What crafts would you recommend for our weekly craft-y group hang?

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#Do It Yourself#advice#crafts#friendships
By: Ana Bastida – CC BY 2.0
I’m 30 now and figure it’s about time I get myself some girlfriends. I moved to a new city two years ago and have, in the last month or so, brought up the number of females I am friendly with to a nice number of six.

I want to start a once-a-week group where we can do crafty things and learn new skills.

We are already planning on amigurumi dolls, and learning knitting, crocheting, and cake decorating.

Any other fun home-y crafty skills we should put on the docket? -Melodee

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Comments on What crafts would you recommend for our weekly craft-y group hang?

  1. Ooh, when I took an art class in high school, one of my favorite days was when we had stacks of different colors of construction paper (lots of recycling here, too) and made little collages on postcard-sized card stock. You can cut the card stock yourself to size, and decorate it for little greeting cards. I think this would be cute for “happy halloween” cards or thanksgiving. I made a couple of fun things and just gave them to friends, but post cards is more purpose driven

    Also, for clay: I bought Apoxie sculpt clay for a costume. It’s awesome because it’s the same texture as clay (you mix two things together) and I really like the forgiveness of clay. But then it air dries for a couple hours and becomes rock hard, and you can paint it like clay. So all the cool parts of clay without the baking.

  2. A word of warning re amigurumi. it requires concentration x10

    My friend and I used to go to a crochet club and have a drink and a natter whilst crocheting that weeks project, we always went hideously wrong and got told off by the old ladies who ran the class for not concentrating and counting enough. and they were generally pretty simple projects. I can only do amigurumi if I count out loud!

    Perhaps start with granny squares? On Ravelry there are some really cool toys made up of lots of African Flower motifs.

    Otherwise, how about some origami? or salt dough? cross stitch is also good and already mentioned

    If you want to do something donatable crocheted premature baby clothes are good (and small so really quick!)

  3. Temari, the Japanese art of creating decorative yarn balls, is one of my fave fiber arts. The supplies are cost effective, you don’t need to learn how to use any special equipment, and you can create some beautiful variations on simple patterns once you get the hang of it.

  4. Okay, here are some 1970’s-era crafty blasts from my past that are still doable today (please Google for more info):

    . makit & bakit sun catchers
    . shrink plastic mobiles/decorations
    . candlewicking
    . beaded sequin ornaments
    . decoupage
    . loom knitting
    . plastic lace lanyard braiding
    . cinnamon clay ornaments

    And though it might not be quite as retro:

    . paracord crafts

    When in doubt, thumb through a crafts magazine, or request a catalog from a crafts distributor, like Herrschner’s for ideas.

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