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

SSC Library UnMasked 2016

We stayed open after hours for another fabulous SSC Library UnMasked event on July 15, 2016.  Entertaining an all-ages cosplay crowd is a big undertaking during busy summer scheduling, but it is 

TOTALLY WORTH IT!

The event began just after 6 p.m. with a line of cosplayers rolling onto the sidewalk! It's a joy to see the fruits of your labor pay off with an excited crew ready to UnMask the Library.

First 50 in the Door

Our registration table had free raffle tickets for all attendees to enter for prizes.  Comic magnets and special raffle tickets were offered to the First 50 in the Door.

Welcome to SSC Library UnMasked 2016

Rounding the library, attendees found FREE COMIC BOOKS

 leftover from Free Comic Book Day.

Free Comic Books for All

We had a button making station with lots of glossy images to make permanent mementos.

Make a Button with Danielle and Bethany

If you brought your appetite, Super Hero Stew would fill your hungry tummy.

Kacey serving the Super Hero Stew

There was a Super Smash Bros. video game tournament.  The competition for a $20 Game Stop gift card was tough.  Luckily we had a runner-up prize of $10 to Dippity Do Dahs Homemade Ice Cream Shop.

Super Smash Bros.

Many businesses and local artists donated their goods and services to this event and we are indebted to their generosity.  Great Escapes Adventures was on hand to play board games available in their shop in the Arnot Mall.  One lucky raffle winner will get to experience an Escape Room game in the near future.

Can you find the key to leave an Escape Room?

Joey Schichtel returned with his talent and photo booth for all to enjoy.  He donated 2 framed prints and an exclusive Harley Quinn comic book cover to our raffle prizes--

wish I could have won!

Joey Schichtel

Maegan McKenzie designed coloring sheets with background settings.  Everyone was welcome to draw their own super hero character to be added into a coloring book.

Maegan McKenzie

Emily Swan brought her talent with Paper Bag Super Hero Puppets.

Emily Swan and Co.

Ed Bond showed off his Metacheckers game.  He raffled one game as a prize, but also donated one game to the library in-house board game collection.  I challenge you to a duel!

Ed Bond with Metacheckers

We had an outta-control obstacle course.  

You had to capture our villain robot named Ramsey.

Obstacle Course

Hungry (human) Hippos gave way to more excitement.

Human Hippos

The evening rounded out with the highly anticipated Cosplay contest. For clarification of the word cosplay, it is costume play.  A fun activity for kids of all ages.  11th Hour Cosplay brought their knowledge and experience with cosplay costumes to the competition.

They had the honor of considering winners for four categories:  Novice, Journeyman, Master, and Group.  Each winner scored a weekend pass to Twin Tiers Comic Con in Elmira, New York on August 13 & 14, 2016!

Cosplay Contest

With stories and anecdotes behind each costume, 11th Hour Cosplay narrowed their decisions to these final winners:

Cowboy as Novice

Soul Eater Evans as Journeyman

Glados from Portal as Master

Robin and Batman (or is that The Joker?) as Group

We even had a surprise category of O.C., original character.  One of my First Friday Art Club students won this award for her creation made in our Cosplay Costumes event.

Best Original Character

There were so many wonderful efforts in competition.  The decisions were tough!  Congratulations to our winners, but extra special thanks to all who participated.  I feel events like this are more fun to meet new friends with similar interests than winning prizes.

It's difficult to list all costumes in entirety.  So much variety to enjoy all evening.

SSC Library UnMasked ended with over $600 in prizes offered to lucky winners whose names were drawn from our registration collection.

P R I Z E S ! ! !

We are grateful to our program sponsors who provided 

free or discounted opportunities and art work.  

• Heroes Comic Shop hooked us up with 2- $25 gift certificates, plus magnet door prizes
• Denny's Submarine Shop provided a certifiicate for 2 subs and 2 shakes 
• Park Avenue Sports Center gave 5 free passes for mini-golf
• Dippity Do Dahs Homemade Ice Cream Shop sent a $10 gift card + 6 scoop credits
• Filomena Jack sold us a Dr. Zoidberg original painting
• Joey Schichtel gave us 2 framed prints and an original comic book 
• Laura Charles provided 2 original prints
• Twin Tiers Comic Con gifted 4 passes for the 4 we bought for the Cosplay Contest.
• McDonald's Restaurant provided free small ice cream cards
• The grand prize was a Kindle Fire with $10 gift card, power cord, and screen protector

Prize Giveaway

The event finished at 8 p.m. once all prizes were collected and many families had their fill of thrills.  With 16 volunteers and library workers on hand, the building was back to business as usual within an hour.  As I locked the doors for the night, I felt relief that it all went off without a hitch.  I extend my gratitude to everyone who supported the Library UnMasked efforts.  Our community is rich with generosity!

Join Us Next Time

If you missed it this year, be sure to join us next time.  It just keeps getting better!

Thanks for visiting :)

~erica