MAKE

For week 1 in the So You Think You’re Crafty challenge, I created this party garland out of cocktail napkins. The challenge theme was, In the Kitchen. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to make. I didn’t really need anything for my kitchen, so I opted not to build. I thought about a recipe, but decided nah on that. What I ended up doing was, grabbing a bunch of cocktail napkins out of my kitchen cabinet and turning them into this cool party garland!
Things you’ll need:
Cocktail napkins in various patterns and colors.
Sewing machine or needle and thread.
If you are using a sewing machine, adjust your stitch length and tension settings. If you have a gathering foot, attach it now. Place your first napkin under the foot, with the open side facing towards you. Start gathering the napkin and insert your next one inside the previous napkin…a few stitches before the start of the new one. That sounds like a mouthful, but say it a few times and you’ll get what I’m saying. Now, if you don’t have a sewing machine you can gather the old fashioned way with a needle and thread. Of course it will take longer, but definitely still doable. If you did this by hand, don’t worry about the previous step I just mentioned. Simply, do a series of needle up, needle down through the napkin in order to make a gather.
Keep sewing to your desired length or until you have a string of goodness like this…
Hang up and marvel at your cocktail napkin masterpiece! And if a guest asks for a napkin, you can just be all like, Duh.

I have been working on this post for nearly 2 weeks. Finally, today I was able to finish up my photo shoot and put together this tutorial.

I’m kind of obsessed with garlands these days. Lately, I’ve been challenging myself  to use items I already have around the house. Yes, I’m dipping into my craft hoard and actually using some of my supplies.

I absolutely love how this garland came together! Isn’t it fun? And look at bull…party animal!

Supplies you’ll need:

• Paintbrushes
• Liquid Watercolors or regular watercolors
• Circle punch
• White cardstock
• String or twine
• Large eye needle
• Scissors
• Scrapbooking double sided tape

Instructions:

• Punch out several circles from your white cardstock.
• Cut a slit from outer edge to middle of circle.
• Apply double sided tape to one side of the slit
• Form circle into a small cone and secure with tape.
• Paint around the perimeter of the cones.
• Thread painted cones, alternating them up and down.
• Hang and enjoy your masterpiece!Here’s a pull back shot of my set up. A certain little girl kept photobombing my shoot with her “well endowed” drawings.

Like many of my ideas, this one has been swimming around in my head for quite a while.  I don’t know what has taken me so long to do up this post, because the whole idea is super easy! It literally took me 5 minutes to do. You know those really cute baking cups?  I had some mismatched ones just sitting in my cabinet. There were too few to use for a party, so I embellished a string of indoor lights and created this fun party accessory!

What you’ll need:

• Baking cups
• Indoor mini string lights
• Awl or other pointy object of similar diameter.

Instructions:

Using the awl, poke a hole in the center of all the baking cups.
Do not make the hole too big, or the baking cup will fall off.
Insert lights into baking cups.
Plug in and party on!

Obviously, these are a little off center, but they still got the job done.

I love these for a patio party or how fun would these be to take on a camping trip?

When I was pulling ideas for Jackson’s living room camp out party, I scoured Pinterest for cake inspiration. Almost every camp out party had the same campfire cake. It was really cute, but I wanted something different. Then I remembered these God’s eyes I used to make when I was kid. Do you remember making these? I made mine at Vacation Bible School, but I know others that made them at camp. The story goes that the four points represent earth, fire, water, and air. Traditionally, they are created to mark a celebration or a blessing.  I think that’s a perfect fit for camp out birthday cake!

If you’ve never made a God’s eye, watch this tutorial. It’s been a while since I made one and this helped as a refresher. It’s a just a series of over and under weaving. You can get as intricate as you like, but I kept it simple.

You will need:

• Variegated yarn
• Bamboo skewers
• Scissors

Instructions:

• Watch the video tutorial.
• Cut skewers to desired lengths. Leave one short, one long.
• Tie the two skewers together and knot.
• Begin weaving over and under.
• When finished, wrap yarn around your stopping point about 4-5 times.
• Thread tail of yarn through one of the wraps you just made.
• Secure with a knot and trim excess yarn.