Craft Time

 

Time sure flies by lately. I have missed a few weeks but in general I feel like I have missed a few weeks of life as work has been so busy. I miss crafting and sleeping and baking. It all feels like one big haze since mid August.

I did do a little craft. I made a painted letter. Way back when, we painted letters like this at a Birthday party that I had. Everyone came up with their own designs and used the colours of their choice. I quite liked the one I made. I still have it. It would look perfect on the door of a nursery or little kid’s room and I have a perfect little sweetie to make one for so take a look at the creation that I made.

First of all you will need a wooden letter. I picked an S which I got from the craft store. The one I got was painted white.

Next choose your colours and design. I went with a soft bright purple and I decided on a lady bug crawling design so I also needed red and black paint. I based this off a another S I painted at my Birthday party. I basically used a lady bug stencil and I traced out a path for my lady bug to follow.

You want to completely paint your letter with a few base coats and allow to dry before you start marking out your design.

                                   

Once it’s all dry then you can trace out what you want to paint or you can free hand it. I plotted out where I wanted my lady bug to go (three points) and then with a pencil I made a little dotted line path for it to follow.

I painted the lady bug in red with a thick coat which I let dry overnight and used black for the antennae.

Next I painted over my sketched dotted line with black ink.

Lastly after everything was dry, I sprayed it with a sealer so that it would last longer.

Now all I have to do is wrap it up and give it away!

DIY Key Chains for Dad

It’s the end of May already! Thinking ahead to Father’s Day, we are going to do a couple of posts all for dad, and this week we are going to show you how to make some key chains. We made these with dad in mind but you can make them for anyone at any time!

The first type was painted. We found some wooden cubes.  The ones we chose had holes already in them which was perfect for the last step of our project. You can pick other shapes as well and then drill holes in them before you paint them.

We painted the cubes. Now we decided to do three for each chain but you can do more. The more you do, the bigger the chain so I’d probably stick to 3-5. We chose some nice colour combos for the three chains that we made. Then we painted.

You probably want to do a couple of coats and then let them completely dry overnight.

Next we wrote on the cubes. I always like to lightly sketch the letter/design with a pencil first before I commit to a final design.

We used a Sharpie, but you can use paint with a really fine tip paint brush, and we traced over our pencil.

Write on all the sides or on just one, two, or three. Do whatever you like. We did a mix.

Since it’s for Father’s Day, we did a couple that say dad and one that says “I ♥ U”.

Lastly we attached some twine to the actual key ring, then the cubes together with the twine.

We connected a couple by knotting the twine between the cubes and then the other one we just put them all on a strand and knotted the ends so they didn’t fall off.

For the second key ring that we did we used hot glue!

First of all you’ll need to pick the paper that you want for the two sides. We decided on a pattern piece along with a solid piece that matched the pattern. Pick whatever you like. You’ll also want to decide on a shape and cut that out with scissors, a punch, or a cutting machine. Make sure the shape is slightly larger than the key ring you are going to use. You’ll need two no matter what size and what type of paper you use.

Lay out some parchment paper to glue on so that the glued piece is easy to remove.

Hot glue over the entire shape being careful not to go off the edges, and do that for both of the matching shapes.

Let it dry completely. Ours warped a bit so we flattened them under heavy books.

We then took some floral wire that we had left over from another project and twisted it into a loop with a “tail.” You can use a different easily bendable wire that you have or you can buy pre-made eye hooks.

Once the two sides are flat and you have your wire/hook ready, then put hot glue on the straight part of the wire/”tail” and stick it down on the inside of one of the sides.

Take the second side and put a thin layer of hot glue and stick them together.

Attach the key ring to the hook.

The finished products...

Painted Wooden Spoons

Only a few more days until Mother’s Day and this week we’re showing you how to make a simple and easy gift...painted wooden spoons.

You can make this for any occasion; a house warming would be a great idea too.

