Glass Craft Block

I don't know about everyone else, but sometimes I have ideas in my head that seem so perfect and don't turn out that way.  Well, this glass block was one of those ideas.

I love glass blocks!!  I love putting things in them and combining stuff.  So, I saw the starfish and the big seashell and thought they would look great in a glass block.  I thought I would put them behind the anchor and it would just turn out fantastic.  Well all my craft items had ideas of their own :(

The first problem I encountered was that the sticker on the glass block was stuck on there really, really well.  I bought this block from Walmart and the ones I've bought from Hobby Lobby never had this problem.  Needless to say, I will not buy it from Walmart again! I had to use a razor blade to get it off.  I honestly thought this project would take like 15 minutes, but because of all the issues it took way longer! Anyway, the sticky residue was leftover so I had to use the Goof Off to make it all clean!  Yea, for these kinds of products!!!!

 As you can see from the picture, I started by putting the sand in the bottom of the block with the seashells on top of it. Then I went to put the big seashell and the starfish in and of course they wouldn't fit through the hole. So that was problem #2!  I was super bummed, but moved on after about 10 minutes of trying to push the starfish in.  Then problem #3 occurred! I decided I would be smart and use a spray tacky glue to glue the glitter on my anchor and it would be faster.  Well, I put the anchor on a paper plate and thought if I sprayed close enough it wouldn't get on my table. WRONG!!  It definitely got on the table! Thank goodness for Goof Off!!

After all of the problems and mishaps I got it all in the block and put my ribbon on the outside.

The final product isn't what I had in my head when I started, but it still turned out really cute!  I at least learned a few things from this project for the next time I do a glass block. 1- Buy my block from Hobby Lobby. 2- Make sure to measure the things I want to put in the block to make sure they fit through the hole. 3- Don't use spray tacky glue in the house or to put glitter on something. Always use mod podge or glue!!! 4- Crafting is about rolling with the punches. And 5- Crafting doesn't always have to be perfect! #5 has taken me years to learn!!  I am a perfectionist and I have really had to work on letting that go when I craft, because sometimes it looks way better when it isn't perfect!

Teacher Appreciation Door Decoration!!

Next week is teacher appreciation week, and because I'm the head room parent for my daughters 4th grade class I was asked to decorate her teachers door. In my usual style I procrastinated until the day it was suppose to happen. I've know about it for awhile and have had an idea in my head, but it didn't come together until today. My daughter's teacher loves "Hot Tamales" so I wanted to incorporate that somehow.  My first saying I had in my head was "thank you for being one hot tamale of a teacher," but I wasn't crazy about that. Then I saw the saying I ended up with here, and thought it sounded way better. The link is to the picture I found on Pinterest, I couldn't find the actual sight it came from, so if anyone knows I'd love to give them credit. You can't see it very well on the poster but the little spots are hot tamales and below are bigger hot tamales with the kids' pictures and names on them. I did the hot tamales free hand in Silhouette Studio. They kind of look like red pickles, but it turned out well. I was originally told only to do a poster size, but when I got to the school everyone else was using butcher paper. It probably would have looked better with the butcher paper, but I think it turned out pretty well. 

Double Sided Boards!

                                    

                                     

So back in November or so we decided we wanted to make the scarecrow/snowman double sided board.  We had seen them around and thought they were super cute!  I really want less things to have to store.  My house is smaller and I have very limited storage space, but I love to decorate for every season and I thought that these double sided boards would solve my storage problem and still let me decorate for the seasons. This month I made the decision to do the spring/summer boards.  So here is how we made them.

For the scarecrow/snowman boards we used 4x1 boards. I cut 4 boards 24 inches long, then 2 boards 18 inches for the brim of the hats.

                                 

To put the four 24" boards together I used liquid nails in between each board, the I used clamps to make it tight and have them stay put.  I let them dry overnight.  This picture is of the spring/summer board, but the same principle applied for the scarecrow/snowman board. Once the boards were dry I then place my 18" board where I wanted it and drew a line underneath so I could have the right placement. Then I painted the top and the bottom of the boards. For the snowman I used white on the bottom and black on the top. That probably is what most people would use for a snowman, but the hat could be a different color. While it was drying I also painted the 18" board for the hat brim black. Once everything was dry I used liquid nails on the back of the 18" board and put it in place, then I used a 1 1/2" screw to secure it tight. We are not great at free hand drawing, but we really tried.  For the mouth we just drew a squiggly mouth, and free hand a carrot nose. For the eyes we did trace the bottom of a large acrylic paint bottle. It seemed to work perfect. Once we had all the facial features on in pencil we used a black paint marker to outline it all. We then painted the eyes black and the nose orange. You could a put whatever kind of detail you want, but we are simple, so our detail was simple.

For the scarecrow side we simply stained the bottom section and and painted the top and hat brim board brown, then put the brim on the same as before. For the facial details you could make the nose a candy corn, but we wanted it for the whole fall season and thought orange would work for that. But basically we just did the same details as the snowman side except the nose.

For the spring/summer board we also used 4x1 boards but the main boards were 48" long, and the smaller boards were 12" long. All the put together is the same with the liquid nails and the clamps. This time we screwed the small boards on before we painted because we weren't using multiple colors. We also spray painted instead of hand painting just because the boards were so long.  The easiest part was putting the vinyl on. Each letter I made 5" tall. I thought it would be cute to have the "i" in spring be a flower and the "u" in summer be a watermelon. Really you could do whatever you wanted and make it your own.  The watermelon and the flower I bought in the Silhouette design store. After we got the vinyl on we did spray lacquer on it to make it durable for outside.  We also sprayed lacquer on the scarecrow/snowman.

