trees different.  It was so fun to see how everyone interpreted the project to fit their style.

Next up is Barbara.  I gave everyone very, very short notice for this.  Barbara literally had one evening to design her project!  She had us make some very cute ornaments.  They fit perfectly on the small Christmas tree in my breakfast room.

 This was just the tag she tied on our kits.  It was too cute to not do something with so I glittered it and added a bow!  Perfect!

 Crystals dangling?  Oh yeah!  I'm on it!

All of the pieces were cut with the Silhouette.  Yep, still love my Silhouette!  Aren't they adorable?

And last of course is mine.  I had it in my mind to create a wintery scene in a lantern.  I had it totally planned out and then could not find any of the things I wanted!  I ended up making the lanterns.  They are quite large.  Larger than I expected.  About 14" tall.  But when all was done, I think they turned out great.  I painted the entire thing white then made a wash from turquoise paint.  Gave it a frosty look.  Inside the lantern is papered with antique music paper.  I added white paint to some artificial greenery to give a snowy effect.  Glued them in and added the snow at the bottom.  I added a frosty turquoise and white glitter to the eggs and the nest and a little on the beak of the bird.  Glued all that in.  I decided I needed a bit more bling so I added these cute little teardrop aqua colored gems that I found in the wedding department of the craft store.  Perfect.  Added ribbon (lots of it) and the large snowflakes.

A close up to show you the bling I added.  It really worked and reflected the light giving it a twinkle.  Some of the ladies were going to add a small strand of battery powered lights to theirs.  Love that.  I think I can keep this out beyond Christmas as it is more of a wintery scene.

I hope you enjoyed our crafts.  It is cold here; a bit unusual for us.  Wherever you are stay warm!