Hosting a Christmas Craft Party

Hello everyone! Enjoying your weekend??

Last night I hosted a Christmas craft party for several of my friends.  

It took a few weeks to plan but I think it was successful and the ladies who attended had a great time.  

If you are thinking of planning something like this I have a few tips to help make it run smoothly so you can enjoy yourself, too!

1.  Make lists for everything -- craft supplies needed, food you will be serving,  dishes/cutlery needed, what your friends should bring - that way you won't forget anything and have a lot of last minute stress.

2.  Pre-make each craft item so that you have something to show your guests before they start.  Lots of people need a visual starting point before beginning their creations.  

 We made: 

a) two different glass ornaments - one filled with rolled scrapbook paper, the other had glittered stripes created with two-sided tape   

 b) Ribbon and bead Christmas tree ornaments

c) Book page trees

3. Serve food and drinks to keep everyone's energy up. 

 I served hot chocolate with all the fixin's

 (including some alcohol to add-in), Christmas Caramel

 popcorn (recipe to follow on another post),  

veggies and dip.  

My guests arrived with cheese and crackers (Thanks, Betty) and yummy chocolate cookies (Thanks, Paige)

4. Prep as much of the crafts as you can ahead of time.  I cut the scrapbook paper into strips and made the bases for the paper trees.

I put all the other supplies out into bowls so that everyone could easily access what they needed.  

5. Have all of the necessary tools and adhesives within arm's reach.  I had a large bowl containing scissors, rulers, pens, pencils and a vessel full of tape and glue bottles.  

6. Give your friends some choice.  I had several colours of ribbon to work with and a whole collection of glitter colours.  That way my guests could create ornaments that would go with their chosen colour schemes.  

7. Sit down and enjoy yourself.  If you have prepped well, you should be able to craft, too.  I was able to guide my guests through each creation and still be part of the lively conversation.

8. Enjoy yourself! The hard work and preparation are done.  Enjoy your guests, make something pretty and HAVE FUN!!