April 7, 2013

A multi-tasking Crafternoon


You may think that the arrival of Spring is reason to spring clean, take walks in the country and re-activate your online dating profile, but here at Rushmore towers we know that actually it’s just yet another excuse for… crafternoon!

The crafternoon regulars convened, with New Guest Star Nina! Who we hope will join us henceforth.

First things first: food. The highlight was undoubtedly Nina’s astoundingly tasty season-bucking pumpkin cheesecake bites, which were a Pinterest triumph. Not too sweet, not too savoury, so I ate 6. 

Also featuring! Very posh cheese from Courtney.

But on to the topic of the afternoon! We in fact had a two-part crafternoon (I know, we’re getting fancy round here).

Part 1. Fabric covered bead necklaces. Such jewelry is often sold at Anthropologie for astronomical prices, but crafty ladies laugh in the face of such stores.

Observe: the beads

And, a necklace in progress. Basically, you cut a rectangle of fabric, sew it into a tube (in my All New Sewing Studio – more to follow on this), turn it inside out, push the beads inside and then secure them in place with embroidery thread.

Here, Leah demonstrates a rather nifty blue dotted number with gold embroidery thread, which matched her rather nifty outfit:

And Anna shows her usual dedicated attention to detail:

Second. Painting china things! We had two approaches: one was a porcelain paint pen. This is Jenny’s WWII inspired tea mug:

And just in case anyone thinks of stealing it: 
Lauren went route two, using blackboard paint, so that now she can write loving messages to Rob in chalk, or, indeed, an *infinite* amount of messages. Crafting, it truly is mind-expanding. 

Final goods…. Leah with her lovely necklace and Courtney with plate (and hidden necklace)

Nina’s particularly impressive hand-drawn tulip plate:

Anna’s Moose plate (nothing more need be said) and necklace:

And, Jenny’s necklace and final mug. 

Crafternoon is now such a storied institution that we are starting to wonder what to do next…. So, over to you dear readers! Any ideas? And would you like to join?

Let me know what you think!