Make & Bake Gifts 2017

This year has flown by so quickly, it's hard to believe that Make & Bake Gifts has come and gone.  Every December, we combine the two popular teen clubs, First Friday Art Club and Teen Cooking Club, into one special event called Make & Bake Gifts.

Googly Eyes and Glitter Glue

With special guests in tow, we had several stations to make a gift or bake a gift for the holiday season.  The very colorful Filomena Jack brought her Sock Creature project for everyone to make a few creature treasures to share.

Snip, Stitch, Sew Cool!

Taking old socks of various shapes and colors, students learned how to sew with a needle and thread.  Hand sewing is a skill that seems to be getting lost with the focus on technology in society.  I strive to keep these skills relevant to all age groups.  Filomena's patience and friendly approach to the project helped students make adorable stuffy friends for their human friends.

Creature Convention

Creatures for Christmas?

Craft Farm's mother hen, Allison Duncan, led a lip balm craft packed with essential oils and emollients.  Whether you call it chap stick or lip balm, the average cost of the natural and organic ingredient products cost nearly $5 each.  Such a simple gift can be too costly for a teen.  Providing a lesson and literacy on essential oils, each student created four separate lip balms to bomb their friends chapped lips!  

Pour the Balm

Craft a Label

There were two edible craft recipes that everyone took turns tackling.  Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels were a sweet and simple recipe that can be made in bulk.  With only 4 ingredients, this recipe is just too easy to pass.

Bulk up for the Season

I usually make batches of cookies for Christmas.  My Kitchen Aid mixer takes a beating and my propane provider loves my gas usage in the month of December.  After seeing just how much this recipe produces, I'm skipping the cookies and copying this pretzel treat!

Even Gluten Free Options

There are a few Gluten sensitive students in my charge, so we had Gluten Free products to accommodate that dietary restriction.  Even the gluten free option of this recipe was quick and easy.

Stir!  Fast!!!

The last edible craft for the Make & Bake Gifts event was Cornflake Candy Wreaths.  This five ingredient recipe is similar to Rice Krispy Treats, but uses cornflake cereal and green food coloring.  

Festive Fun

Students whipped up these edible wreaths in just about 15 minutes.  The wreaths they made were larger than palm size, so a bit too big for a snack.  I say they are perfect to share.  Add some red candies to represent holly berries and you're good to go.

This wraps up another fun year in Young Adult programming that I facilitate at the Southeast
Steuben County Library.  We welcome 2018 with a Photo Collage event for First Friday Art Club.

Get ready for 2018

Teen Cooking Club will learn how to Squash their Hunger in January.

We will also try to get organized with our schedules.  Starting in January, we'll try to get some focus with Middle Mondaze.  The first installation is Bite the Bullet Journal.  This event is strictly for teen, 13 years and older, who need a break from the mundane Monday.

New addition for 2018!

Thanks for visiting.  I hope this blog has inspired you to try some of the things we tested this year.  Happy Holidays!

xo,

Erica

Make & Bake Gifts 2015

Make & Bake Gifts is our annual gift making session where First Friday Art Club and Teen Cooking Club combine for an extended creation event, just in time for the holiday season.

Union Hall tree, all dressed up

This popular event was held in the USW Local 1000 Union Hall, just behind the SSC Library (<<<>>>ooh! check out our new website!!!).  You can read about last year's event here.

Thinking up gifts that people want to receive is often hard to do, especially considering what teens want to make, are interested in creating, and are willing to save to give as a gift rather than keep for themselves, all while calculating these crafts into a short 2 hour time frame and attempting to keep all attendees busy the entire time.  This is quite the challenge.

"Tie Dye" Tile Coasters

Thanks to the community collaborative power of Pinterest, ideas are aplenty, as long as you consider your audience and budget.  The tutorial for these "Tye Dye" Tile Coasters has been provided directly by Sharpie and was relatively inexpensive.  A box of ceramic tiles cost about $12 for 50 tiles, 2 packs of Sharpie markers, scraps of felt and a bottle of rubbing alcohol are the only necessary materials for this project.  Ok, you need some hot glue to stick the felt on the backs of each tile to protect furniture surfaces, but that is somewhat optional....

Felt protects the furniture.

Recognizing that a Tie Dye look doesn't appeal to everyone, and some designs are much more beautiful left alone, I suggested to use personal judgement whether to use the alcohol to create the Tie Dye effect or not.  Many chose to keep their artistic efforts unscathed...

Tile Samples

Another project, which I thought would cost a lot less, was Crayon Candles.  Having a plethora of crayons collected over the years, I thought this was the trick to eliminating the supply....INCORRECT!  Creating these candles required a candle wax to help them burn at a better rate.  Purchasing soy candle wax, prepared wicks, glass votive holders and prepping the station with two adult helpers proved this project could have been a solo event. The process took a lot longer to create each candle than originally thought.  This is a project I will revisit in the near future, but I am well aware that it is a time thief.

Crayon Candle station

Although these candles were very time consuming, they are quite pretty with multiple layers of color.

"What's that?  CHOCOLATE!?!"

On to the edible segment of our event, we created Dark Chocolate Super Bites using a wide variety of healthful elements for mindful snacking.  Some skilled choppers prepared the station and everyone took turns creating their own heavenly bites.

Do you see a reindeer?

Rather than melting the chocolate in the microwave, we used a small crock pot to maintain a melted temperature.
Using an electric skillet, we kept the white chocolate melted for these adorable Candy Cane Heart Pops...

Too cute to eat

Thanks to my high school volunteer, Kacey, who made these pops possible with her helping hands.  Keeping a close eye on the white chocolate supply was very important.  She rationed the project perfectly.

Another fantastic Make & Bake Gifts event is now in the books.  I know those chocolate bite hit bellies before they left the building, but I hope several gift packages like these are given this holiday season.

Check back in 2016 for more incredible teen projects and events.  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 xoxo, erica