Give heartfelt homemade gifts this year and host your own holiday craft party! Keep reading for all my tips and DIYs for the ultimate crafting day to fill your home and heart with joy while deepening friendships and building community.
In this podcast (episode #327) I’m sharing how some friends and I are creating a crafting day. We focused on crafts that can be made in a group environment, as well as creating an environment where we could create as many things as possible so we all go home with our hands and hearts full!
Click through for more episodes of the Pioneering Today Podcast, and be sure to check out the General Store for my limited supply of autographed books, hand-thrown pottery mugs, handmade wooden bench knives and dough scrapers (made by my husband), and more!
This episode of the podcast was sponsored by Butcher Box, at the time of this recording, you can get FREE bacon for life plus $100 off your first 5 boxes ($20/box)! Be sure to check it out for more details here.
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Why Community is Important
As I look back on this year, one of the things we’ve done differently, and something we want to cultivate more in the future, is the aspect of a community. I didn’t realize how important it was to me to meet face to face with fellow homesteaders to learn, glean from, and fellowship with these like-minded people.
Of course, there’s the online community, and this is great because it can sometimes be hard to find a community of homesteaders who don’t just want to live the lifestyle but are actually doing it. For those of you who are part of the Pioneering Today Acadamy, you know exactly what I’m talking about!
We hosted our very first live workshop this last year and we were so thrilled to meet and develop friendships with fellow homesteaders who were in (or close to) our area. It was actually some of these new friends who came up with the idea to have a craft day where we could continue to build our relationships and create some awesome crafts at the same time.
I loved the idea so much that I knew I needed to share it with you, so in this podcast (and blog post) I’m sharing our planning and preparations so you can learn and apply them to create your own craft day.
Tips for a Craft Day
Keep the Guest List Small
Our guest list only consists of five ladies. It’s important to keep the guest list small, mainly because a craft day can take quite a bit of space.
Keep in mind the amount of counter and tabletop space you have to work with, and the crafts you’re doing, then decide how many people can comfortably fit.
Choose Simple Crafts
Each of the crafts needs to be simple enough to be able to create and finish within the timeframe of a party. If you’re making multiple crafts, these projects should ideally take roughly 30 minutes to make.
Choose Portable Crafts
Because you’re going to need to transport your craft back to your home, they should be portable without the risk of ruining your craft to the trip home.
Choose Crafts with Common Items
It’s best to choose crafts that don’t require too many specialty supplies, even better is if you already have all the supplies in your home.
For the homemade wood butter (which I also sell in my General Store), I already had all the supplies on hand because I make these things all the time! You can grab some homemade wood butter here!
Keep Costs Low
Choose crafts that use common items, this will help keep the overall cost down for all your crafts. Our goal was to keep costs between $20-30 per person, but we would be taking home a minimum of six different crafts.
Decide Who Will Buy Supplies
You can do this one of two ways, either one person is in charge of sourcing and buying all the supplies, then each person just reimburses the amount at the time of the party.
Or, the way we decided to do it was that each person would be responsible for sourcing and buying their own supplies. We chose this method because some of us already had items needed on hand and didn’t need to buy them, so we avoided unnecessary expenses this way.
It was also great because some of the ladies had enough supplies for all of us, so they would let us know what they had and we could check that item off of our supply list.
Make it a Meal
Since you’ll likely be crafting for many hours, you’ll definitely want some sustenance to keep up your energy!
We’re making our crafting party a potluck and we’ll have some yummy desserts and beverages as well. In my experience, gathering around food always deepens bonds!
Here are some recipes to try:
- Spinach and Artichoke Dip Recipe
- Quick & Easy Papaya Bars Recipe
- Blueberry Dumplings Recipe- Old-fashioned Recipe from 1949
- Chai Tea Concentrate (And Dirty Chai Recipe)
Our Crafts/Projects
Compound Butters
We all know the cost of baking ingredients goes down during the holidays, so what better time to stock up on some grass-fed butter and make different flavors of compound butter.
These make fantastic gifts and are especially helpful to have on hand for all your holiday cooking.
Simply spreading these delicious compound butter recipes on a slice of homemade artisan bread is so comforting!
Homemade Lotion Bars
If you’ve listened to me at all, you probably know my love of lotion bars. They’re the only thing that keeps my hands from getting cracked during the gardening season, as well as during the dry winter months.
I have a homemade lotion bar recipe right here for you to follow!
Bath Bombs
I’m so excited to give homemade bath bombs a try! Who knows, maybe after our craft day I’ll share a recipe here on the blog, but first, I need to perfect how to make them!
I do have a recipe for homemade bath salts that would make a great gift in a mason jar!
Gift Toppers (from dried flowers)
One of the ladies that will be at our craft day owns a flower farm, so she has enough dried flowers to provide for us to make some beautiful gift toppers. I’ll do my best to snap some photos from the day and share them on Instagram!
Luminaries with Mason Jars
Now I know that Mason jars are a hot ticket item and can sometimes still be hard to find, but this project is a fantastic way to use up any jars that have nicks or chips that aren’t good candidates for canning anymore.
You can also reuse store-bought spaghetti sauce or pickle jars!
A simple mason jar and a string of fairy lights with some hand-cut greenery can make a beautiful centerpiece on your table!
More DIY Craft Ideas
- DIY Christmas Wreath
- DIY Christmas Evergreen Swag
- DIY Canning Ring Wreath
- Homemade Soap
- Lip Balm
- Brownie Mix in a Jar
- No Knead Artisan Bread in a Jar
- Cake Mix in a Jar
- Easy Winter Bouquet (DIY Holiday Bouquet)
Be the Friend That You Want to Have
If the past year and a half have taught us anything, it’s that spending time, face to face, with people, is important.
In order to make friends, you must first be friendly. So be that friend that you’ve always wanted and reach out to those in your community who may not have friends and family around!
Verse of the Week: Luke 6:31
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