Give Thanks Advent

It would seem that I have my seasons out of order as far as these posts about the crafts we have done at MOPS.  But crafty is not always in order. 

So this was a gem from a few years ago.  So often there is advent calendars counting down to gift bonanza, I was hoping to lead up to that with a month of thankfulness.  

What we have here is a dollar store foam core board (I think half a sheet per person, cut with a carpet cutting/exacto knife) with 30 little "coin" envelopes adhered to the board in a perfect grid leaving a generous border at the top for a title.  Then we have several (about 9 maybe more) coordinated scrapbook papers cut into the size of the coin envelopes (I want to say 1.5" square).  This seems like a lot of paper, but honestly I took what we already had that coordinated and filled in the gaps with the clearance paper from our local craft store. Each lady would only use a TOTAL area of 9" x 7.5", so not even one full sheet per lady...it just happens that she shares and spares a square from the different patterns of paper from 9 other friends. Numbers... honestly the cheapest, simplest way was to print them off the computer and just cut and paste.  A word of caution for ANYTHING WITH ADVENTS... watch the math of multiplying how many of each of the things (envelopes, letter or number sheets etc)  you need.  It can spiral out of control, so I HIGHLY recommend NOT trying to buy letter/number sheets etc. Think about it, for our group of 75 ladies, at 30 little envelopes each to cover the month of November,  meant I had to find and buy 2,250 envelopes and CHEAP. Just think what number sticker sheets would run you, that could give you a brain freeze right there. So I made it easy on us and just printed out a set of 1-30 numbers and let the moms cut and paste.  Each little envelope has a piece of paper slide into it that is *slightly narrower* and yet just slightly taller  so that a tiny hole can be punched and ribbon can be attached. Then the title and leave accents cut with the handy Cricut finished this beautifully when placed on a larger backing paper and centered over the grid.  It was up to the ladies to write, or have their families write, what they were thankful each day, or one thing to show gratitude that they would do each day, or a way to show kindness towards others or show blessing to others, or a scripture verse about thankfulness or God's provision. It was up to them, but even a list of things to write can be googled and provided if they run out of ideas. 

Results:  These were pretty standardized and all of them came out nicely like the top picture (again, NOT a pinterest picture but the real result).  The only creativity that could come into play was in the title's appearance and what got written on the cards. Many ladies still have it a few years later and enjoy it with their families. So many women talked about it, about the project and the principle behind it.  MOST women LOVED the idea of getting their kids into an attitude of gratitude before the Christmas gift hype. *side note, lots of areas to delegate to people who want to participate in the craft team but have limited time or skill levels, it didn't take much to hole punch cards, cut small length of the pull tag ribbon, etc)

How to improve:  Get more help with the prep.  These were time consuming to glue the little envelopes on in a perfect grid for 70 women. So get them delegated or have a work party, which I did for some and the conversation was great while we worked!  Totally worth the work, but delegate as much as you can to trusted people. 

God give you wisdom (and time and strength) as you craft and plan. 

Christmas card holders

Well, it was about that time of season when Christmas cards start coming in, but where do you put all those adorable picture cards everyone keeps handing you?!  This Christmas Card Holder was an early December craft at our MOPS group. 

The materials were fairly easy to find.  First was the 1" x 6" boards (which ACTUALLY measures about .75 x 5.75", I don't know why it is labeled one dimension but actually measures another... but it does on just about everything when it comes to lumber).  I think we bought 8 foot boards and chop sawed them in half. Next they were very lightly white washed with regular household wall paint, just watered down so that the white showed but also just lightened the wood for a near pickled look still revealing beautiful grain.  A team member spray painted all the dollar store clothes pins (some red some white); I know you can buy them a color already but we saved money by painting them ourselves...but you could also leave them natural if you'd like.  Another team member cut small strips of scrapbook paper for the tops of the clothes pins, which would be glued on with glue stick by the moms. A cute button would go on top of the scrapbook paper on the clothes pin since we had an abundance of buttons left over from other projects. The Cricut cut out the letters (offered in red, green or blue), holly leaves holly berries and a variety of snowflakes, all these were glue stick adhered.  A 1.5-2" grosgrain ribbon (papermart.com)  cut at 6-8" lengths became the hanging loop at the top.  It was stapled onto the back of the board about half an inch from the top edge using a HEAVY DUTY stapler, some might say staple gun... the type you'd use to reupholster a chair with, not your desk stapler!  But, just in case ladies did not want to hang this up but rather rest against a wall, we offered a little bit of black felt for the bottom back edge so that hardwood floors wouldn't get scratched by the edge; this was hot glued on.

Results...THIS WAS LOVED!  It has huge success that they raved over. People made very nice looking projects, some ladies even turned it sideways and repositioned clothes pins. But it was very well received and many ladies went home to show where they put it or how they hung it up.

How to improve:  I hot glued the clothes pins in place, which proved to be prone to being snapped and banged off by kids or transporting if not careful... solution would be (although labor intensive and pushed onto the prep person) to use that heavy duty staple gun, or if you're lucky to have access to a pneumatic/air compressor run staple gun, to staple on those pesky clothes pins into place and get those fastened on for good.  Also, there are several options for those clothes pins: not painting them as already mentioned, painting them all white, but also WASHI tape is so readily available now in such cute patterns and seasonals, that would reduce mess or the time required for mod podge or glue stick to dry.

