Craft Nights

My sisters, mom, the occasional friends, and I have been doing craft night every week this year since about February (minus Sept because it was so busy). We've been taking turns hosting at our homes. The majority of our experiments have been from Pinterest. I thought I would do a quick post on what we've done that was super awesome, just so/so, or total fails. I'll update from time to time on this as the crafting continues. I have loved this opportunity to have some weekly fun with these girls :)

LOVED:

• DIY Laundry detergent. This was our very first craft night at Stefani's house. We made just one batch to test it out, and it smelled heavenly. We each tried it out and came to the conclusion that it is just as good as any detergent you can buy. It does not act as a stain remover, but I haven't really found a store bought detergent that does that either. Here's the recipe link.  

• DIY satin hand scrub. This also smelled delicious, was super easy and cheap, and such an easy gift. I think I may give a few for Christmas. Link found here.

•  Skirts. This one took a few hours and they had to be finished at home, but here's how mine turned out. And here's the Link to the tutorial.

•  Homeade granola bars. Kali's night :) I have made these a few times since then, and added some coconut and marshmallows and even graham crackers occasionally (my fav are the s'mores). Here's the Link.

• Happy Birthday Countdown. My mom did this one and it went so smoothly and was so fun! She found the unfinished plaques at hobby lobby and painted them black, sanded them a bit and had them ready for us. We stenciled on the 'happy birthday' with white paint and a sponge, drilled a hole, and screwed a little cabinet knob in. She just happened to have a stencil puncher that would work for the individual birthdays and we edged them with ink and hot glued a piece of ribbon to them. All done! Here's the link. I have mine in my craft room.

• Traveling Jewelry Case. Another of my mom's nights. We all brought our sewing machines. Can I just say I made one for me a little bigger than the pattern and I LOVE it. I've taken it several times traveling now, and everything is perfectly accounted for. I made a few of them for gifts as well:
  
  
   
   
  
  
  • These Jersey knit bracelets took us a minute to figure out, but they were really fun to wear with summer outfits.
  
  
  • There was a pin going around pinterest about using an empty sun tan lotion bottle to hide stuff in while at the pool or park. I went to the dollar store and found some decent sized water bottles. We put a keyring in the top inside and voila! I also had everyone write their last name in marker on the outside. It made it ugly which I was hoping no one would want to steal. It worked perfectly to stick my credit card, cash, camera, and phone in at the pool and Seven Peaks this summer. Loved it!
  
  
  • Homeade stain removers, shower cleaner, countertop cleaners, etc. We went through a few recipes for these items. Found a few that worked well, and some that didn't work at all. I think I'll do a separate post on this so I can find you all the links. 
  
  
  So/So's:
  
  
  • Homeade make up remover wipes. I'm on the fence about this one. It worked well and smelled good, even started to make my skin softer, but nothing we could figure out would stop them from molding eventually.. and usually before they were half gone. They had to be thrown out. So a so/so to me. I'm thinking about trying another make up remover that you keep in a bottle and use cotton balls to dab each night, which is what I do anyway. We'll see if that one works better.
  
  
  • Honey Strawberry sugar scrub. Now this smelled delicious and was fun to make. Stefani even had Andrew go get us Jamba juice afterward because I swear some of us were thinking of taking a taste ;).  But because of the stawberries it has to be used quickly and I'm just not a bath person. I stuck it in my freezer and there it lies to this day. Because who really thinks about thawing their body scrub beforehand?
  
  
  • Homeade dishwashing detergent. I haven't really given this one much of a great shot yet. I still had a lot of those little action pacs left. But the problem I'm having is that it's hardened like a rock. I even stirred it several times, as suggested, while it dried. It's currently in a canning jar, and I'm afraid I would need an ice pick to get it out. I know that Kali uses it though and says it works just fine. So/so for me :)
  
  FAILS:
  
  We actually haven't had many of these. I know there were some things that we tried on our own from Pinterest that were a big fail.
  
  
  • Dried strawberries. Kali tried this one. That pinterest post that can't be traced back to an actual website, just instructions about laying strawberries on a cooking sheet and baking at a super low temperature for several hours? Yeah, doesn't work. Turns them into blackened mushy mess that does Not taste like candy. haha.
  
  
  • Eucalyptus for coughs. Didn't work for me. 
  
  
  •  Justin got a terrible sunburn at Yuba. We tried every pinterest trick I could find to help that bright red or peeling. Nothing worked there either, at least nothing better than just Aloe Vera. Here's one of the links we tried and failed.
  
  
  There are sooo many more things that I have on my to-do list. It has been so much fun to get together! Otherwise I doubt they would ever happen :)