Craft Safety 101

Crafting is a big deal in the sorority world. It's right up there with taking pictures and ordering shirts for all major events.

One of the most crucial events for your crafting skills is the Big/Little reveal. Your gifts are a reflection of how much you love your little.

Ritual calls for the setting up of the little's gifts and then parading around sizing everyone up. Of course we disguise it as complimenting your fellow sisters on their effort and end products. Every time you hear an exclamation of, "Oooohhh that's so nice!” It is almost 75% guaranteed there is a thought running through their mind as catty and jealous as they come.

While we all respect each other, it's hard not to feel envy in someone else's work. Each of us feels like we slaved over our gifts for hours with as much love and endearment as the next. It just so happens that crafting is like all things in life, unfair and unbalanced in the talent department across the board. It's not the sister's fault... It's more that they weren't blessed with the ability to create pieces of art.

Either way, if you are the Crafty Casey and the Uncreative Ursula, you have to produce gifts for your little. If you aren't confident in your ability to craft, think smarter not harder! There is a neat little shop in town who supplies not only the blank canvases to create little gifts, but there are also completed, generalized crafts! Pick them up and don't worry because:

They are cheaper than the labor, time, supplies, and headache that come with a personalized gift.
Your little will know nothing different. She is so happy to see you at the end of the scavenger hunt, the presents are only icing on the cake.
Think about it. In 3 years... What are they REALLY going to do with all these crafts? Box em or trash em.

It is my belief that when it comes down to it, the craft ability is what you make it. If you think, "Ah man, I can't do this!" you'll only produce crap. If you go in thinking, "I can get this looking half-way decent!" I'm confident that your project will turn out better than you expected!

This all leads me to the title of the blog.

Now in the sorority house, you’d think crafting would be an acceptable practice. I mean it is in the Top 3! On the contrary, our house has rules and regulations on it. There are restricted areas, and the craft closet is locked close to 24/7. Because of the restrictions, it sometimes leaves us girls up to our own devices.

My sophomore year, my Soul Twin got a wild hair and felt the need to do last minute crafts for her little. Soul Twin had a thing for mosaics that year. She wanted to make her little something in that medium. I was excited to break glass, and she obliged because she wasn’t really into breaking the glass.

Now the thought of being destructive didn’t leave much time to think ahead of how to be safe. There were no safety glasses, gloves or bags to contain the glass mess.

I grabbed the pink hammer my cousin got me and left the pane of glass wrapped in the moving paper Hobby Lobby had put it in. Soul Twin wasn’t convinced this was the best idea, but it was too late. I began to break the glass. It was kind of chaotic. There were big pieces and shards and it couldn’t be contained after I opened up the small package.

Later on, my big came home. We shared a 2-girl room and lets just say I hadn’t really cleaned up after the mosaic deal. I mean I had put things up and Soul Twin took her things back to her room, but that is about it. My big was walking around and had taken off her shoes. I was sitting on my bed with Soul Twin doing something or another...

“Ahhhrgghhhhhh!!!!” My big was hopping on one foot and stumbling to her bed. “Why is there GLASS ON THE FLOOR?!?” She was a little upset... My eyes darted to Soul Twin and we made eye contact... Uh oh. We. Are. In. Trouble.

I tried to explain what had happened earlier in a nonchalant manner. She was not impressed and was still in much pain with tons of irritation boiling inside.

“You didn’t VACUUM?” .... Um, no. Didn’t cross my mind.

My big gave me a very stern talking to about the importance of cleaning up crafts. Especially the hazardous kinds. Now looking back, I am sure Big was just having a stressful day and perhaps took it out on me. I mean the piece of glass was a shard and it didn’t lodge itself into her foot. No emergency room visit or even a run over to the urgent care. But this was a great and dramatic lesson to learn about the secret rules of living in house.

Craft Safety 101 is nothing to joke about.