Wooden Letter Blocks

 Hello, crafters.

This one is a fun craft.  The inspiration for this one came from one of the girls that I work with.  Around March she was telling me that she had made some wooden blocks for St Patty's Day, and I invisioned cubes....I was wrong, but the idea still stuck in my head and I just had to try it out, so, three months later and a ton of crafts later, here's what I came up with:

I had to clear an area on my bookshelf to display this...it was really crowded.

I can just hear the enthusiasm screaming from all y'all and just begging me about how I made those.  Well here ya go:  (I actually have pictures this time *smile*)

The materials you'll need:

• 2x2 piece of wood (I got mine at Home Depot...and I still have a ton of it leftover)
• A saw of some sort (hopefully powered...yay power tools!)
• Sandpaper (I used 150 grit and 220)
• Wood Stain (I used Minwax brand, Mission Oak color.  I also got one that has polyurethane in it too just to add protection to the wood)
• Two sponge paintbrushs (how else are you going to get the stain onto the wood...and they're like 10 cents at Home Depot)
• Wood letter (I got mine at Wal-Mart on the wood craft aisle)
•  White Acrylic paint
• Craft Welding Materials (...most people call it hot glue)

Okay once you get all your supplies, then you can start construction...I mean crafting.

1. Mark your wood every two inches—so it makes a cube when you cut it—and make sure that your lines are straight.

2. Cut your wood on the lines (and if you're anything like my mother, this will be very hard.  Love ya mom!)
When they're all cut they should look a little like this --->

3. Sand the blocks down to get rid of the cut-marks.  Start with the 150 (you can even go lower to 100 or 80 if they're really bad) and work your way to the 220.  It is very important that you always sand with the grain.

This is me sanding the blocks!

4. After you finish sanding, take a barely wet paper towel (I know, I didn't list the paper towels in the supplies area) and wipe down each block.

5. When they are wiped down, take one of your sponge brushes and apply the stain, again with the grain.

I should be a hand model, shouldn't I?

By the way, please don't answer my question

 6. When they are all covered in the stain and happily marinading, you can do one of two things: do another fun craft, or you can paint the letters (or I guess you can do some responsibility of life...but where's the fun in that?)

7. I would apply a second coat to the blocks before attaching the letters, but whatever floats your boat.  When all your blocks are dry and not tacky (they weren't tacky to begin with—hahaha, I'm so punny) then you can hot glue the letters to the middle of one of the sides of the blocks.

This is right after I glued the letters on.  The top part has two coats of stain while the bottom part has only one, so pick your poison :)

8. Find some happy place in your house to arrange your blocks (hopefully spelling something out).


Again, if you're not feeling rather adventurous and don't want to make these yourself, you can find them at my etsy store here.  Happy Crafting!

Flower Hair-Clips

So, my sister was over last week with her three little kids which all of them are super, super cute (her oldest is three, almost four). And she has tons of those enormous flower clips that are like bigger than her little baby's head (which are just adorable). So, last week, I was examining her collection while I was getting ready in the bathroom, and decided to try my hand at them. (Disasterous? Maybe.)

 After going to Wal-Mart and finding almost everything on clearance (...and spending a ton of money on craft supplies) I started experimenting.



Here's what I came up with.

Yeah, I figured out that they are actually quite easy to make, you just need a little bit of ingenuity, a little creative license, and hot glue.

(I would have pictures with the instructions, but I forgot to take them as I went along.)

So, here are the things that you'll need:

• Alligator clips (they are in the jewelry section for all those who have wandered up and down the craft aisles at Wal-Mart)
• Ribbon
• Silk flowers
• Something for the middle of the flowers (I used cute buttons I found on sale, I've seen them with those plastic blingy things, this is where the creative license comes into play)
• Craft welding setup (most people call this a hot-glue gun and some hot-glue, but it sounds better as craft welding supplies)

Here are all the instructions, and before you know it, you'll have a complete stockpile of these pretty accessories:

1. Pull the silk flowers off of their stems (try to be careful, but you might have to do some yanking, the very worst that could happen is that you'd rip a pedal off).
2. Once the flower if off the stem, pull the pedals gently off (this should separate into three or so different sections, the flower pedals themselves, the middle of the flower and then there's a green piece on the bottom).
3. Hot glue a piece of ribbon onto the alligator clip.  (This looks a lot trickier than it actually is.  I usually start at the end where you push down to open the clip and put a dab of glue there to hold the ribbon in place, then slowly work your way gluing down the clip.)
4. Once the ribbon is in place, layer the flower pedals in the order you'd like them, hot gluing the layers together.
5. Glue the layered flower onto the top of the ribbon covered alligator clip.
6. To finish it off, glue a button or a blingy thing or whatever you chose for the center of the flower to the center of your new flower hair-clip.

If you don't have time to make a few, or just want one, you can always visit my Etsy Store for this item.  Happy Crafting!