I haven’t posted in quite awhile, mostly because I’ve been caught in the endless work of moving into a new home. My boyfriend and I have just bought our first home – we’ve gone from a 400 square foot cabin to a real three bedroom home – well, two bedrooms and one CRAFT ROOM! It’s a tiny jewel of a room, soft sun yellow on all walls but one, which is a smooth slightly metallic copper. I’m so delighted to have my own space to keep my ridiculous assortment of yarn, fabric, beads, and more – as my tolerant boyfriend says, “It’s about containment.”
Now that we are more settled, I am eager to begin hosting my friends for crafty good times. We had our first Crafty Girl’s night in the new place this Monday, with an evening of home-made cheesecake and ornament creativity. I had a bunch of plain Christmas balls, some vintage ones, others just the cheap round kind that you buy by the dozen. We planned to experiment with embellishing them, then figuring out what we could make on our own.
I had a quick shopping trip at PacFab Bellevue, then raided my own copious selection of ornamental ingredients, heaping my dining room table with hot-fix rhinestones, sequins, glitter, various glues, beads galor, yarn, ribbon, stickers, wool felt and whatever else I thought might work. (If you don't have enough, check out the great array of supplies at Pacific Fabrics & Crafts stores!) Soon I was joined by Angie, Lissa, Elise, Kathryn, Tracy and Fay, all ready to put their creative skills to the test.
Lissa-&-Elise-@-the-beading It was so cool to watch the girls choose their materials and start experimenting. Lissa was drawn right to the beading station, Elise explored hot-fix rhinestones on wool felt balls,
Kathryn began with a wool felt ball that she embellished with elaborately twisted metallic threads and beads, Fay used teeny buttons on more felt balls, Tracy used Mod Podge toOrnaments-wool-ballsb cover an ornament in lovely fairy Christmas wrap, and Angie set to work making a “disco ball” with glitter and glue on an ornament. Fay brought knitting patterns for Christmas ornaments, so I gave those a try.
What makes a craft night like this successful, besides the great company and home-made cheesecake, is offering a variety of tools and techniques. Only about half the group are actively crafty on our own, so some of the tools took some explaining, but offering a variety allowed everyone to find something that they were into the look and feel of. Angie's ball of pride All the girls made things they were enraptured with – Angie exclaimed with delight about every ornament and how beautiful it would be on her tree. I felt the same way – this will be our first Christmas tree, and now it will be dazzling with one-of-a-kind ornaments (including Lissa’s elaborately beaded one, which she worked on all night, then left us as a housewarming present!)
An ornament-making night is a great way to get you, your friends, and your family in the holiday spirit – they make great gifts, and the time spent together is like a present in itself. And since you’ll need cheesecake, here’s my mom’s recipe, which is so good, I dislike almost all other cheesecake, which seems cloying and overly thick to me, and so easy, it would be a fine baking project for a beginner. It does need to chill for a long time before serving, so make it the night before!
- Anna-Beth (aka Anne-Elf)
Cheesecake from Ellen:
Crust:
20 graham crackers, crushed into fine crumbs.
½ cup melted butter
¼ cup brown sugar
Mix crust ingredients well, then press into the bottom of a 9x13” pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 8 minutes, let cool while you make the filling.
Filling:
2 ½ 8 oz packages of cream cheese
¼ cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Combine and beat with a mixer till very smooth. Pour in crust and bake for 15 minutes at 350°, then let chill for at least 15 minutes (this heating and cooling forms a skin on the top of the filling to prevent the topping from falling through.)
After you have chilled this filling, make your topping.
Topping:
1 pint sour cream
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
Mix topping ingredients then gently smooth over top of filling. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes. Cool on counter, then refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving.
Note from Annette:
Anna-Beth brought this wonderful cheesecake to our office Christmas Party and it REALLY is amazingly yummy good. Try it for sure!
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