What an amazing, amazing, amazing night! The Durban Etsy Craft Party was part of the global celebrations, held around the world on the 20th June. The Durban party was the only one held in South Africa, which I think is pretty damn cool! I had lots of help, for which I am so grateful, including an amazing supply box direct from Etsy HQ in Brooklyn, New York!
My biggest source of help was the committee members who volunteered their assistance and they were absolute stars! Thank you Cathy, Ellen, Simone, Kimi, Christy, Kirsty and Tarryn! They decorated, created decor items and helped me to host the evening. Another huge thank you has to go out to The Upstairs and their team. The venue was ideal and their assistance was invaluable!
To add to the fun and to show a range of styles to inspire everyone, I asked some Durban bloggers to decorate tags ahead of the event, which you can see featured in the photo above. Ask Ashe, Fathima from Happiness Is, Kelly Lubbee from Sunflowers and Spears and Caley from Ellie Love, all created the most beautiful tags!
These lovely photos are also the kind and loving work of Kathy and Charity, who snapped the party in full-swing! They captured it to perfection.
Even more amazing help came via Gabi of Vanilla House who arranged and sponsored all the flowers for the night, her work was perfect! Consol Glass were also particularly kind and sponsored water bottles and jars.
Inside the goodie bags were the most perfectly created button biscuits from Bon Moment, Washi Tape from Washi Bug and a decorated peg and tag from Little Mud Hut Designs. The freebies didn't end there, each guest also got a huge and colourful lollipop from In Good Company and a glass water bottle from Consol. Treats galore!
The craft activity was decorating tags and there was a bunch of fun supplies to get crafty with. I picked something easy that everyone could enjoy and add a personal spin to. The styles were so varied and mixed, from pretty to super creative and even avant garde to mini works of art. In Good Company and Washi Bug also provided lots and loooots of Washi Tape to get us on our merry crafting way! The In Good Co gals really were quite amazing in the items that they sponsored and also send over some paper bags which everyone decorated and used for their craft haul.
Pudding was courtesy of Daniela's and was a delicious macaroon of course! These were served after a hearty helping of pizza, carbs to help with the crafting! To add to the fun there were also giveaways and the range of pretty, crafty and lovely items came from Happiness Is, The Ballet Lady, Pencil and Peg, Hello Pretty, Consol, Urban Grace, Malva, The Deco Collection, Fred Felton, Britt Aboud, Little Mud Hut Designs and Leanne Erasmus who provided a prize despite not even living in Durban!
There was lots of sharing on social media too, using the hash tag #craftparty and Etsy sure noticed all our snaps!
I want to say the hugest, BIGGEST thank you to everyone who helped me to make this event such a success and of course thank you to everyone who came and joined in the fun!