A Birthday Craft Party!

Crafts make me happy (duh)! And I have mentioned countless of times how making things in my own personal time, alone in my home, is therapy to me. But through the years, I have also discovered by joining workshops and, more recently, holding my own, how arts and crafts shared and done in a group setting can also be very enjoyable and fulfilling.

So for my 31st birthday, I decided to gather together new and long-time friends for an afternoon of coffee, cakes and crafts. We held it at our very own space, Honeycomb: Manila Coworking , located in Edsa Beverage Design Studio, which turned out to be a great venue to hold a small private event and also perfect for the kind of projects I have prepared for everybody to do.

Not all of my guests are “craftsy.” In fact, many of them are trying it out for the first time. So the challenge was to think of an activity which is not intimidating at all, easy for everybody to learn and fun to do. Most of the craft parties I read about online gave participants one big project to do together, however, what I really wanted was for my guests — my good friends — to have a taste of the stuff I like to do on a regular basis, which is not really just one big thing, but a mix of several small things. So I decided to have three different stations and gave them the option of doing just one project or incorporating all of them together. It turned out to be a great idea and not threatening at all! It was fun, even impressive, to see my guests try out different things and experiment. They painted clay plates, stamped on plain covered notebooks, designed their own note cards and played with a little origami.

Among the different projects I prepared, the most challenging was probably carving stamps. But it was a delight to see many of them giving it a shot and really liking it. Some even made multiple stamps and could not be stopped! I think I may have even converted a few and turned them into craftaholics (You know who you are! Uh oh.). But whether or not they end up becoming avid crafters, I was simply happy to have had the chance to share my love for making things with them. Even the more experienced ones obviously had fun too.

I’m so glad I threw this party. It was a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday and I really REALLY enjoyed. I’m grateful my guests, who are a mix of people I know from different places, seemed to have had quite a good time too. It was actually pretty amazing to see crafts bring people together and help develop new friendships.

Thanks again to all who came! You guys made me so happy! I know I just have to do an event like it again, so to those who wanted to come but couldn’t make it or those simply interested, keep posted! Kayo and I are working on something fun!

 

List of suppliers:

Venue – Honeycomb: Manila Coworking

Specialty coffee/drinks – Edsa Beverage Design Studio

Cakes (Lemon Tart, Flourless Chocolate Cake) – Uno Restaurant

Rubber blocks – Create Crafts PH

Plain craft notebooks, plain brown envelopes – Papemelroti

Air-dry Clay (Used to make Clay plates) – Hey Kessy

Temporary tattoos – Pulseras by Kim

Photos by Mare Collantes, Kayo Cosio and Nica Cosio