Wood Blocks Tutorial- Easter Edition

Due to the popularity of my wood blocks for Valentine's and St. Patty's Day, I decided to make a step by step tutorial, with pictures, for how I make my wood block letters. If you have a cricut this project will be easier, but since I don't have one, I have come up with another way to make them.

In order to make this, you will need:
-1: 2x4 piece of wood
-scrapbook paper
-mod podge
-scissors
-spray paint
-printer
-ribbon
-hot glue

1. Cutting: The first step is to cut your 2x4 into 6 pieces. I like mine to have varying heights, so I cut 3-6inch pieces, 2-7inch pieces, and an 8 inch piece.

2. Painting: The next step is to spray paint the wood to give it a cleaner look. If you like the look of the wood, you could skip this part, or choose to use a light coat of paint.

3. Choosing your Letters: While the paint is drying, you may begin finding a font for your letters. Once you have selected a font and sized it to your blocks appropriately, you may print them off and begin cutting them out.

4. Tracing your Letters: When all of your letters are cut out, begin tracing them onto a piece of white cardstock. I chose to trace my letters backwards so there are no lines on the front of them when they are on the wood blocks. Once they are traced, cut them out.

5. Sizing your Paper: When the paint has dried, trace out each block onto a different paper design and cut them out, You may decide you want them to be a little small than the block, so just trim each side a little bit until you have your desired sizes.

6. Decisions: Decide on the placing of each paper pattern and letter before you start using the mod podge.

7. Mod Podge: Now the fun begins. Apply a small amount of mod podge onto a piece of wood, then place the proper paper pattern on top. If you use too much mod podge, you will get bubbles in your paper, so be careful. 

8. Continue with the Mod Podge: Next, put a layer of mod podge on top of the paper pattern, lay down the letter, and mod podge again. Let dry.

9. Add Ribbon: Cut two pieces of ribbon for each block. I measure the height of the block and add another foot to tie the bow. Hot glue a ribbon to each side of the wood block. Then, add a little glue to the top of the block and adhere both sides. Tie in a bow.

10. Display your letters in your home.

Happy Crafting!
Love, Melanie

Make Your Own Chalkboard

I found this chalkboard tutorial on Little Baby Garvin's blog months ago, and fell in love with the idea of doing a weekly picture while pregnant to show the growth of the baby bump. I am not planning on using it for pregnancy pictures anytime soon, but I thought it would be cute for writing other messages. I began searching every thrift shop I came across to find a large frame I liked, but never had luck. Finally, I found one I loved. It is a little smaller than I would have liked, but for $2.95 you really can't go wrong.


Here is a before picture of the frame:

The process for making my chalkboard was a little more complicated than I had anticipated. When I took the picture apart, the wood backing was cracked around the edges. So off to Home Depot I went. I bought the thinnest piece of wood they had, and had them cut it for me. Finally, I was ready to make my chalkboard.

I spray-painted the frame white. Then I used chalkboard paint to paint the piece of wood. I did about 4 coats just to make sure it would look nice. I used paint and a roller, because I heard the chalkboard spray paint didn't work as well. Once the paint was dry, I put the board into the frame, and hammered the nails down.

Then came my first chalkboard creation. Although I need a little practice with the spacing, and some prettier handwriting, I am excited to finally have a chalkboard to doodle on.

Happy Crafting!
Love, Melanie

Decorative Fabric Balls (Saint Patrick's Day Edition)

I had some fabric leftover from my wreath, so I decided to make some decorative balls for my glass vase. It was the perfect addition to my St. Patty's Day decor.

In order to make this, you will need:

-fabric

-pins

-styrofoam balls

-scissors

First, I cut the fabric into strips. The size of each strip will depend on the size of your balls, mine were 3 inch balls. My strips ended up being somewhere between 0.5 inch-1inch wide, and about 9.5 inches long. I eyeballed these measurements so they were not exact each time. Each ball required 8 strips of fabric, but that will depend on how thin you make them.

Once your strips are cut, you are ready to begin. I began wrapping the fabric strips around the styrofoam ball and using one pin to join the ends. Continue this process until the entire ball is covered.

When your entire ball is covered and you can no longer see styrofoam, you have finished your first fabric ball. Repeat these steps to fill an entire vase, bowl, etc.

Happy Crafting!
Love, Melanie

St. Patty's Day Wreath

This is a project I have been so excited to do! Finally, Joann's holiday fabrics went on sale last weekend, and I was able to begin this fun project. I originally saw a picture of this wreath at The Magic of Ordinary Things blog and it looked like something that could be easily recreated.

In order to make this, you will need:

1 wire hanger

Fabric

Scissors

Ribbon

I used 5 fabric patterns for this wreath, but you could use as many or as few as you'd like. I purchased half a yard of each pattern, and still had plenty of fabric leftover for another project (coming soon).

To start this project I shaped the wire hanger into a circle and cut off the hook at the top. You could leave the hook on if you are planning to hang your wreath from it.

Next, I cut strips of each fabric. My strips were approximately 1 to 1.5 inches wide and 8-9 inches long. I say approximately because I did not measure as I cut, i figured it wouldn't matter for the final product. You may cut your strips any width you desire. If you have more fabrics, you may want them thinner so each one takes up less space. 

Once all the work is done, the fun begins! I began tying each strip to the wire hanger, until the hanger was full and my wreath was complete! The amount of fabric strips you need will depend on how thin you cut your strips. I also added a ribbon for hanging.

Happy Crafting!

Love, Melanie

Heart Wreath

Once again, thank you to the Oopsey Daisy Blog for having such great ideas for Valentine's Day. I followed this tutorial pretty closely when doing this project. Let's get started:

In order to make this you will need:

A wreath form

Ribbon

Wood hearts of all sizes

Scrapbook Paper

Wooden circle beads (2 sizes)

Red paint

Mod Podge

Gorilla glue

Hot glue gun

I started by wrapping the ribbon around the wreath form. To do this, I place some gorilla glue at the start of the ribbon and used sewing pins for reinforcement. When that was finished, I began tracing the hearts onto the scrapbook pages, mixing up the sizes and shapes for each pattern.

Once all the hearts were traced on paper, I began painting. I used red paint and made sure to cover both sides of the hearts. I didn't want to be able to see any of the wood, especially because I knew I would be hanging it over a mirror.

While I waited for the paint to dry, I cut the hearts out so they were ready to go.

Next, I glued the wooden beads onto the backs of the hearts using the gorilla glue. I wanted to make sure I had some flat hearts(no bead) and then a variety of hearts with both sizes of beads on the back. You don't need to have the same amount of each, I just mixed it up at random.

When the glue was completely dried, I painted all the beads. Once again, I didn't want the wood to show at all.

After the paint dried, I used Mod Podge to adhere the paper hearts to the wooden hearts. I first put a layer on the wooden heart, placed the paper hearts, and then added another coat to the top to seal it off. More waiting for things to dry....

FINALLY, it was time to place the hearts on the wreath. I placed hearts all over, trying to cover up as much of the wreath as possible. I just kept adding more, and more, and more. I used a hot glue gun for this part, and it worked very well.  I also added more ribbon for the wreath to hang. I am so happy with the finished product!!

Variations:
- would look great with any shapes (circles, squares, stars, etc)
- any colors or patterns of paper would also be nice
- you can do this for any holiday or season

Happy Crafting!