Ideas for a hands-on craft activity for adults at a charity event

[VagueButlmportant]

I'm organising a fundraiser for our local Women's Aid organisation. It's an evening event at a local pub and we're expecting around 80 people to attend. I've had loads of support from local businesses who are doing taster tables, cake decorating, chocolate fountain etc. It's £10 per ticket and so far it's costing the charity nothing, but I think I need a couple more stalls to make sure there's enough for people to do.

I've got some volunteers who are willing to host a table and pay for the materials needed for people to make a personalised Christmas decoration.

My idea was to buy ceramic hearts / stars like these

They could then be painted, decorated and personalised using ceramic pens here

The problem is it's all getting much too expensive.

Could anyone suggest anything that looks like a quality item, that can be made in around 5-10 mins (inc drying time) that doesn't look like it was made in a primary school!

I think the volunteers would be willing to spend around £30-£40 but it would be better if it could be less.

Any suggestions?

We bought cardboard reindeers and pierced a small hole and threaded a ribbon through. We gave the adults glue and glitter and they had a great time making a tree decoration.

What about making felt ornaments, they won't be done in ten mins but you could cut out the pieces of felt, make a little string of yarn, cut a ribbon and add a couple of buttons and a needle. It would be very cheap but needs a bit of time in prep. They could then take them home to finish.

Like this - end result depends on sewing neatness (made by my 8 yr old at the time).

A stash of multicoloured felt and some metallic thread cost me less than £15, I have got the other things. You could make lots for £30. You might need to print instructions I suppose.

These are surprisingly easy to make, you just need pritt stick and scissors

Also, these look cool. You'd have to google how to make them but I'm assuming it's just cheap multi packs of socks, filled with rice?

Or decorating mugs? There's super cheap Sharpies on Amazon at the moment and you can get cheap multipacks of white mugs in supermarkets or Argos.

Wreath decorating?

www.firstpalette.com/Craft_themes/Special_Occassions/Valentines_Day/wovenheartbasket/wovenheartbasket.html

Plaited paper hearts in red and white or maybe gold/silver/red/green would be very on trend for a hygge Christmas tree and super cheap.

This might be a bit left field, but you can make remarkably impressive looking items from cut-out old tractor tyre or wheelbarrow inner tubes. I can't find any photos of decorations, but for example these earrings show the idea.

You'd need to get the inner tubes & clean them & cut into flat squares, then have available templates for those not feeling up to drawing free-hand, sharpie pens to outline the design, and several pairs of sharp scissors. The only specialist thing really you'd need is a leather punch to make a hole to hang the item, but a 2mm punch is a couple of quid on ebay (obvs you need a hammer to hit it with and a solid surface!).

Inner tube doves look particularly smart (don't make them too small or they're fiddly to cut out), or stars decorated with silver paint pens are quite stylish.

Five pointed willow stars are also very easy to make if you do the binding with wire then cover it with hessian twine. This link shows the idea roughly, but I'd make them tree decoration sized - so willow twigs around 2-3 inches long - and just use a single twig rather than bundles. Obviously you need to find someone with a twiggy willow tree or similar (dogwood is good) that they don't mind pruning! But plastic coated wire and nice hessian twine are both very cheap. You could also have some silver & gold spray paint available as an option if people wanted.

Thanks so much everyone! Some amazing ideas.

I'll price some up and see what the volunteers want to do.

I really appreciate the help.

What about earrings? A packet of multi coloured beads and earrings. People can make there own by choosing the beads and threading them on a bit of jewelry wire or wire posts.

I'd be tempted to do a raffle of sorts tbh.

Make a festive hamper for £30 ish, wrap in cellophane and raffle off.

A quiz with fizz/hamper as a reward? Tickets £1-2 each?

But with the crafty theme....personalise a xmas hat/stocking

And could the pub throw in a dj or could you get hold of a live band who would be willing to do it for free?

I went to a Christmas craft evening last year with several tables of things to do. We made button covered baubles (stick buttons or sequins into polystyrene shapes with pins), book folding (much more time consuming!), folded paper stars out of old map books, assembled a sleigh out of sweets (two candy canes as runners etc). Have a look on Pinterest, you should find loads of ideas on there