It doesn’t take any crafter long to realize that kitchen tools double as crafting tools. I’ve been preparing for a sweetheart’s dinner/valentine’s banquet for the last couple of weeks and my kitchen tools were repurposed for this endeavor. One of the biggest tasks in decorating the fellowship hall at our church was creating a chandelier/lantern/globe/light thingumajig for the center of the room. We already put up white lights wrapped in tulle, but we needed something else. This is what I came up with.

Would you like to know how my kitchen tools helped me make this? Read on.

First, here’s the supplies I used.

1 Strand of Icicle Lights

2 Styrofoam blocks ($7ish each)

Spray Paint White (97¢)

Hairpins (not pictured)

Red Tinsel Garland ($1.00ish on Christmas Clearance)

I also used red picks from Target (purchased several years ago) that you use for dressing up napkins.

Ok, here’s the details if you want ‘em.

Step one: Spray paint your hairpins.

Step two: Cut the center out of both of your styrofoam blocks (measure your blocks to find the center) using (kitchen gadget #1) a serrated steak knife or bread knife. (This is when my husband said, “You know that really dulls our knives.” And I wanted to say, “You know, when you cut your steak, it really dulls my crafting knives.” No, I didn’t really want to say that, or I probably would’ve said it. I was sweet.)

Step three: Put the blocks together!

Step four: Use (kitchen gadget #2) a grater to round off the edges so it looks less like a square and more like a cylinder. Just file it like you file your nails- back and forth, back and forth- until you get the look you want.

Step five: Use your hairpins to secure lights to the styrofoam. It’s easier if you start at the bottom and work your way up because if you start at the top (like I did!) then you will be adjusting the icicles frequently to get them out of your way.

Step six: I guess this step could be placed somewhere else in the process (maybe after step 3) but this is where I did it and it worked fine for me. Using your knife again, cut the styrofoam to resemble an arrow, cutting out triangle-like pieces. You’ll have to use your grater again to smooth out the edges and level the surfaces.

Step seven: Hang it up and decorate it with tinsel! I stuck the sprigs in then cut off tiny pieces of the tinsel and wrapped them around the cords.

Another project I took on was decorating the tables. The first thing I did was hit up the after Christmas sales in January. Here’s what I got, and how it turned out.

The gold and red floral stems were from (if you can’t tell) Big Lot’s. They were 50¢ a piece!! They were originally $5.oo, but they were 90% off. I taped over several of the blooms and my (wonderful) husband spray painted them black. You should have heard him last night at the dinner. He said, “Boy this is is a great spray paint job,” while tenderly examining the stems. Everyone at our table was like, “Yeah, they look great! I wonder who did them?” (Rolling eyes while still admiring my husbands sense of humor) Also included in the centerpiece were red glittery pine cone stems, silver tinsel (both on clearance) and LED Branches (not on sale).

Here’s more pictures of the finished product.

The night was more fun than I could have imagined. There was a four course meal complete with two salad choices, two entrée choices, and four desert choices. And actually it was a five course meal if you count the coffee and tea served later. Every aspect of the meal was thought through. The butter was shaped in balls in the cutest red foil liners! I had ensalada Angelica (spring lettuce, strawberries, grapes, almond crunch, and poppy-seed dressing), lasagna, and tiramisu. It was all DELICIOUS!

The food was in tough competition with our entertainment though. We had the Black Diamond. Basically he’s a black Neal Diamond. He sounds just like him! He was so energetic and the crowd was too. He might become a household name soon because he’s auditioned for America’s Got Talent and has already been seen on Jimmy Kimmel Live. He’s good friends with our minister, so hopefully he will come back next year!

We had an awesome time, but I’m a little bit glad it’s over!