We had the pleasure and fun yesterday of co-hosting a fantastic family-crafting event at Pins & Needles. We had several kids and their parents show up to the shop yesterday afternoon to craft for the holidays and beyond. We offered five great projects including a couple crafts from our new Holiday Crafts Book, plus a few surprises from the lovely ladies at Pins & Needles.
I wanted to share a few photos from the event below, but I also wanted to share the projects we created with you so you can make them at home with your own children. They're super easy and will keep your kids happy and busy for hours!
1 The shop was all decked out for the holidays. Rachel, the store owner, made one of our wreaths from the book, which you can get the instructions for here: http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/paper-doily-wreath The team also used Liberty fabric to create these trees and we cut ornaments out of red and white felt to decorate them.
2 Here's a close up of the wreath Rachel made as well as the theme for the event "handmade holiday."
3 The girls who came to our event loved making these easy and stylish button barrettes. You can learn how to make the same barrettes here: http://www.marthastewart.com/266836/button-hair-clips
4 Some of the sample button cards we made at the event. You can get the instructions for the cards here: http://www.marthastewart.com/270973/button-cards
5 Here one of the tables is set up to make our button cards and the button barrettes.
6 Look at all of the colorful buttons to use for the cards.
7 The kids made so many great cards, some followed our lead and some came up with their own fabulous designs.
8 Just look at how creative they all were.
9 Another guest shows off the button barrette she made.
10 We also made small felt bags which required some sewing. The kids were able to decorate them with pieces of felt, templates, and markers. You can get the basic instructions here: http://www.marthastewart.com/271031/holiday-rickrack-crafts
11 This is the station that was set up with two sewing machines, rick rack, glue, and felt in preparation for making the felt bags.
12 One of our guests uses a Singer sewing machine to make her felt bag.
13 Here is her final creation!
14 Jill Kargman came with her girls. Here are just a few of the projects they made.
15 Here are just two examples of the gingerbread ornaments we made. See the instructions for making your own below.
16 A guest in action creating their own gingerbread man.
17 We loved that a lot of the kids crossed some of the crafts. This little boy took the felt bags and decorated it with a gingerbread man.
18 Here is an example of the felt and chalkboard ornaments/gift tags we made. They were so easy and the kids had a great time cutting, gluing, and drawing with the chalk.
19 Here's the station set up to make the chalkboard and felt fabric ornaments/gift tags. We had trees, red ball ornaments, and Stars of David.
20 These were so simple to make and so much fun that even our youngest guests could make them.
21 Darcy and Pipa are making one of many ornaments. Pipa, couldn't get enough of this craft and it was perfect for little hands. Darcy's daughters Daisy and Ella both made her button barrettes which she wore in her hair during the event.
22 We love how much the kids took our projects and turned them into their own. We had quite the creative group!
23 And this little girl decorated her bag on both sides. This one side said "I heart me." We heart this bag.
24 A group of children, led by Pins & Needles crafter Emily, is working on making the adorable button barrettes.
25 Our new Handmade Holiday Crafts book was on full display. Quite a few guests event picked up a copy!
26 Rebecca Shalam and her daughter enjoyed the event as well.
27 One of our youngest guests even got in on the crafting action with his mom Natalie from Babble.com
28 Darcy poses with fellow blogger, Suzanne from Cinderella Patch: http://cinderellapatch.blogspot.com/
29 Darcy's daughter Ella, who has been taking sewing lessons, is shown here sewing her own felt bag with Andrea from Pins & Needles.
30 Pipa was so excited to show off her felt bag creation. I just love the heart!
31 Leigh Pennebaker from Marvelous Kiddo (http://marvelouskiddo.blogspot.com/) and her boys create some button cards.
32 There were lots of smiles throughout the day.
33 Such concentration...
34 Family blogger and Martha Stewart decorating editor, Rebecca Robertson also stopped by. She loved the fabric and all of the colorful thread to pick from.
35 We had three great giveaways at the event, a bundle of Liberty fabric, our new Holiday Crafts book, and a Singer sewing machine!
36 Our gift bags were decked out in customized bags with the Pins & Needles logo and included fantastic Martha Stewart Craft supplies including our new yarn and paints.
37 Mini chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies were provided by Eleni's. Needless to say, there were none left at the end of the night!
38 Here I am with Darcy and Rachel Low, the owner of Pins & Needles.
I want to send a special thanks out to the ladies at Pins & Needles, Singer Sewing Company, who donated a sewing machine for our giveaway, Eleni's who made delicious cookies the kids could not get enough of, and of course all of the bloggers, parents, and kids who came out to craft with us. We had so much fun!
How to Make the Gingerbread Man and Woman Ornaments
Tools and Materials
- Brown felt plus assorted colors for decorating the gingerbread
- Rick rack in assorted colors
- Needle and thread - this is optional and only necessary if you want to sew any of the details on the ornament
- Fabric glue
1. Start by cutting out the gingerbread shapes. We made our so they looked like they had small bites in them. You will need two pieces for the body. We also used white felt to make the eyes, but you could also use googly eyes.
2. Start decorating! Cut out felt pieces, use rick rack or other trim to decorate your gingerbread man or woman. Glue these pieces on to the brown felt pieces.
3. Cut a small piece of rick rack for the loop it will hang from. Place this at the top and glue or stitch to adhere to the inside of the brown felt pieces.
4. Finally glue the two brown pieces together so they act as a sandwich to the rick rack loop.
How to Make the Felt and Chalkboard Ornaments/Gift Tags
Tools and Materials
- Chalkboard fabric
- Assorted colors of felt fabric
- Templates of your choosing (we did Christmas trees, red ball ornaments, and Stars of David)
- Rick rack or ribbon
- Chalk
- Paper hole punch
1. Start by tracing your template on to a piece of chalkboard fabric as well as the felt. Cut these out.
2. Glue the two pieces together back to back.
3. Use the hole punch to punch a hole at the top for the ribbon or rick rack.
4. Cut a small piece of ribbon or rick rack and loop it through the hole and tie to secure. This will be how you hang the ornament or gift tag.
5. Then let the kids get creative and draw on it with chalk.
From: Quality Time with My Kids - Living in the Family Room Blog - Martha Stewart | 11/14/11 at 10:02 am
[...] we can share quality time. We discovered Pins & Needles (the great sewing shop where we did our latest family blog event). Ella and I have been going and taking sewing lessons and I highly recommend it if you are in the [...]