Craft Night

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Over the weekend, I had a casual craft night with Stephy -- my first craft night ever! I'm not sure how most gals run their craft nights, but Stephy and I did our own crafts instead of both doing the same thing. But actually, I did borrow one of her craft ideas from earlier in the week.

Anyway, I made candy covered pretzel thins for us to snack on and we spiked some mulled apple cider with salted caramel vodka. Yum!

 Here's what you need: 

1 bag of pretzel crisps

Wilton's candy melts (2 bags)

sprinkles

I want to stress, these are not chocolate covered pretzels. These are not yogurt covered pretzels. They're candy covered pretzels and they're amazing. I used white candy and red/white/green sprinkles to be festive, but Michael's has a huge variety of colors and of course they make just about any color and combination of sprinkles ever.

Follow the directions on the Wilton's bag to melt the chips. I used a double boiler because my microwave was broken at the time. It was incredibly easy and the candy melted fast! I dipped the pretzel crisps into the pot (and kept the water on the bottom simmering to keep the candy warm) and then fished them out with a fork. I only used the whole pretzels to make it look nicer and more uniform and because they're easier to fish out. I let the excess candy drip off the pretzel and then placed it on wax paper to dry. They dry within an hour, so add sprinkles relatively quickly so they stick!

I decided to do two projects, the first of which was to decorate a wreath. I picked one up from Michael's for about $8 and then just fluffed it up a bit. I found the thinnest part of the wreath and added a burlap bow to make it the bottom. I used {this} tutorial to make the perfect bow. The rest of the wreath, I filled with gift tags. I found some in the $1 section that read "joy" in glitter letters and I found another set that were glittery and had a stocking, a tree, a snowman, and a candy cane

For a first time crafter, it was pretty easy and doable.

 

Here's a few close-ups:

My other project was inspired by Stephy's craft, seen below.

I cut six-inch strips from my burlap and added a triangle shape to the bottom of each strip. Stephy had some four-inch stencils she let me borrow for the letters and I alternated red and green acrylic paint for each. I added the white ampersand and then used a snowflake printable from some random website as a stencil for either end.

I'm so happy with it, especially the snowflakes! I want to do more already! For now, I hung it on the mantle, but I rehung the stockings and they're covering the bunting right now. 

And don't forget New Year's is just two weeks away. Do you have your NYE essentials yet?