You will need some wooden spoons. You can go to a dollar store to pick up some inexpensive ones or you can go to a kitchen store and buy good quality spoons; you can even make your own wooden spoons if you have the time and skills. If you get the shiny type spoons, you may have to sand them down a bit before painting.

Before we get started we should mention that you would probably want some sort of protectant or curing done if you want to actually use the spoons and not just have them as a decorative item in your kitchen - or else be really careful not to let the painted part touch the food. You can use a food safe protectant or you can cure the spoons (like in this blog here).

We’re going to paint the spoons in an ombre sort of way and we’ve chosen to do them in shades of blue. You can certainly do them this way or you can make the handles a solid colour or a variety of colours. They don’t all have to match and they can be in whatever colours you choose.

We just kind of went for it. We used sponge brushes to apply our paint and we just eyeballed the stripes. You can use painter’s tape if you want it to be more exact and straight.

We put the painted spoons in a mug to dry so that they weren't laying flat on the newspaper getting stuck to things. 

After doing one coat of each colour, we let the spoons dry or a few hours and then applied another coat.

We let them completely dry for a few days.

Since we are just using the spoons as decorations, we’re going to leave them as is (that is without a protectant or cure).

To finish off your spoon decoration gift, you can tie them all up with a thick ribbon and give them to mom on Mother’s Day.

Popsicle Stick Crafts

It’s almost Oscar Dress card time. We have one more week left to go. This week we thought we’d find use for some of those popsicle sticks that we had left over from other crafts that we had made.

Nicole found some pretty neat crafts that we can make and they are super easy and don’t use that many supplies.

The first craft that we’re making is a shelf from popsicle sticks. We’re using slightly bigger ones and we’re leaving them unstained and unpainted but you can paint them if you like.

Basically you pick a shape, we’ve chosen a hexagon and then you build up from there. Lay out your shape first so you get all the right angles. If you choose a more complex shape then you might want to print out a template and then lay it all out.

You can make it as big as you want, it just depends on how many popsicle sticks that you have. It would probably work best with an even amount of sides though.

Make sure all your gluing is even so that you have a consistent gap between all layers.

You can hang it for decoration or as a shelf. Make it whatever you want!

The second craft that we’re making are coasters made from popsicle sticks.

For each coaster you’ll want to cut off the rounded tips of the sticks, 15 per coaster.

Then sand the ends so they aren’t jagged.

Now time to paint/stain them. You can pre-paint each stick or you can paint the entire thing after it’s put together. Up to you. For the painted one, we opted to paint the sticks first and then assemble the pieces together. You can really paint them whatever colour you want, we’re going for more of a rustic look so we are trying out brown paint on one and then a coffee stain on the other.

If you’re going to try and stain the sticks, make some stronger coffee. Set aside to cool and then soak the pre-glued coaster in the coffee stain for as long as you want. Check periodically to see if it’s the colour you’re wanting. We left ours in a lidded plastic container with a rock on top to hold it down otherwise it would float and you’d have to keep on flipping it. Ok...so we tried the gluing first and then soaking. FYI it melts the glue and it falls apart. If you are going to go with a stain, then stain all the sticks beforehand and allow them to dry and then glue your coaster together. 

Your coaster is going to be a bunch of evenly spaced horizontal slats connected by three support sticks if that makes sense. To assemble the coaster...lay out the top and bottom slat and then glue the vertical end supports on first. We found it better to put the glue on the ends of the slats. Then glue the center support on.

Once you have your frame/box glued, then start gluing on the slats. Flip over and repeat.

Now you have a palate looking coaster.

Lastly, you can stencil on sayings or words to the coasters if you want to. This might be easier if you glue the sticks closer together. You can also use a black Sharpie if you want to make it look like there are little nail holes or you can use a felt pen to write words on it. If you want to ensure that your coaster stays in good shape and is durable, you can spray it with a water protectant spray.