Door Tags

I love this idea I found for Door tags. Everyone makes wreaths so this new spin on the idea of wreaths. This project does require a tiny bit of carpentry or power tools. I purchased fencing boards at home depot and cut them to 17 inch lengths and then cut the corner's at an angle to make the "tag" shape and used a large drill bit to make a hole for the twine to hang them from. Next I painted the tags. I have made a few versions of my tags some were painted, and some stained. I  learned in other craft blogs that you can create a wood stain effect in any color. just mix some of your acrylic paint with a little bit of water and then it can be applied with a sponge brush and then wipe the excess off to get the stained look in any color.
once you have a base for your tags you can use a vinyl words, or paint to create the message you want on your tags. I enjoy crafting and I like to create new things for new seasons or holidays so I like to make seasonal things. I know some people who are not holiday decorators and they prefer to make things they can keep up all year. This project is perfect for both. Door tags can simple be "Welcome to our home" or "The Smith family" or they can be holiday themed like my Christmas tags.
Another thing I love about this project is they can be made double sided.  a double sided project give you options. I made tags that are fall themed on one side and winter on the other so they can be used for 2 seasons before they need to be changed out.
I also live in Buffalo NY and we are die hard fans of our sports teams although our teams struggle. so I made a set of tags that say "lets go Buffalo" on both sides one side is painted with the Buffalo Bills colors and the other side is the Buffalo Sabres colors. one side for hockey season one side for football season and when the seasons overlap we can display the time who is playing today or the team that is winning more games... either way showing Buffalo Spirit!
I use a regular twine to hang the tags but I have seen ribbon used with and without bows. once my tags are painted I use 2 screws to secure them together in the position I like them in. I have seen them connected t the bottom at the top or just overlapping along the side to hide the screw you can just paint our base color over it. I usually choose to add and a flower or something cute to hide it.
with any craft project just be creative and enjoy the process.

                                                 FALL SCARECROW POT HEADS

More pot heads.... I love fall and I love the new addition to my clay pot people collection. I know I have posted a lot of pot heads but he is so cute he needed to be added!! see previous posts to see how they are made.

POT HEAD COUPLE

I was asked to make 2 potheads that would be a gift for someone who loves to garden. Since they did not give me any specific guidelines on what they wanted as far as a color I decided I would be a couple. I usually make girls in pinks and purples and boys in green and reds but I thought this seaside blue couple work for both boys and girls and then just dress her up and give him some jeans and look how cute they are together.

LETS GET READY FOR FALL CANDY CORN

I know it is only July but I am working on some things for fall.
I saw this adorable candy corn version of the clay pot candy dishes and I had to make one. All you need is 1 clay pot, 1 glass fishbowl ( mine came from the dollar tree) a clay pot saucer for the lid and a small wood piece for the little handle on top, ribbon to make the little bow and I also used the dollar tree bling ribbon between the colors on my candy corn. to dress it up a little
I use clear non-foaming gorilla glue to attach the glass to the clay pot.
When crafting with clay pots I always paint the pot first with a white primer. That gives me a natural surface to work with that will take fewer coats of paint to cover. My measurement are not perfect at all I used the little holes in my regular school ruler to hold my pencil and turned the pot in a circle until I had a ring around my pot to use as a guide.

LOTS OF POT HEADS

 we are getting ready for our first vendor show. I am excited to see how this goes and if people like our products. we will have items available as well and some "make your own" kits. I am hoping people will like the idea of creating their own items and be inspired to create. I host a craft night at my house about once a month with my girlfriends we usually have between 6 and 8 girls. I gather the supplies and everyone pays for their share of supplies and we drink wine, share some finger foods, and create. we have such a good time. I think It would be fun to provide kits to other groups of people who want to get together and have fun like we do. Here are some pictures of the pot heads we will have available for sale.

Clay Pot Lighthouse

The ladies and I made adorable lighthouses for our last ladies wine and craft night.

They were so much fun and they all came out so cute. I think everyone was surprised how easy they were to make and how awesome they are going to look in our gardens this summer.

