Holiday Craft Night at Essentials

What does an artist do when she’s looking to have a relaxing, fun night out? She goes crafting OF COURSE! 

That is a real no-brainer when your town has an absolutely adorable home gift shop called Essentials—and when my friend/store owner Colette Katsikas decides to hold a craft night I won't ever turn down the opportunity.

Colette had a pretty simple formula for the evening. It went like this: invite people, pull out all sorts of goodies, everything from scraps of cool paper to ribbons and twine, rubber stamps and hole punches, add glue sticks and scissors and cardstock. And… go.

There really is nothing like cutting paper, gluing it to twine, and playing with the hole punch while chatting with your friends to unwind a bit. I remembered how much I like to have my hands be busy and my mind be in not-only-work mode (but I can’t help it; I like my work and to glance at pretty objects in a store I love sparks my designer-mind, so I couldn’t turn entirely “off-duty,” which was also exciting—I can’t wait to see what ideas that popped into my mind I can’t let go of).

The event was packed! I am not the only person to find an evening with hands, materials, glue and good company a draw....

I made a fun bunting, might be using it on the Christmas tree...

Colette (essentials store owner far right) and fellow crafters

By the way, if you live nearby, illustrator and author Tony DiTerlizzi made the holiday window for Essentials. Isn’t it gorgeous? I cant wait until this spring when I get to do the Essentials window!