Host a Successful Craft Night at Home

I love to craft. I love to make clay figurines (How-to-Make-Clay-People), I love to paint, I love to decorate, I love to turn old things into new things, I love scrapbooking, and I love the process of thinking up/making new craft projects. I also love to create fun new memories by crafting with my friends and family.

This hub is going to go over the basics of how to throw a successful craft night at home and I am really excited about it because I think it will help me get ready to throw another craft night of my own very soon.

Think you got what it takes to throw a successful craft night? You don’t have to be innately crafty in order to do so, maybe you can throw the party so that some of your friends and family can help you think up and start a craft project of your own! Or maybe hosting the craft night will get you motivated to actually start on that craft project you have been putting off forever. Whatever reason you decide to host a craft night for, make sure the main reason is so that you can have a fun evening with your friends and with crafts.

Ready? Let’s get started.

The first thing you need to consider when planning a craft night is the question, “who am I going to invite?” Your guests are part of what make your craft night successful so you might want to be kind of picky on this step. Here are some things to consider when you are trying to come up with your guest list:

• Will this person bring a craft to work on?
• Will this person bring fun/laughter to the party?
• Will this person be an enjoyable participant in the night’s activities?
• Will this person enjoy and get along with the other people who are being invited?
• Is this person friendly
• Does this person get along well with others?
• Is this person crafty?
• Will this person bring his or her noisy children even if you specifically say not to?

Be aware of the kind of atmosphere you want and if a certain guest possibility does not fit into that atmosphere you may want to reconsider. Don’t be worried about inviting everyone, craft nights are usually more intimate gatherings anyway and you don’t need the stress a great big guest list can bring.

Of course you do need to be aware of the fact that friends, and especially family members, talk among themselves and if you make the mistake of inviting one sibling and not another, or one family member and not another you may have some drama to deal with.

Depending on the type of party you want to throw you could go extremely casual with the party invitations or make it a little more formal with actual paper/envelopes/stamps. Here are some different ways/levels of invitations, go with what feels right to you:

• Word of Mouth
  Keep things simple and simple talk to your guests about the party and invite them by word of mouth. You can then give them one or two reminders about the time/place through email or text when the party date gets closer.
• Email
  If you have all your potential guests on your email list, and you know they check their emails on a regular basis, you can send an email party invitation.
• Facebook Event
  This is still a pretty casual way to invite someone to a party, but it makes it extremely easy for guests to say whether or not they can come because all the details are available and in their face every time they check their Facebook.
• Paper Invitation
  Go more formal with a sweet paper invitation, you can hand them out in person or you can go that extra mile and mail them out. Make sure you include an RSVP so that you know who is going to be able to make it and who is not. You can make these yourself or hire out an invitation design professional to design something truly memorable.

The food you provide at your party will depend on when you throw it, and how long the party is going to go. If you are planning an all-day craft event, than you are going to need a serious food supply. If you are hosting a three hour party in the middle of the afternoon, than you are simply going to need refreshments, and if you are hosting a real craft night that goes well into the hours of the night you may want to plan for dinner as well as some refreshments/snacks/treats.

You are throwing a craft night and that means you and your friends are going to need some room. If your house is big enough to hold a couple tables and chairs then go right ahead and host the craft night in your home. However, if your space is not big enough for every guest and their craft you may want to consider finding/renting a place that will be big enough. Look into your local community/church buildings to get started on your search. Having enough tables and chairs is another important piece to your craft event puzzle. If you do not have enough ask some of your guests to see if they can pitch in with some tables/chairs.

Your guests will probably bring most of the things they need to complete their own crafts, especially if they are doing very different crafts. But there are a few basic supplies you are going to want to provide just in case. Here is a list of some of the basic supplies you will want to bring for your guests:

• Bags for trash (You have done crafts before, and you know that usually means a lot of trash)
• Scissors
• Tape
• Markers/pens/pencils
• Rulers
• Paper cutter
• Scrap paper
• Yarn
• Ribbon
• Buttons, Book paper, stamps, etc.

Remember to set the tone/atmosphere of your party with some mood music. If you want a more up-beat party/conversation put some country/pop music on low in the background. If you want a more relaxing/calming conversation/atmosphere put some rainforest sounds, Enya music on very low in the background. You never want the music to be louder than your guests, unless they specifically ask you to turn the music up so that they can sing along.

It’s your party and you should have fun along with playing the host. If you go through all that work and planning and then you are unable to enjoy yourself by working on a craft project yourself, then I think it is safe to call that a fail. Make sure that after you have placed the food, turned on the music, checked on all your guests, and refilled the drinks; you take the time to sit down, talk with your friends, and get crafty.

Have fun!