Christmas in "July" Crafternoon Recap!!

"What you create doesn’t have to be perfect."
-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

For over a year now, I've been pinning ideas related to crafting parties on my Craft-ernoon board. Saving ideas until I had enough local friends to invite over for a similar shindig.

I've been so blessed this last year to become close to gals both at church and at work. So on a whim a couple of months ago, I decided just to bite the bullet and send out a Facebook invitation for a Christmas in July Crafternoon get-together two weeks later. The response was really positive, but the date didn't work out. So after comparing our calendars, we moved it back... to Saturday, September 7th.

Since then I've had to push away my doubts about whether I was up for hosting such a big endeavor, but I'm so glad I took the leap and put myself out there. [Momentum at work!]

I've been scouring sales, digging through thrift stores, and hoarding craft store coupons to buy all of the supplies. Since I asked my guests to bring $10 to help cover the cost of supplies, my budget was $2 per person per project, and I think I got pretty close to meeting that goal (although I stopped keeping track towards the end).

I planned five stations with Christmas-themed crafts: three that could be given as gifts and two that could be used as Christmas wrapping. I hope to share more details about each project in the next few days. The project list:

• Burlap garlands
• Dry erase frames
• No-sew t-shirt scarves
• Felt giftcard envelopes
• Confetti gift tags

Although I originally thought the party would last from 1-3pm... we ended up crafting for hours. The last guest left around 6!!

To keep us fueled for our crafting endeavor, I had a few snacks on hand, including turkey crescents, tortellini and pesto skewers, and yummy cupcakes. One of the highlights was the custom labels for the water bottles... what an easy way to take your party up a notch!

I think everyone had a great time. An afternoon away from husbands and kids to be crafty and creative. As I had hoped, some of the guests took the project ideas and made them their own. And, even the self-proclaimed "non-crafters" were super proud of their creations.

I hope that this becomes a tradition we want to continue... although maybe next time I can delegate the food prep and the hosting!!