A Crafting Party

Anna loves to craft. She can spend hours at a time with her glue and scissors and paper and yarn and other art supplies just creating. The things she creates are not necessarily things you can hang on the wall nor do they have any utilitarian use to them at all, which is why she has a treasure box. It gives her someplace to put her treasures that she has crafted or other special things she has been given: Here are some more of her creations that she made today, hanging on our art line:So this year for Anna's birthday we decided to have a crafting party. In our home we value making things that we can use that will last out of the materials we have around us. Our crafting party was centered around each child making a 'treasure bag' and then filling it with treasures that they created. I whipped up a bunch of cloth bags, one for each child attending, and sewed a patch on it where they could write their name ('Anna's Treasures' or 'Josie's Treasures'...). Each bag was unique, made of a different material out of my fabric stash, all different sizes. The kids got to choose their bag and then Mitch sewed handles on them of whatever color ribbon they chose. Here are some of the bags on the end of the table, a colorful assortment:

On another table we had set out all the craft supplies we could find. We have been gathering fall treasures for a while now: pine cones, fall leaves, acorns, feathers, sticks... We added those to our other basic craft supplies of paper, felt, ribbon, string, scissors, glue, tape, pipe cleaners, buttons, needles and thread, yarn, crayons, markers, colored pencils and whatever else we had on hand. As each family arrived their child got to choose their bag and then just craft.Each child was unique in their approach to crafting. Some picked up their scissors and just started cutting. Some looked for different objects in their favorite color and then decided what to do with them. Some had a definite idea of what they wanted to make first, found the supplies they needed to make that and set to work.Mitch was the expert seamster attaching handles to each bag as the kids were ready:I loved watching all the kids creating. Each treasure was unique. There was no wrong way of doing it. Their finished products were so colorful and creative! Owls made out of pine cones, felt nests, acorn hats strung together, leaf rubs, leaves glued onto paper, coloring, large creations out of whatever could be found that could be tied or glued on next...Tristin and Sophie gluing fall leaves onto paper:Here are Anna and Josie's finished bags, now empty of treasures that they came home and put into their treasure boxes:

Of course we also had yummy chocolate cupcakes and ice cream! What birthday party would be complete without that?
Happy Birthday Anna! I hope you had a fun party, a party that was uniquely you, surrounded by people that love you who came to celebrate you and join you in doing what you love to do.