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Written and Photographed by Nicole Crittenden

Summer is here! Hopefully this means you will have a little more time to relax and enjoy San Francisco’s foggy climate (and maybe even a few sunny days). Whether you are escaping the chilly weather outside, or just need a bit of crafty inspiration, here are a few very simple “do it yourself” ideas to help you throw a fun dinner party. To remind me of summers back home, I chose to go with a floral theme. I started by making a flower tablecloth out of butcher paper and paints. This makes for easy clean up after your party and provides a touch of color to your table. If you are going with a simple theme, leaving the butcher paper white can look very classy, and is affordable.

For the hors d’oeuvres I chose to keep it simple and popped popcorn over the stove. I made simple sugar cookies and bought a few artichokes and berry candies. I also baked a simple yellow cake for dessert.

I had a few items lying around, like yellow and mint candle sticks, a huge paper crepe flower, polka dot balloons, fresh flowers and string lights. I set these on and around the party table. String lights and candles provide a romantic and cozy atmosphere once the sun goes down.

Mobiles add height and dimension and can be a conversation piece. I’m a huge fan of simple lines and geometric shapes, so I made this very easy mobile out of wooden dowels and small styrofoam balls. This is one of my favorite crafts because the designs and shapes are endless.

It’s always nice to be able to have your guests leave with something, even if it’s small. I decided to make flower headbands with inexpensive plastic headbands I found at Walgreens and artificial flowers I picked up at the craft store. I saw some really beautiful ribbon and decided to attach them to the headbands for extra embellishment. This is optional.

I finished by sprucing up the fiddle leaf fig and draping streamers around the picture frame. I then set up a few bottles of my favorite summer wines put on a nice record.

Happy crafting everyone!

DIY Headband:

Supplies: Plastic headband, artificial flowers, decorative ribbons, a hot glue gun, and wire cutters

Step 1: cut the flower stems to the same width as your headband.
Step 2: hot glue the stem to the top of the headband.
Step 3: continue cutting the stems and glueing them to the headband.
Optional: tie the ribbons in a knot around the headband and hot glue them in place.

DIY Floral Tablecloth

Supplies: Butcher paper, paints, and paintbrushes

Step 1: Mix your background colors together (I used forest green, tan, pineapple yellow, and white to make a pretty sage green).
Step 2: Use a feathery brush and long brush strokes to fill in the background.
Step 3: Paint yellow and pink dots on your paper in random order to make the flowers.
Step 4: Paint leaves in a bolder green than your background between you flowers and let it dry.

DIY Geometric Mobile

Supplies: Wooden dowels, styrofoam balls, and hot glue

Step 1: Poke a hole in your first styrofoam ball with the wooden dowel.
Step 2: Put hot glue in the hole and replace the wooden dowel, making sure it holds. Continue this step while you create your wonderful geometric shapes!