The hardest part was finding the right size clay pots that stacked nicely. For our craft nights, I gather all the supplies and everyone pays for their "craft kit" that keeps costs down for everyone since one spool of rope is needed not 6 and we needed 2 bags of seashells for 6 people so we split the cost. I ended up going to both AcMoore and Joann to mix and match clay pots until I got the sizes right to stack nicely. We painted the pots with White wall paint primer before everyone arrived. primer is always a good idea when painting clay pots because your basic acrylic paint will take too many coats and no one wants to sit and watch paint dry on craft night waiting to start the next coat of paint. when primed by the time you paint all the pots you can start over with coat 2 and that should be enough. I found the cute fencing at a thrift store and painted it to match my lighthouse but you can also get it at the craft store. The little solar lights on top came from the Dollar Tree. and the windows were made with vinyl cut on a Cricut machine. 

All together this project cost each person 20.00 for supplies and as always we had a blast crafting sipping wine and chatting with friends. 

Reversible Wood Block Craft. Hoppy Easter and Welcome spring

have you seen these reversible blocks on Pinterest? They are so much fun. I would say this project is easy but it does take some time. I am always amazed at how we can give the same set of supplies to a few girls and we get very different results. These Blocks are the perfect example of that because there are so many different things you can do with them. We had 3 girls who made this project and as you will see below they were all different styles. I tend to go with a more clean simple look. One of our girls likes more variety and mixes up more patterns, And My daughter doesn't plan much she just starts crafting and it is fun to see what she comes up with in the end.

I and going to show a step by step guide here. You do start with 2 by 4 wood cut to size. If you would like to do this project but do not have a wood shop you can go to my ebay store and purchase the pre-cut blocks you can choose just the blocks or a full kit with the letters pre-cut and the patterned papers. find the kits here:https://www.ebay.com/itm/123712736860

so you would start with your wood blocks which are 2 by 4 wood peices cut to size. you will need 2- 7 inch pieces 2- 5 inch 2- 4 inch and then a 7 inch block cut to about 2 inches the long way.

You can either paint or stain your blocks. for this project I chose to go with light colors so I panted my block a nice pale yellow.

Most of the block is actually being covered by scrapbooking paper or card stock so it would be ok if you choose not to pain the whole block you could do just the sides and about an inch wide frame on the block but I find it easiest to just pain the whole thing. 

While you wait for the paint to dry choose your papers. I used a paper cutter to cut strips of paper about 3 1/4 inch ( 2 by 4 wood is actually not 4 inches wide it is closer to 3 1/2 inches) which leaves just a little yellow showing on the edge. to cut the right length I use the block to measure I just line up the strip of paper up to the top of the block and draw a line at the bottom of the block. I then cut just a little inside my drawn line and it usually ends up perfect. another idea is to trace your whole block on the back of the paper if you don't have a paper cutter or if your blocks are a little off on measurements. 

next using Modge Podge or other clear drying sealer  ( make your own with Elmer's glue recipe 2 parts glue to 1 part water. eg. 4 ounce glue 2 ounces of water). When you glue the paper sometimes likes to bubble or wrinkle. to minimize this I found you should do 2few things. First glue the back of the paper and not the wood block. Make sure the glue is no so thick that the glue does not pool in any spot so a light coat of your sealer is best. I also found if you spread your Modge Podge thin and wait just about 30 seconds so it is starting to get tackier then wet you will get a smoother finish. Line up your paper and place it on your block and lightly rub around the edges of your paper to be sure they don't curl up. Set another block on top of the one you just glued for a minute or two. If you still get any bubbles it is ok most of the time they are not easily noticeable and you can always add a little embellishment over it to hid it if you need to ( a cute flower or bow works great)

Next, add your letters using the same Modge Podge process, and any embellishments.Tip: if adding any 3d embellishments wait until both sides of the blocks are done first or it will not lay flat while you are working on the opposite side.  you can then seal it with another light coat of Modge Podge right over the top of everything, but that is not necessary unless your project will be displayed outside or in the bathroom. 

repeat the same process on the other side.

I took Pictures of my work along the way to post here. My Friend Sue made this one

And The Summer/ Fourth Of July was made by my 11-year-old Daughter Brooke