the day i taught 50+ women how to make a craft

So Saturday was the Christmas luncheon for the ladies at my church - An Old Fashioned Christmas.

This was my 5th year planning and organizing the event. Every year I try to make it a little bit different. Somewhere in August or September I got the idea to include a craft when I saw this one on pinterest.

I thought it looked old fashioned and seemed easy enough. My friend Barbara and her husband were super helpful, and I couldn't have done this without their help. She ordered a sample kit and they used that to get the dimensions for the wood that was bought in long pieces and cut down.Her husband did a lot of sawing for us. The heads were purchased in bags in the three different sizes. We punched stars out of heavy glittered cardstock, cut the wire and twine, and printed out the tags, and painted the pieces for Mary and Joseph. We used acrylic paint mixed with a tiny bit of water and there were four colors they could choose from. Everything was bagged up and ready to go. We found hot glue was the quickest and easiest way to hold everything together.

All last week I was so doubtful that the ladies would like it or want to do it. Totally was wrong on that. They all loved it and had a great time. And even though we only had like 10 glue guns, they all just hung around and chatted with each other while they waited.

We put out some finished samples on the tables and I typed out direction sheets just so they could have a reference. (I talked them all though it before they started, but just in case, they had something they could look at if they forgot.) The picture below makes me laugh because we had told them the shoulders would be painted, but the feet would not and this was one of our samples :)

I didn't decorate a table this year because, well, I really didn't need to because we didn't have as many women come, and I was busy getting the trees ready so I really didn't have time to do a table. I also brought in a collection of canning jars to set out on top of the piano with tea lights.

Ours ended up being taller than the pinterest original, but they turned out super cute and everyone had lots of fun making them. Lessons learned: 1) don't be afraid to add a craft to a women's event. 2) keep in mind it's a lot of prep work to make it happen. 3) have samples and printed directions ready. 4) don't make it too complicated.

If you look closely at the above picture, you might see one of my origami stars (they were all on the tree on the left), the oranges I dried, and a doily garland. All pinterest ideas for an old fashioned Christmas, of course.