Hopefully Lindsay doesn't read this:)

because it is one of the baby gifts that I will be sending her!  Her and I were txting back and forth the other day about mod podge, and I did not realize that she was going to be using a cowboy/western theme for her new little man they will be welcoming home soon.  After searching for printables online for what felt like forever....I just decided to make my own!

I used one of the blocks of wood that I already had...painted it red, then used sandpaper to rough it up.  The printable was antiqued with a stamp pad then glued on to the block of wood.....the sandpaper was used over the printable lightly.  After everything dried completely, I applied a couple of coats of sealant.  

The cording at the top is Canvas Corp., which was hot glued to stay in place, and attached to it is a tiny clothespin where a picture can be attached. 

So once I got started....I kept going!  The next block of wood was created the exact same way.

At the top of this wood block, I used the cording and attached a Tim Holtz charm that reads "cherish". 

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Because Ali asked me....

I have found you LOTS of St. Patrick's Day activities and projects!  I have yet to decide what I am going to do for the day but when I have it done...you guys will be the first to know:)  


The Toymaker does some awesome stuff with paper!  You can print off the design..preferably in cardstock, cut, score, and get creative.  Check out the rest of her site for more ideas, the paper dolls are very cute.

A Fanciful Twist is another card stock craft that any teacher would love to receive.  You will need some good card stock, glue, and some glitter.  Turns ordinary card stock into a beautiful brooch!


Looking for something to put on your mantle or a shelf, check out Lindseys Craft List...she has created a Lucky sign out of a block of wood and it is CUTE!

and for the scrappers, Miss Crafty Pants offered this digital scrapbooking download last year.  It is a great layout, cute, and the best part...it's FREE!!! After you download the scrapbook page, check out her chunky clovers...paper, wood, and mod podge!  To top it all off, her cupcake wrapper and  topper printables are some of the cutest I have found for St. Patrick's Day, plus she includes the recipe for her Mint Cookie Cupcakes.


Hope this post gives all of you some ideas and thanks for stopping by to take a look!!!!

Blocks of wood

Hi everyone...time seems to be getting away from me these days!  This post has been on my mind for quite some time, first off I started with this printable from the Betty Crocker Wannabe.  Super cute, and so many possibilities!  After a trip to the Home Depot for supplies, and then another to wal-mart for ink....I was ready to get started!

My plain block, measuring 6 x 6(really about 5 1/2) was sanded and primed with spray paint...after another spray of primer, I painted it with red folk art paint.

After letting paint completely dry, I sanded some of the edges off and antiqued with a Tim Holtz tea dyed stamp pad.  I used the printable in its original size, it fit my block of wood perfectly so I decided to keep it original size. Before attaching the printable, I used the stamp pad again around the edges. Then used the canvas corp scrapbooking glue to attach mine but regular glue or even a glue stick would work...just work out the wrinkles. 

With everything attached, again the entire thing was sanded over one time, then spray glitter was applied to the entire front of the block.  I use a box to apply spray glitter, it still goes everywhere but it does help control the process!  The finial at the top came in pieces from Hobby Lobby, after gluing the pieces together I painted, sanded and antiqued.  The block of wood did not come with a hole in the top, so I took out my handy drill and put a small hole in the top for my finial.  I also put a small dab of glue to make sure the finial did not come out!

To finish it up, I found a tiny clotthespin which I hot glued to the finial...I wanted to be able to use a picture  I had cording from canvas corp that I wrapped around several times and attached a tim holtz charm.  See the finished project below!

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!!!

Teacher Cards

If you read my blog....you would think I am crazy about Valentine's Day!  Actually the opposite is true, I have really never been crazy about the holiday but for my kiddos I usually try to go all out:)  Brett who is in 5th grade, is not crazy about giving his teacher a gift this year...I am sure I will be dropping that one off..but Andy is super pumped!  The gift I have not gotten together yet but that is the easy part...we had to get the card together first.  These are very similar to the Christmas cards I made for both teachers. 

I started out by cutting the layers for the cards.  I LOVE this size of card....I have created this card for so many things...birthday cards, invitations, and thank you notes.  It is a fun size, doesn't take much paper, and can be used later as a magnet or placed on a memo board.  The card is cut at 4x4, the second layer is 3x3, the third is 2 1/1x 2 1/2, and the fourth is 1x1. 

 The above picture does not show the first layer of paper...the base layer is pink.  The second layer I have stamped around the edges with pink.  Each piece of paper I sand paper across at least once and distressed the edges with tea stain distress stamp.   Next I used a printed piece of paper and attached with double sided sticky tape.  On the one inch square I used a Creative Memories stamp from my collection.  At the bottom I half-stamped the paper with another stamp from the collection, on the one inch square, I distressed the edge with pink instead.  Spray glitter was used on the entire card after it was taped together.

 I will print out something for the back of the card and of course will use a font from my favorite place Kevin and Amanda.  They have the best fonts on the web, so check them out!!!

Thanks for stopping by:) 

Hearty Crayons

I have to start this post by telling you the story of "the lady in Hobby Lobby"  so that is what we will call it....The Lady in Hobby Lobby!  After an exhausting search for plaster of Paris through every single aisle and back again...I finally asked a sales associate for assistance.  Needless to say, I suppose my age really showed when I asked for this product.  She gave a half-hearted look through a few aisles and said..."guess we don't have that!"  Back to looking again..I was finding this plaster of Paris!!!!  The lady in hobby lobby that was in the same aisle when I asked the sales associated for assistance finally broke down and asked me..."so what are you going to do with this plaster?"  Politely, I replied...."making chalk for my son's Valentine's bags at school." and to this she replied, "wow, you must have A LOT of time on your hands!"  and then proceeded to insist that I could go buy a big bag of chalk for ninety-nine cents on the next aisle over!  If you know me...you realize this did not go over well with me:)......then I found out she was making candles,  she then asked for my assistance in picking out the supplies. How could I be upset with a fellow crafter....I guess:)  This was over a week ago and I am still mentioning it to my husband everyday, this story really doesnt have a point except to tell you that instead of chalk, Andy and I made large heart crayons for his classmates....too much time on my hands, whatever!


This project turned out to be a cheaper solution and was way less painful than looking for plaster of Paris:)  Andy and I took out all of his old crayons, unwrapped them and broke them into pieces.  You would not think this would be lots of work for an eight year old since they are pros at breaking things...but after about six crayons, he was tuckered out and needed to watch t.v. and lay on the couch!  I already had this silicone mold from last year, the hearts are large....but they do sell smaller ones that would work great as well.

I suggest filling each to the top, it does take quite a few crayons for this project.  I had a helper...if it were only me making the crayons...I would have stuck with one color and added in one contrasting color.  We put the silicone mold on a cookie sheet before placing in a 200 degree oven for about fifteen minutes.  

When taking these out of the oven....please be extremely careful, they will be in liquid form and VERY hot!  It will take several hours for them to return to solid form....pop them out and you are done.  Super easy project.......once I get the entire goody bag together I will be posting more pics....

Thanks for stopping by:)

Creative Genius

It turns out I am not the only creative genius in the family!LOL  Andy made Jon and I this bowl for Christmas, he was just now able to bring it home because it had to be fired first.  Well he brought it home yesterday and asked me if I could blog about it...so, I am!!!  If you see him, please let him know how great you think his bowl is:)))

Obsession with the letter "R"

My decoupaging madness is still raging on....another letter R has hit my bookshelves.  My friend Tina over at Oh, the places you'll go needed a few art supplies sent to her in Germany. So, I ran my happy little self straight to the local Hobby Lobby picked her up a few supplies and one letter "R" for myself:)  If you remember I created  letters for gifts a few months ago.  This letter was created in the same way.  My first step is cutting out the paper to fit the letter.  Paint the letter,  I usually use a base coat of white.  Rough up with sand paper afterward.  Attach the paper with mod podge and let dry...with paper attached, air bubbles out of paper,  rough off the edges of the paper in case of any over hang.Use a distressing pad or antiquing gel around the edges of your letter. Brush on another coat of mod podge over the letter.  Let dry and sand paper again to rough out any ridges.  Spray with a clear coat sealant, let dry and attach embellishments!  On this letter I used spray glitter(if using spray glitter, spray on before sealant)...lately I have sprayed it on everything:)

This first picture is before the last coat of mod podge and before, I still had over hang on the letter and used sand paper to take it off. 

 The finished project is below!

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Letter Project

Before Halloween I worked on this little project.  It is very similar to the blocks I made at the beginning of the year.  The letters were crafted the same way, the same materials were also used.  I did use chipboard letters, but I will tell you that I prefer the wood letters. The wood is easier to use, it doesn't fall apart when you paint, decoupage, and sand!  My apologies for the pictures, I was forced to take a few of these on my phone.

The Q looks a little mod podgy still in this picture, it was not quite dry and in a bright light in this shot but has a more antiqued look now.  


Thanks for stopping by to take a look:)

Super exciting world of paperweights:)

Since I have two followers now:)))  I can't let them down by not blogging about something,  so here is a little project I created about a month ago.....I call it a paperweight, mostly because I like paperweights!  I know...weird, but years ago paperweights were collected and widely produced.  Read more about that here @ Wikipedia

I created this by using a lid to the top of a yankee candle(the wooden lids), scrapbooking paper, mod podge, paint, ribbon, initial stamp, ink, sandpaper, matte sealer spray,  and distressing ink.  I painted the lid white, then decoupaged that paper onto the top of the lid, then used my sandpaper to rough up the paper and take off the edges.  Another layer of mod podge was put on, and I let it dry for about 30 minutes. I distressed again with sandpaper, diestressing ink was applied, then I attached the chipboard which I painted and distressed as well to the top of the lid and placed in the middle.  Using another piece of scrapbooking paper I already had a circle cut out of this, used this smaller circle on top of the chipboard and stamped an "R" for my last name, attached with spray adhesive. I sprayed the entire thing with a matte sealant spray, twice.   I tied a matching ribbon around the edges, and used just a very small amount of glue to keep it attached....since little hands are often picking it up!  The above picture of the finished project is while the paperweight was still wet from sealant spray...it appears a little shiny but if you have the matte it does dry to a duller finish. 

ok, so I couldn't take it and took another picture of the dry and finished project. 

Get to Bloggin'!

Ok, time has gotten away from me...hard to believe January is over tomorrow!!! I have been working on quite a few projects, both large and small.  We are a military family with orders to move this summer so the big clean out has begun!!!  Not sure what I am going to do with all the clothes, junk, and collections but we were very close to being overweight(well we were overweight but with the box and paper allowance..everything was good:) the last time and hubby has informed me the military home we will probably move into is much smaller than the current house we live in now!!! but such is the life of a military wife and like always I will find a way to make the furniture and curtains all fit:)

I finished this little project a few weeks ago but just recently uploaded my pixs and getting them on the blog!  I got this idea from www.howdoesshe.com

 

This project was fun, I bought no supplies except for the wooden blocks and since I save every scrap piece of scrapbook paper I have ever bought it was super cheap!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog...make sure you check out www.howdoesshe.com for a complete tutorial on this project!  With their simple instructions you can give it your own flair!

Holiday Craft....Yes, the Holidays are over:)

Forgive my lateness with this craft/post!  This is a craft my daughter and I made over the Holidays...I have quite a few of these lovely acorn sets but she is newly married and wanted her own set for her house!  Funny how they make fun of your stuff till they want their own:)

I cannot take credit for this creation....my mother has made these for years, they are beautiful with greenery underneath a cake platter, or in the middle of a centerpiece for a table.  I also apologize because I still had a few pieces of greenery out that were unable to fit in rubbermaid totes!  The lack of color is because I did not want to pull out Christmas decorations that I had just put up:)

We made these by purchasing plastic acorns at hobby lobby for a dollar, I will admit they were hard to find this year!  Silver spray paint is what was used as the base coat.  After drying we applied craft glue to the top of the acorn and silver glitter.  After drying completely, this set was adorned with mirrored beads....this is where you can get creative and use any type of bead, etc.  Hot glue is what we used to make the beads stick.  After the glue dried we sprayed with a glossy finish sealant, normally I use matte but these are on the sparkly side!  

I also apologize in advance for all my photography!!!! I do not now or will ever claim to be a photographer!!!  Thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog:)