Again, this was a well talked about and highly regarded craft even before the improvements.  So totally worth a try.

May God be with you as you lead others in crafting.

Button and Charm necklaces

  This was the first craft of the Be Brave year at MOPS (hence the feather!).  It is modeled by my son's teddy bear, again, NOT a pinterest perfect photo.

  We ordered chains online, probably came from overseas... give yourself enough lead time for it to arrive, check the review and make sure there isn't reports of them pulling and breaking that way. The charms were a combination of orders from Etsy. Jump rings from Wal-mart. And the buttons were a combination of old buttons from Createforless.com, Oriental Trading Co, a local craft store and a few from our own home stash.  We had leaders bring in pliers, especially needlenose pliers.  If you want to get all "pro" about it, there are jewelry tools you can use, but we made do.  We didn't even go to the step of wrapping the teeth of the needle nose pliers with a bit of tape to prevent teeth marks on the jump rings, but you can if you're worried about it.

Results:  For those ladies who like their bling, or color, or charms, this was right up their alley.  We had so many neat buttons, colors, and charms (lots not even pictured), that there were many options. There are those ladies who perhaps bling isn't their thing, or happened to be holding their baby and trying to work with small parts wasn't possible.... and moms never get to finish things at home.

How to improved: Though our necklaces were ok, I think I would have taken them one step stronger.  They held up to a ladies' use, but a toddler tugging on them, well that is another story.  A better tutorial would have helped us for those ladies never seen or used these materials before.  The necklaces looked great with different sizes of buttons, but that required different sizes of jump rings... and not every lady heard that you use the small jump rings on the charms and small buttons, but large jump rings on the larger buttons. So either written or power point directions would have improved success, if not an all out quick teach to table leaders at a meeting before the day of this craft so that they could assist.   And of course, fewer options is more streamlined for the less crafty individuals, but limits the those who have creativity coursing through their veins like glitter on fire.  Just find the balance.

God bless you and your group as you go out and craft!

Fall Wreaths

This was our craft last fall.  Very fun and seasonal. (The star is this particular lady's personal at home addition, but an actual photo of her project... NOT Pinterest). Turned out great!

And then there were others....

 And  still more others....

The base was styrofoam tubing, similar to that of pool noodles all the craft sites talk about.  However, try finding 70 pool noodles in October. So working with the spirit of creativity and improvising, we ended up at the Lowe's in the plumbing department.  We then cut the correct length and taped the ends together with good old duct tape.  It was an ok product to use for light weight decor materials, but too much weight would drag it into an oval shape. But for our craft we stuck to wrapping it burlap (unfinished edged) "ribbon" and holding it on with hot glue. Then we decorated with cute accent ribbons, packages of silk leaves from the dollar store, brown yard,  and coffee/tea stained coffee filters and cup cake liners, and of course the word "FALL" was provided. The coffee filters and cupcake liners were held on to the ring by brads just pushed through the center and into the ring. And hot glue guns were also made available. 

That was the construction of this project.

Results:  Many looked nice with just the right amount of decor, the right sense of visual balance and of the options provided they chose coordinating colors, ribbons etc. Others, not so much.

How to improve:  IF you could find pool noodles, they might be stronger. I would not get large coffee filters, and I would not stain them.  If I could find SMALL natural brown coffee filters, those would suffice.  Many people preferred the cute patterns of the cupcake liners which also had a better proportion, but looked good layered with either the natural or white coffee filters, again in the small size. The dollar store leaves were the most "finished" and decor quality.  The first picture shows that a few leaves, "FALL" and  an accent ribbon looked really good without going overboard. So possibly fewer decor choices than the abundance that we had made available.

How was it received: A lot of excitement at first, because there is such a trend in wreaths and front door decor. Those who had a good eye for color and balance really liked theirs...and even went home to personalize.  For others, I think fewer options, while that limits some creativity of the process, it directs those who might struggle with creativity toward a product result they would enjoy. 

God bless you and your time with your group. 

Intro to this blog about crafts done at MOPS

   I've been blessed and joyfully served as the Craft team lead for most of the years I've attended MOPS, aka Mothers of Preschoolers.
   In all this time, I routinely find myself scouring craft blogs, websites, magazines, books, Facebook, the official MOPS website, and Pinterest looking for crafts to bring to our group.   Often times, I've found myself in a loop, discovering the same 5 or 6 crafts cycling through the groups over and over.  Admittedly, we fell in step with a few of them because you can't walk away from a great idea!  But I wanted to share some of the crafts that we have done in the past in hopes to break the cycle for some groups who also are like me, looking for something FRESH and NEW that they haven't seen before.
  So I will be posting pictures (as much as I can) of the crafts we have done, with as many tips and tricks and supply lists and sources as I can remember. (I did mention I've been doing this a while... at least 8 years, maybe even more!)  I hope putting this cumulative list of projects all in one place help inspire your MOPS, Women's or any kind of group into new adventures of creativity.