Let It Snow

I had a Christmas party at my house a couple of weeks ago.  A few girlfriends came over one Saturday afternoon for the festivities.  But this was not your ordinary Christmas party.   It was a crafty Christmas party.   Complete and utter craftiness.

 

I like these shots above because you can see just how much craftiness went on.  Tons.  It was quite possibly the world's dorkiest party ever.  At least that's what J thinks.  We had so much fun.  There was wine and food involved, too.   Of course.  Although I only partook in the sparkling cranberry myself ;)

I set up a cafeteria table in the middle of my living room for all the crafty fun.  We made snowflakes, oyster santas and painted some paper mache ornaments as well.   You can see the oyster santas below.  They were my favorite.  I had other things planned but we ran out of time.  We decided to save some things for next year.  Because this will be a yearly tradition from now on.  Our crafty Christmas club. 

And did I mention there were cookies?  Everyone brought a batch of cookies for a Christmas cookie exchange.   Except I think everyone brought more cookies than they took.   I'm still happily noshing away.  Baby likes Christmas cookies.

I wanted to share the snowflakes with you.  I think they are absolutely beautiful.  I hung several variations in my doorways.  I actually have been making snowflakes since mid-November.  I needed something pretty to hang in our school's cafeteria for our winter concert.  I found instructions for making a Finnish star while browsing the internets.  Apparently it's a Christmas craft from Finland.  Someone from Finland want to verify that?  Anyway, there are great instructions for making the basic star here. 

I call them snowflakes because that's what they remind me of.  I made them with my fifth graders at school.  It was hard, but they could do it.  Albeit with a little bit of frantic finishing at the end of a 45 minute class period, but still.  They get kind of panicky when they want to finish something before the end of class.

 

What my fifth graders and I found out was that there is really no wrong way to make those petals (the strips that are curved around and glued together).  Some kids did it just right, some didn't twist them around, and some actually creased the strips instead of bending.  They all turned out beautiful.  And after all, no two snowflakes are alike, right?

I experimented a little more at home.  I played around with using different widths of paper and adding in more strips.  Below is a picture of how I made the snowflake with additional strips.  Essentially, I curled the extra strips in to a smaller petal before gluing the two sides together.  I originally planned a more elaborate how to post, but this photo will have to suffice.  Click on it to make it larger.

On a side note, thanks for the nice comments on my last post.  I was very tentative about writing anything at all.   I know what happened last week is weighing on everyone's mind.  I guess I needed some way to express how I was/am feeling about it.   I still don't know-- still can't really wrap my head around it.  I want to do something.  And luckily, as PoldaPop pointed out in the comments, the Sandy Hook PTA is requesting.... snowflakes!  The information for donating snowflakes is found here.

Snowflakes for Sandy Hook

Please help the students of Sandy Hook have a winter wonderland at their new school! Get Creative!!  Make and send snowflakes to Connecticut PTSA, 60 Connolly Parkway, Building 12, Suite 103, Hamden, CT  06514, by January 12, 2013.

  I'm planning on sending a few in, but maybe of the more traditional variety.  I'm not sure these woven snowflakes will package well.

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas!