Mummies....wood blocks

Today during Conference I made these pretty things:

 

 The Mummies were taken from (craftaholicsanonymous)

product list:

• 3 pieces of wood....2x4, 2x6...pretty much whatever you have laying around
• white paint (or a can of spray paint)
• paint brush (if you plan on painting
• cheesecloth (each block of wood took 1 pkg of 1.5 sq yard cloth)
• oogly eyes
• brown stamp ink

These bad boys were SOOO fun to make with the kiddos! 

I happened to have an old piece of 2x6 so mine are 6" wide by 13" long.

Sometimes when I'm looking through other blogs I'm thinking...I want to make this but I wish I could visualize how BIG THIS IS!  So hopefully this gives you an idea :)  everyone knows how big a gallon size milk container is right?

To get started, paint your wood white (this makes it so you don't have to use as much cheesecloth).  This is the part my boys loved.  :)  you can also use spray paint but me and spray paint don't do well together, so painting it is!

As the paint is drying this is a great time to cut your cheesecloth into strips.  I folded my piece in half lengthwise and cut the strips the long way.  About 1 1/2 inch to 2 inches wide.  I purchased this stuff at http://www.robertscrafts.com/ back in the space you find the hot glue gun product.  I've also seen it at Smiths in the canning goods area but I was going to a 50% off sale so I just hit up Roberts.  When you go pay attention to the amount in the bag (and the size of the cloth).  It took me 1 bag per 1 mummy block (with a block my size). 

Once the paint is dry start wrapping.  The picture below was taken on a random piece of wood after I had already completed mine...you can see painting them white first makes a HUGE difference.!

 Continuing wrapping until you get to the top.  I forgot to picture it but click on the picture of the completed mummies to see around the eyes.  ALSO at the top, I fold the pieces over and very lightly hot glue it on so you can't see the wood on the top.

I know this is going to look silly, but I didn't have any oogly eyes and to be quite honest I didn't really want to spend any money on them because I knew I could come up with something....SO this is what I came up with.  The glue below is a really cool glitter glue found again at http://www.robertscrafts.com/  .  It's at the front of the store in those standing baskets and they are $1.00 a piece...they have several different fall/halloween colors.

They're not perfect, but I think they're kinda cute.

LAST....I dirtied it up a bit!! First I put gold on then the brown. It gave it a nice two dimensional dirt-esque look.

Finished product: 

Flower Balls | decoration

What we're making today!

What you need:

• foam balls (they come in packs of 1, 3 or 6 depending on the size you choose to get.  I got the 6 pack from Roberts Crafts but I actually think they're cheaper at Hobby Lobby)
• dowels, for the stem (also purchased from Roberts Crafts, I got a couple skinny ones back by the custom framing department for like .79cents a pop)
• scrapbook paper (for these little 3" balls it takes about 2 squares of scrapbook paper per ball-I actually use two different shades, so it uses about half of each)
• pins (white ball kind, also purchasable from Hobby lobby for pretty cheap)
• 1 flower punch found at Michaels (the flowers I have are more like daisies and I like the hydrangea...so had I to do it over again I'd do that for two reasons.  One, I like the look of it better, two, it's a larger punch and you have to punch fewer flowers!)

To begin:
1.  For the flowers.  Punch out your flowers.  If you're going to do two different shades of flowers you only need about 3/4 of both squares.  So punch out your flowers and put them in piles.  On my flower balls I have two different shades of scrapbook paper.  This was an accident because I ran out of flowers on the first one so for the second flower I decided to do the bottom petals a darker shade than the top petals.  I like it because it adds a little dimension to it.

 2.  Now what I do, is start in the middle and make a ring around the ball.

3.  Then I go up.  I've found it's easiet, or less time consuming after I get my first round done, to stash the bottom ones underneath the other layers....see picture.

4.  Just keep doing this all around the flower and you're done!

5.  Sometimes, I put a dark on in the very top because it gets hard to stuff them in when it gets tight...

 I put mine in a vase with some rafia grass from easter, but you can just leave them as balls and put them in a bowl or do whatever.
Good luck crafting...and comment if you need help!

Teacher Appreciation | gift

I stole this idea from here.  I cannot express how AMAZING this woman is.  I love almost ALL posts and I want to do all of them.

What you need:

4x4 post cut into a square.

fabric scraps (or scrapbook paper) I did fabric mainly for the texture difference)

a 2x2"of scrapbook paper

mod podge

drill

To do this I first got a square piece of wood.  I got mine from the photo cube I did previously.  I painted it.

Then I cut 4 squares of fabric and mod podged it on.

For the front I then rounded a little square piece of scrapbook paper and added my own little touch.  I heart Miss Becky.

Wrap some ribbon around it.

Drill some holes and voila!

Spring Wreath | decoration

Today's little creation.

Happy Spring to me!

I've been wanting to do a spring wreath for a while now.  I finally broke down an bought a foam wreath at Roberts Crafts because with 3 little boys I just don't make it out that often.  I've looked at the dollar store a few times and have failed to find a good wreath so I paid a little more than I wanted to for this one.

This one I believe is 10" in diameter and it took 24 feet of ribbon to cover.  

The flowers are actually flowers with a clip on them because I use them in my hair!  haha, but I didn't want to go buy more so I just clipped them onto the ribbon.

Photo Cubes-mothers day gift idea

This is what we're making today:

you will need:

• 1 square post
• mod podge (or wood glue)
• 1 sponge brush
• black paint or lacquer or spray paint
• sand paper
• pictures
• scrapbook paper

*note:  for my photos, I made them black and white and cropped them at a 4x4 image.  This was to insure they were the size I wanted.  I took them to Costco and talked to a rep in the photo lab and they told me to upload the pictures to 8x8 size and let them know when I got that far.  They just resized them to be a 4x4.5 size.  I had to trim them a little bit but as you can see, they're perfect :)

1.  Go to Home Depot (or another lumber supply store) and purchase a square post.  This one is 4x4 and about 12' long.  I bought the cheapest wood and it was about 3.99.  Because of trimming and sanding, the wood actually ends up about 3 3/4 instead of exactly 4".  Measure the width and cut however many lengths you need.  I only did 3.  If you don't have a way of cutting this at home, just have them do it in the store for you.

2.  Now spray paint your wood (or just paint it) I've just really found if I'm using a generic color I'd much rather spray paint.  It's so much easier, cheaper and faster.  If you spray paint, do about 2 coats.
After it's dry, rough up the edges a little bit with your sandpaper.

3.  Cut your scrapbook paper just a little bit smaller than your wood (you will only be putting scrapbook paper on the top, unless you would like to put a message on the wood like, love at home, or family is forever or something like that)
I snip the corners of my scrapbook paper just a little bit because it makes it easier to do a rounded corner with the sandpaper.

4.  Use your mod podge and brush a light layer where you will be putting your scrapbook paper.

place your scrapbook paper on the mod podge and just stack a block on top to seal it down. 

It just needs to be there for a couple of minutes.

5.  Rough up the edges of the scrapbook paper and get it all vintage looking.

6.  Continue the process around the sides to apply your pictures.

I almost always apply a coat of mod podge or sealer on any wood project I've done, however these are pictures.  I've heard you can put a texture cream on them, but honestly, i'd rather not mess with ruining a picture and it won't hurt it to not have a sealant on it.

Finished product:

Send me your projects!
candice.mcwhorter@gmail.com

Better Instructions

I've realized I'm really bad about making instructions for you.  Because of this it's going to take me a little bit longer to get some more posts up as I will be going back through my old stuff (and new) and taking photo step by step instructions.

Stay TUNED!!!

Accessorize

So easy to make and SO beautiful!  Dontcha think?!