Between having small children, working from home and traveling often…. entertaining seems impossible.

I still remember the days when we hosted spontaneous gatherings at our home all the time. Indeed life has gotten busy in the past 6 years but that is no excuse for not making time for friends and family. I believe that when there’s a will, there’s a way. 

I’ve been wanting to have a few of the girls over for a crafting get together. My friends at Oriental Trading helped me make it happen!!

Ordering ALL the supplies I needed from a one-stop-shop was the easy part. Didn’t need to leave my house or go to a bunch of stores.

The difficult part was deciding on which craft for us to make. My goodness, have you seen the HUGE inventory they have?!

Since Easter is just around the corner, I thought I’d be a good idea for us to make something cute for Easter to decorate our homes with.

   

Here are the tools and supplies you’ll need to make the wreaths:

1 – Easter Tablecloth

3 – Jumbo Easter Egg packs

Mini Pastel Easter Eggs

Springtime Fine Glitter

Pennant Flag Ribbon

4 – White Foam Medium Wreath

Easter Green Grass

2 – Glue Guns

2 – Glue Stick packs

Glue

2 – Scissors

Permanent markers or gel pens

Ribbon

   

   

Optional supplies:

Variety of washi tapes (Dispenser from We R Memory Keepers)

Supplies for Easter Marshmallow Pops:

Wilton 6″ lollipop sticks

Wilton FoodWriter Neon Markers

Wilton Extra Fine Tip FoodWriters Markers

KRAFT Jet-Puffed Marshmallows – Easter varieties (Jumbo EggMallows, Candy EggMallows, and BunnyMallows)

You can set up everything on a side table for each guest to grab their own supplies or you can set each place setting like this:

For the refreshments station:

Mango-pineapple Mojitos

Shortbread bars

KERRYGOLD Dubliner Cheese cubes

RITZ crackers

Table grapes

and, of course, marshmallows!

I made a virgin mango-pineapple Mojitos pitcher. Such a yummy and refreshing drink!

To make it: Muddle lots of mint leaves, lime juice and sugar.  Place mango and pineapple cubes in pitcher. Pour in mango juice, club soda and mint mix. Add ice cubes and stir. Chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.

I made little name tags for each glass out of scrapbooking sheets.

I used my paper punches and gel pens to decorate them.

These shortbread bars are incredibly delicious and addicting!!

I received this simple recipe from my husband’s grandmother, Joyce. She told me it was my hub’s great grandmother Nelson’s recipe.

To make it: you take 1 pound of softened unsalted butter, 1 cup of sugar and 4 cups of cake flour. Cream these together in stand mixer until smooth. Pour batter into a 9″ x 13″ cake pan. Spread batter and level evenly with spatula. Poke all over surface with fork. Bake at 350 F degrees for 45 minutes.

KERRYGOLD Dubliner Cheese is one of my fav!! It’s nutty and sharp with a hint of creaminess.

Don’t these apothecary jars looks beautiful filled with pastel marshmallows?!

The girls loved this simple yet special set up. I’m telling you, having a few cake stands and nice serve ware can make any food table look polished and special.

   

Sooooooo….

Once we grabbed ourselves a drink and a few bites, we got to crafting!

We started off by covering the foam wreaths with green grass.

Next, we trimmed the grass all around.

After the grass was trimmed, it was time to decorate!

(Oh, I busted out the chips and salsa too. I wanted something spicy LOL.)

We all decorated our wreaths with Jumbo eggs, mini eggs and a bunting banner.

Some of us decorated our eggs with washi tape and other with glitter.

LOVED the bunting banner! It was very convenient to already have it cut out and assembled 🙂

I used a variety of gel pens to write on them.

It was so much fun chitty chatting and laughing with the girls while we crafted. I think it’s important to have some “me” time once in a while and this totally hit the spot!

The girls all said they too had a fabulous time. They said it was super cool that I had put this together for us. It was awesome all around!!

We were having so much fun that we lost track of time and didn’t even get a chance to do the marshmallow pops I had planned.

One of my friends had to leave early and we didn’t get a chance to include her in this photo. No worries though, Baby Kamilla thought she’d fill in for her.

My finished Easter wreath is now hanging on my door 🙂

I hope this has inspired you to make some time and call the girls over for a little crafting!!