Winter craft date? It's the perfect time of year to gather inside, in the warmth, with a coffee or cocoa and a good friend and make something awesome. My friend, Renee, and I were determined to add to our repetoire of seasonal crafts after the burlap placemat success.

We decided to go simple, or so we thought, and make the paper snowflakes.

As a little girl, I remember attempting paper snowflakes, trimming off the wrong edges instead of the right ones, and ending up with a heap of trimmed pieces of flakes. Determined not to repeat this, Renee and I made six-point snowflakes following this process:

We had a variety of papers, and I ended up using a looseleaf pack that I've had for a very long time because of the thin, durable weight to the paper. And, the white tone was just a bit softer than our other choices.

So grab a stack of paper, sharp scissors, good lighting, and a pal.

Lots of great patterns around the interwebs will surprise and delight you, like the ones we used as inspiration: Wee Birdy, these great ideas, and you can even find paper snowflake patterns based on the new movie, Frozen (pinned for my girls).

Folding the six-point pattern takes a little practice to get all the segments equal, but it it amazing the variety of snowflake you can create.

Originally Renee and I were thinking that we'd put these together in a chandelier-type arrangement. Can you imagine cascades of intricate snowflakes floating down?

Renee opted to display her snowflakes against her gorgeous red walls in the dining room. Fabulous contrasts!

Honestly, mine sat in a pile for a while, waiting for me to have time and inspiration to make something. And then I started making more and more of them of various sizes.

We have two trees in our house - our freshly cut and our (now duct-taped) artificial. The fresh tree has balls and ribbon and my favorite loose tinsel.

It needed a little something extra.

*Lightbulb.

Spread throughout the limbs now are dozens of paper snowflakes.

If you want a simple craft that will make you feel way more talented than you might be feeling on any particular day, cut some snowflakes.

They can be used in wrapping, garlands, chandeliers, and in my opinion as awesome ornaments.

Big hugs and thanks for Renee for the motivation to make these! Can't wait to see what we'll work up for spring.

Also, Kim of Design Life Kids and I will be showing off our long-distance Craft Date soon!

If you wanna make something and need a buddy, let me know. It's always more fun to do create with a pal.

Happy weekend, lovelies! I'll be writing my arm off and sending Christmas cards! Best to you and yours. 

xoxo, MJ

Lucky, lucky me (and you), it's time for another Craft Date with my pal, Renee!!

Renee is a woman of great taste and mad skills so I've roped her into craft dating me (I mean, what else was I to do?). Do you have a friend with whom you create? I find that it makes the whole experience of crafting that much more fun...and if you're anything like me - much more likely to finish the project, too!

What does craft dating entail? Well, we began by thinking seasonal and offering up a few suggestions from one another's Pinterest boards.

For fall we created burlap placemats to add texture and some special names/thoughts to our autumn feasts. We also decided we needed to meet up at least seasonly to keep one another crafting and creating.

But where to begin with Christmas and winter projects? My Pinterest board overfloweth.

So we're tossing it up for your thoughts. Here are our top three choices:

 

1. via Totally Love It

2. via Craft Gossip

3. via Suburble

We need to keep our crafting to two hours or less - it's a school night, girlfriends! Leave your vote in the comments below. Which one should we make as our winter craft?

Which one would you make?

xoxo, MJ

Hey there. Happy week to you! How's September rolling along? Fall is racing in fast and bringing her crisp air and snuggly wardrobes, and I am delighted.

I am also delighted to have a friend. A friend who will craft with me. This week, after much rescheduling and scheming, my friend, Renee and I will break open a bag of supplies and keep our hands busy crafting until we call it a day or a DIY done.

Our plan was to share some pins that have really piqued our interest as of late and decide together on which one was worthy of the craft date. Here are the three projects I suggested. Some of these have been around for a while, and I just haven't had the time to make my own versions.

Which one would you make? Or do you have another project on your mind?

Found via Cottage and Vine

Via Family Chic

Via Martha Stewart

Tune in next week to see what we crafted and just how we did. And if you're lucky enough to have a friend in your life who will craft with you, give them a hug for me. She/He is awesome!!

xoxo,

MJ

PS. If you want to make your home a warm, wonderful place to be every day of the year, follow Renee over on Pinterest.