Zip-Tie Tiaras & A Fancy Photoshoot

John and I've been hosting Craft Night since February of 2021, back when we had to limit it to our tiny "bubble" and we were all still wearing masks.

We made sock gnomes that first time. Remember John's Worf & Ursula gnomes?

By June the masks were off and John was making dinner for up to 10 of us at a time. On our non-craft weeks we hosted Movie Night, so every single Friday John and I've had our home open for folks to come and eat, socialize, or just sit in the same space as other humans for a while.

You've seen a bunch of our favorite group projects here: faux stained glass, Hobbit door wreaths, melted crayon art, pop-up cards, Crescent Moon wreaths, pumpkin head babies, giant velvet mushrooms, Soot Sprites...

The weeks go by so fast, though, that I have a growing pile of Craft Night projects you haven't seen.

::grin::

More on that in a sec.

It's been a fun challenge finding budget-friendly group crafts each time, but more than that, hosting each week has been amazing for my mental health. Most of the time we only have 5-6 people, so it's not too overwhelming, and our regulars have become like family. You know that comfort level where you raid a friend's fridge, or show up straight from work with a change of jammies in your bag? That's us. And it's wonderful.



Even the weeks I don't feel like hosting - which is often, if I'm honest - I never regret Craft Night after the fact. It never fails to lift me up and reset a blah mood.

What I'm saying is, you should totally try this.

Seriously, find something simple - even coloring pages! - and invite a few friends over. That's it. Boom. You're hosting craft night.

If you don't know many people to invite, then let your friends bring friends! That's how I've met some super cool people. We now have a rotating group of 20+ folks who show up when they can, which keeps the group fresh and fun.

I'm not just here to sing the praises of craft night, though. Today I finally got around to photographing on one of our DIYs from, let's see... ::looks at date::... egadz, last September?!

Quick, let me distract you from my procrastination with pretty pictures:

Not only did we make zip-tie tiaras one week, we also spent the next week doing an over-the-top photo shoot with them. This is Arielle in her jaw-dropping red-and-gold creation. Love that dangly chain on the forehead!

Isn't this incredible?

Zip-tie tiaras are so simple I promise you don't need a tutorial: just attach Dollar Tree zip ties to metal craft headbands, cut to size with scissors, and spray-paint them gold. After that we hot-glued on metal charms, rhinestones, flowers, etc.

These are easy to make and a little addicting. Here are a couple of mine:



The zip ties are smooth on one side and have a texture on the other, which looks like this:

What's that, you want to see these modeled, too?


Oh, alright.


BLUE STEEL

Best part is if you look hard enough (on a bright enough monitor), you can tell John is wearing his kitty astronaut shirt. Hee.


Oh, almost forgot! In October I made a Halloween display for that one using a Dollar Tree plastic skull and an old brass candlestick:


Sort of a glam goth or Dia de Muertos look - which I bet would be amazing year-round in some of your spaces!



Karen made the largest tiara, with wired pearl strands on top:





Not everyone made it back for the photo shoot, so let me show you the others. Here's Traci in her Anastasia-inspired tiara:


She pain-stakingly covered each zip tie in rhinestones to get all that sparkle. Unfortunately she reported later the stones started falling off, though. Plastic and hot glue aren't the most permanent bond, so go with E-6000 if you want it to last.

And here's Bianca in her leafy fairy design:


Those big red gems are table scatter from Dollar Tree.



I saved my favorite for last, which of course is John's "tiara." John has a way of thinking outside the box on Craft Night, and I'd love to see someone take his idea/design and run with it:


Funky cool, right? It's inspired by Maleficient, of course, then I added the flowers. I can't decide if it needs more flowers, or if these look silly. I like how they look kinda Art Nouveau, though.


We told John this reminded us of Medieval style horned headdresses, so next he made these:

Actually I think John was trying for Baby Yoda ears, but it's definitely more Medieval headdress, ha. No idea what applications or costumes this might work for, but maybe it'll spark some ideas out there? What do you think? Both horn sets are super strong - not floppy at all - and are very lightweight.

Just gonna end with a pretty set of close-ups, because pretty:

Happy Friday, my friend! Now, go host a craft night.

;)

Oh, but before you go, let's announce some art winners from my last post!

The winner of the Strawberry Griffin is Rachel Feala.
The winner of the mini print set is Shobelle.

And the winner of the Spoopy TARDIS is nimrodiel.

Congrats, you three, and please e-mail me your mailing addresses so we can ship those out to you.