Our Annual Craft Exchange started with only about five of us who wanted to make gifts for Christmas gifts and exchange ideas with each other. It has since grown to Twelve of us, starting at about 12 noon and lasting until 12 am. We eat, drink, laugh, and craft all day long. The best part is some are seasoned crafters and some just learning how to craft. We coach each other and laugh at our mishaps, of course there are some of us who just can’t keep the competition out of our veins, and we randomly yell, “I’m DONE!

 

We have our rules, which were posted, and our  Shout-Outs. Check out #3- Look who got a shout-out!

Starting at 12 noon with appetizers, we got going on our crafting, starting with cake pedestals. I made mine with a plate from my grandmothers china set.  The first one went so well….. lalala Just beautiful! I’m going to be the best crafter today!

Next up bookmarks, I can do this with ease. Ok so I had a little trouble gluing the button on the ribbon and getting everything stuck to the plate. Nobody saw and I got through that…whoot. Time for some of the homemade breads and fresh ice tea...no drinking yet- too early for me, we have to last another 10 hours. OK my turn, of course I wasn’t as organized as everyone else. They all had each person’s craft project in little bags with directions printed, beautifully displayed finished pieces. NOPE NOT ME– As I’m pulling my materials out of my Michael’s bag, cutting the cork board right there. I just found my craft, I kinda borrowed it from Tina (@ThereisMoreToMe). Somehow I worked it out and everyone made great coasters.

  Stamping next- We made beautiful cards that you can use for baby showers and wedding showers. This was a little more difficult. My bride’s head was not peeking through the hole but looked more like a “Runaway Bride”. My baby card did come out pretty good if I say so myself. I was more interested in eating the candy that went into it. Now into the baking. We’re making squash soup…ummm if you know me at all, this is going to be hard for me to taste, damn me for being so picky! The onions smelled so yummy, and in went the rest of the veges. While that cooks, we head to our next craft, jewelry. This was intense and we get so silly, especially when we loose a bead and need to get on all fours to find it- Get out the flashlight and let the comments commence!! This is around when I was yelled at by my non-bloggy friends to stop trying to blog this! Ok so we made our rings and decided this is when we should start drinking.

Yes I will have the punch with the 12 different liquors in it.  Oh I forgot about the kitchen soaps. This I WILL ace, after all, I own Touch’d Bath and Body. I make my own soap and everything else.  Ohhhhhhh… This is Bar Soap, I can do thiswill try this. Wow that was easy and it smells so yummy, this could be an addition to Touch’d if I can iron out how I over cooked the soap, poured too slow, and forgot to add scent. Next, paper origami ornaments and books- I can’t really explain this except the ornament took me a total of 3 hours to do and the book was totally awesome. I have to get a pic of it when I fill it. It’s now someone’s idea ….after drinking….to do a yoga, chakra, mother earth meditation. Really? You want me to stand with my eyes closed…and NOT fall over. This is going to be interesting. So I stood with my eyes closed open and watched everyone become one with Mother Earth. As I watched everyone enjoy this session and totally relax, I wished I didn’t have ADD so I can join in and reap the benefits! I would however, love to tape the voice of this instructor…it WAS very relaxing, and I could use her voice to calm me (at least once a month).

We move on to Floral Ribbon Pins– this calls for sewing…a little… it actually went really well and I now can make a flower pin out of ribbon. next up Etching…now this I’ve done before- it’s so easy but you do need a steady hand which
at 11:00 pm, I do Not have. I’m not sure it’s in my best interest to be using an Exacto knife. I decided to make my NY Yankee plate. Last but not least we made lollipops. We won’t talk about my Le “Happy” Snowman, but there’s a picture of him on Facebook and let’s just say you can tell he’s a HE. We had a wonderful time crafting, laughing, eating, and drinking our asses off! Can’t wait to share what I learned on our craft exchange next month.

 

Do you and your IRL girls get together? What do you do?