girl's night in

chocolate cake with hot caramel sauce is necessary when you are this crafty

Happy Monday friends! I hope you had a fun weekend. Around here it was a busy time with lots going on. On Saturday I spent the day getting ready for my "Girls Night In/Get Your Craft On" by cleaning and cooking yummy things to eat. Then on Sunday, I took Noah to his buddy's birthday party and then came home to set up for a newborn session that I had at my house.

I wanted to tell you a bit about the "Girls Night In/Get Your Craft On" party that I hosted on Saturday night because we had such a blast! This was the second time I did something like this and it went off so well! Here is the first one I did in case you are interested.

I decided about a month ago that I wanted to host a party where we would do freezer paper stencils onto T-shirts and things. I had seen many tutorials in the past on how to do this and I had been wanting to try out this technique for a long time. I searched the internet and found some great tutorials and videos, so I decided that this would be our craft for the night.

I sent out an invite about a month before the date because the summer gets so busy and it can be hard for people to make the time for things like this. I decided to make it a potluck and also asked people to bring their own T-shirts or what ever they'd like to print onto, as well as a few other materials (like exacto craft knives, cutting boards ect) if they had them. I sent along a few links for my guests to look at before the night so that they could get an idea of what we would be doing and also did a run through of the project ahead of time just so that I would know how it works and could show them an example.

When everyone showed up I started my little lesson for them so that they could see how it works. I had pre-cut a stencil before hand so that I could get straight to the lesson and not waste anytime. After I showed them how it worked, the ladies got to work by deciding what stencils they'd like to make. We hooked up the computer and printer so that people could trace images that they found on the internet and then they all got to work by cutting out their stencils.

It was a easy going night. Some people were working away, others were sipping wine and mojitos, and others (like me, the pregnant lady) were gorging on chocolate covered pomegranate seeds (oh ya baby!). The idea was to get together for a night where we could all make something that we'd like and use, while having a fun time together just being our crazy selves. It was the best of two worlds, crafting and a girl's night. It was pretty awesome.

The night went on into the early hours of the morning. Once people got the hang of the technique it looked like we had a little factory going on. I loved that people had their own original ideas. We had someone do a Lionel Ritchie T-shirt that was hilarious, a couples people did onesies for a baby, and someone made an extra special anniversary gift by making pillowcases for her and her hubby with the screen names that they had used when they had met online! How sweet!

For me this was the ultimate girl's night. There was good food, great drinks, a mix of awesome women and good conversation. I think we all needed that night. It was the perfect opportunity to catch up, make use of our creativity and meet new people. At the end of the night I had a bunch of happy friends leave my home with some pretty awesome creations, I was really happy about that.

So I'll leave you with some pictures of the night, a few points and the tutorial that I used .

This craft was actually very easy to do and we were all very impressed with the results. We had a few people in the group who aren't that experienced with crafting and they were able to make some pretty awesome creations. The longest part in freezer paper stenciling is the cutting out of the stencil. The more detailed and complicated the design, the longer it will take to cut out. I found the freezer paper at a local specialty grocery store and bought it off the owner by the foot. I got 12 ft for 2$...not bad. I hear that it is easy to find freezer paper in the States. Finally, here is the link that I used to get inspiration.

And that's about it! All in all an awesome night. So awesome in fact, that I am still recovering (my poor pregnant lady back) from it...the last people left at 1am!

Now...what will out next craft night be?

xox