Hawaii Dreaming in our Winter Wonderland a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This winter we have had unbelievable cold weather and lately several snow storms. It has been a bit of a winter wonderland. Once we got rid of the first snow, it snowed again.

We had a bit of a January thaw and the ducks came back to visit. They even came during the snow. I got a picture of their footprints as well as them in the brook during the snow. We do feed them cracked corn and have been feeding them in the weather. I jumped at the chance to come up with ideas for Hawaiian leis from Oriental Trading. Back in 2014 when we had mountains of snow for months on end I did a series of Hawaii dreaming. This post is more ideas for having a Hawaii party or luau. Hazel picked out the Rainbow Light Up Leis 

and the Mahalo Flower Leis. 

We also got the Beaded Lei Anklets for Hazel's dolls so they could join in the fun! She even has one of them in Nanea's Holoku Dress to really get into the Hawaii mood. 

Now of course you can always wear the leis and have fun, but I wanted to do more with them. I decided to use them to decorate!! I got some white paper lanterns and just laid the leis on them. 

The rainbow light up lei is fun with it since it lights up so you do not need the light inside. I love how the leis just jazz up the lanterns. I did not use anything to attach them so both can be re-used for other parties as well.

I also got a footed serving plate and hot glued leis around it. I originally used clear tape to attach it so I could get the idea of how much lei I needed to make it around. Now I just need to make some Hawaiian treats to serve on it. 

It took a little more than one lei to make it all the way around. To cut the leis I found the easiest thing to do was to put hot glue on the spot I wanted to cut first and let it cool. Then cut in the middle of the glue spot.

This stopped all the flowers, straws and leaves from coming off the string. They were very hard to put back on!! Also do NOT cut the light up ones since this will have some electrical wires going through them. 

I also decorated some glasses. I can see us having some pineapple juice on the next snow day!! The champagne glasses were left over from Hazel's New Year's Eve Birthday Bash. I hot glued the pieces of the leis into small loops and then just put them on the glasses. They are not actually attached to the glasses so this idea could work on real glass glasses. I love how they came out!!

I also made some favor bags. I pulled out some of the mini neon tote bags we reviewed awhile ago and glued pieces of leis on to them. I used the flowers between three leaves and tried to keep a leaf on each corner or edge of the bag. Sometimes I did not get the leaf to stay on unfortunately though. Again they came out so cute. We love them!!

Since we were featuring the leis, I also checked out the luau items. I found these Hibiscus Flower Centerpiece kits. Hazel and I fluffed them up. I am thinking we may actually hang them on the walls. Hazel wants them on the walls in her bedroom. They are large and fun. There is also a piece of light cardboard on the bottom of each to give them some stability. Hazel always wants to make tissue paper flowers so these are perfect!! 

What are you doing to get through the winter blues? Are you dreaming of Hawaii like us?

It has been awhile since we had a Crafty Weekends party!! Thank you to everyone who shared with us at our last party!! It was a fun party with many great ideas.  Below are some features from the party, but this is just a small sample of great ideas shared! Also remember for your child-oriented crafts, activities, lessons, etc. Sharing Saturday is going on!!  Also don't forget to link up all your diverse and cultural posts at Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop (a new one started today)!

Features

1) From Clean and Scentsible: Valentine's Day Countdown: 7 Days of Love

2) From Lolly Jane: Vintage Dresser to Bathroom Vanity

3) From Busy Being Jennifer: Upcycled Sweater Slippers

4) From Sparkle: DIY Alcohol Ink Galaxy Coasters

5) From Everyday Parties: Troll Seeds Bag Topper Printables

6) From The Scrap Shoppe: 20 Fabric Storage Ideas

7) From Life Sew Savory: Hooded Wool Cape Sewing Tutorial

Thank you to everyone who shared the last week!! I hope you will share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. I would love the help spreading the word about Crafty Weekends!!

An InLinkz Link-up