Supper Club Crafting

Tonight was our annual Supper Club Christmas Hayride. Thank goodness it is only annual. I am stuffed to the gills. It is a progressive dinner each year, with appetizers at one house, dinner at the next, and dessert at the last--and all of my friends can cook! Not a bad morsel had all night.

The real fun part is in between houses we take a hayride through the neighborhood and look at the lights, like these perennial favorites. In this one every window has a different scene and the front yard is stuffed with fun.

This guy hangs lights from the tall, tall pine trees that grace his front yard. (You can see how high these go. That's the top of his roof near the bottom of the picture.) He works for the same company that I do. I asked him once how he gets those lights up that high and he said that it was a great secret. So everyone continues to try to guess. My latest theory is a bow and arrow, but I heard someone tonight posit tennis racquets. Until we figure it out, I will just enjoy them and their mystery.

We supper clubbers usually give each other little gifts. Here's what I gave this year.

Yes, definitely a Pinterest-y Christmas.

I wrote about making trees like this before, but I think I've gotten better with practice.

First of all, I've learned where the glue goes, so now the layers pop. I also alternated the book pages with left over scrapbook paper to good effect, I think.And I added a loop at the top in case someone wants to hang it.

The inspiration for the Christmas ball came from one of my favorite blogs, All Things Paper. I took that idea and added circles of book pages, because, I think we all know that everything goes better with book pages.

 (And seriously, check out these artichoke lights by the same artist, Allison Patrick. Love those!)

Obviously I'm still on a turquoise kick because the ball and the tree both match my latest book.

How did I make that happen? Well, it's a great secret, but I can guarantee you that there were no tennis racquets involved.