This were probably the cutest crafts we did and they were quite inexpensive.  They were probably each around $10 with all the materials. Honestly, I don't know if anyone even looks at this blog, but if anyone does I hope you are noticing a theme. INEXPENSIVE! We try to keep things low cost. By doing that we are able to craft each month. When we first started our craft nights we kind of tried to go big and expensive. What we found is that it made it hard to do every month if it was pricey, and if they were too hard we never finished them. Over the years we have learned the more simple and inexpensive the better! So happy crafting!

Monogram Suitcases

My husband and I recently returned from a Southern Caribbean cruise.  It was so much fun!!!  My husband's company he works for does a contest to earn a cruise and for the past few years my husband has earned it!  Last year when we went we did the leisure debarkation.  For those who haven't been on a cruise that is when you put your bags outside your door on the last night and you can just get off the ship in the morning and find your bags.  Unfortunately, when we got off last year we couldn't find one of our bags.  It was a horrible feeling.  We searched all over and had the cruise people searching as well.  Finally we just decided to file a report with the cruise line and hope that it would be found.  Luckily, it only had some shoes in it and nothing too important.  In the end the cruise line found it and shipped it to us!!! YEA!!
Long story short, when my husband qualified for the cruise this year I did not want to risk loosing our bags again, so I decided to monogram our suitcases to distinguish them from other similar ones.  I bought some iron on heat transfer vinyl and used this tutorial, because honestly I had no idea how to do a couples monogram.  Make sure you use the mirror image on your silhouette for the heat transfer vinyl.  Once it was all cut out I ironed it on the suitcases.  I put the couples initials on my suitcases because I made them more girly.  Then I decided to do a more manly monogram on my husband's suitcases.  I especially wanted his initials on the one he uses all the time for his work travels.
We kind of got made fun of by some of my husbands co-workers, but we never lost a bag and when we were at the airport they were so easy to distinguish.  I love how they turned out and was so happy I did them!
My children have suitcases that are not made of material, they are hard covered, so I did their monogram with just regular vinyl and they look fantastic as well!
I'm not saying I'm a genius, but I feel like one because this was one of the best ideas I've ever had!!  I can't wait for our next trip so I can use our awesome suitcases!!!

Aggies Wreath!

We are big Utah State University Aggie fans!  Go Aggies!!  So we wanted to make a wreath to support our team.  We bought navy blue burlap on Amazon and made the wreath using this tutorial. I bought the white ribbon at Hobby Lobby and the "A" we bought at The Wood Connection in Layton, Utah.  I spray painted the "A" white then cut out "Aggies" in vinyl. It turned out super cute!  On a side note, the post that it is hanging on was made by Stephanie's husband!  It is probably the most awesome thing that we have ever done!!  I love the wreath!!!

Super Saturday!

So I was asked to come up with some crafts for our wards Super Saturday. I had a hard time coming up with something that was cute and not too expensive. So here are the three crafts I came up with.

The first one is a temple name bracelet.  A few weeks ago I had gone to the Logan temple to do a session and I saw a bunch of ladies wearing these to hold their temple names.  They are super handy and cute. It took buying quite a few different things before I could find the perfect material for the plastic holder. I found some name badges on Amazon that were perfect. Then I cut it down to 2 inches.  I used my circle punch to punch a half circle on the top for easier access to the paper. The used my small hole punch to punch holes on each side.

The bracelet is a little wide on my wrist, but it isn't too bulky as to not to work with your temple dress.

The Christmas countdown board was pretty simple to make as well. I saw this here.  It looks like the snowflakes are vinyl, which I changed to a stencil. The wood is 12" x 14".  I painted mine red and green, but you really could do any color combination that you wanted. Then I cut out the chalkboard vinyl on my silhouette and also the lettering.

The Christmas charger plates were the easiest things that I did.  I bought the charger plates at Michael's for $2.  The I bought the Silhouette designs in the Silhouette store and cut them out.  Overall I chose really easy crafts that didn't cost a lot.  The cost for the the bracelet is about $3, for the countdown $7, and for the charger plates $5 each. 

Baptism Gifts

I know it's a little late in the year to be posting about baptism gifts, but I wanted to get it on here.  We as a presidency have decided that we wanted to give each child that gets baptized a gift the next day in primary.  We used to do a spotlight when our stake did all of the baptisms together.  Now that we do our baptisms on a ward level we no longer do a spotlight that the children will receive.  So we wanted them to receive something after their baptism.  This is the list of things we give them in their gift bag.  We give them a Faith in God book, a journal, article of faith cards, a book with notes from everyone at their baptism, and a framed pictured of them with the man that baptized them.  We tried to keep it inexpensive so the journal came from the dollar store.  For the boys it was just a smaller notebook and for the girls a cuter type notebook.  We also bought the picture frame for the picture at the dollar store.  The article of faith cards we used we found here, but there are tons of printable ones out there. Just look on pinterest. ;)
Now we come to the book with the notes.  I've been to lots of baptisms where they have the people there supporting the child write a little something to them and their testimony.  I really liked the idea and wished I would have done it with my two oldest kids. So I made a half sheet of paper with a tie border on each half for the boys and a flower border for the girls. We hand those out while the kids are changing and then gather them up at the end.  After the baptism I take them home and put them together.  I use the program from the baptism for the front of the book and at the end we used this letter.  Sugardoodle is actually where we got the idea for the book. I also laminate all of the pages.  I got a laminator from my husband for an anniversary gift a while back and it has been the best gift ever. I laminate everything!!!!  Then I bind the whole book together.  I go do this at Honor Copy in our town because it is open 24 hours and it only costs $0.75 to bind it.  There are other places you could take it to or you could use a hole punch and some brass rings.
I also take the picture and get it printed that day too.  It's kind of a lot to do after the baptism is over so that we can have it to give to them in primary the next day, but it is well worth it and is something special for them.