Summercrafter

No matter how large or small the craft or project, how complicated or involved it is, how much or little time it takes, how much planning or spontaneity it requires; making it still gives me a warm feeling. 1) I am feeding my soul doing what makes me happy & using my talents and 2) Giving/making something for someone else also lends to having "warm fuzzies." It's a  double whammy of goodness for all!! These happen to be 2 of the  Laws of Happiness , found in the book by Dr.Henry Cloud. He was the only male speaker at the Women of Faith conference last month and he really spoke volumes to my heart as did the extraordinary women who shared the word of God and their testimonies. WOW! Here is a 10 minute craft. Get a large pre-painted white letter (or any color you fancy). This letter is about 9 inches tall. Wrap two ribbons (wide & narrow) around it and accent it with buttons, jewels, felt or paper flower, anything at all!! See mine? ...

1 Thessalonians 5:18 in everything give thanks ; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  Since we can't see what's on the other side of our problem, give thanks to God for what he is working in you and for you and keep moving forward. This too shall pass! He already knows how it ends... As for me, I am thankful for the abundant blessings in my life, of which I have nothing to gripe or moan about; the simple pleasures.  And, I am happy to have an extra couple of days to craft, I mean, put up the tree, which is crafty right?  My crafting for Thanksgiving is cooking, since the Monday before! I always want to make place cards, but they are generally disregarded. I think about decorating, but after eating, everything gets trashed. What really irks me is after days and hours of cooking and preparing, it's all over in 20 minutes. So there you go! If I make a craft, at least I can look at for as long as I want and don't have to suffer the discarding!...

These pictures are no fun to look at, simply mechanics, but the best is saved for last!! Here are some of the little details. I do not have pictures of how long it took me to assemble, but of course as you play with your letters, you will figure it out. It doesn't have to be straight!  Don't forget to paint the back of the letters first, makes things easier! Here  is a great place to buy letters online, if the craft store doesn't have the amount or the kind you want. The assembling of the letters is the trickiest part. Overlapping the letters depends on the design of each and which one should be showcased, (in my case the Rag Doll letters.) I assembled the letters and hot glued the ones that went in the center, top to bottom and reinforced them with miniature popsicle sticks on the back. Once I laid them out how I wanted, I traced the part of the letter that went "over" so I could put hot glue in the right place. Then I marked the 2 places in the midd...

First you take the R and you paint it, (paint it). Remember to do back and sides first! Two coats for best coverage. Trace the letter on paper, I used tracing paper. I "presented" the head on the paper letter and drew out her apron dress. I had to add a neck to her head. I cut out the apron and traced it onto the back of textured white cardstock so it would look like linen or fabric. Next, after laying it out how I liked it, I hot glued the head onto the letter and I used Mod Podge to stick the apron to the R. If you'll notice on the final photo, I left the "skirted" look short so you could still tell it was the letter "R." Details!! The Original Raggedy Ann , has a flower pattern on her blue blouse. So I dipped the point of a pencil in pink acrylic paint and dotted these little flowers on the "blouse" part of the letter. In the final picture I re-did her apron and left the full skirt,  but you can still see the "R" legs. S...

This was so much fun to make. Take a look. I took the rings off of these key tags and cut circle shapes in peach to make little faces. For hair, I split the yarn so it would look like wavy hair. Then I glued the eyes and drew their faces, guess who?

Although it may appear that I glued a piece of notebook paper on this letter, I did not! I gave it one coat of white so it would look a little transparent like a piece of paper. Then with a ruler, I drew the pink margin and blue lines with a fine tip Sharpie. I used mini black buttons for the holes in the paper and glued a pencil button onto the "paper." One coat of black was enough for this "street" then I did the dashes for lane dividers. For this letter, I didn't add the school or the bus until it was assembled due to the overlapping of letters that affected their placement.

For this assignment, I used chalkboard fabric since the teacher writes all the assignments on the board. Paint the back and sides of the letter before you do this, so the front doesn't get ruined. Trace the letter backwards on the fabric and cut it out carefully. Peel off the stickers. Brush fabric Mod Podge on the letter and smooth out the fabric over the letter, be careful as the fabric may stretch. Trim excess fabric, due to stretching, creat a piece of chalk from felt and hot glue onto the letter. I may even light a match to any unraveling threads.

As soon as I thought of the actual shape of the letter "M" I knew this would work. I gave it one coat of regular yellow and then mixed it with a dab of orange for the authentic "crayola" box color. I then added the signature stripes, not as straight as I would have liked, I lacked a regular tipped sharpee so I used a brush. Then I added some crayon buttons. Pretty cute, huh?  This is the back view, did I mention to paint the back first??

For the letter "O" I gave it 2 coats of red paint. Paint the back and sides first as I said before. When the letters are painted dark, I paint the back dark also, otherwise, I use a cream or light color just to cover the wood and give it more of a neat look on the back.  I made a stem out of brown pipe cleaner and the leaf out of green felt, hot glued on the back.  I wrote a message on a mini chalkboard, and hot glued it to the "apple." For the "M" I traced it backwards on craft paper and brushed regular Mod Podge on the letter and smoothed the paper in place. I added a red ribbon by gluing the ends around the back and a dab in the center, then added a white button, to keep with the color scheme, as you will see later.

Well, a couple of months ago, I was awake in the middle of the night figuring that out.  The first step in any good project is proper planning. Now generally, outside of planning vacations, I am not a good planner, except when I am inspired about a craft such as this one. I really like to personalize projects as much as possible and study the details when I am making a gift for someone. This one was no exception. Once I had it sketched out though, half of the work was done!  I wanted to give this one as a Christmas gift, and I know just about now, time is going to start running away from me with all the holidays and related obligations.  So, I decided to get started on it, which of course meant I wouldn't rest until it was finished!! The challenge  now is WAITING until the last day of school to give it away. So I have decided to post in on this blog, and if she happens to visit and see it, then I'll give it to her early. My goal is to...

Spell out a word that inspires you. Challenge yourself to decorate each one in a different way. I painted, embellished, illustrated, covered in paper, wrapped in fabric, "dressed up," and accented mine. That was fun! I hot glued them in an overlapping pattern, reinforced letters together with strips of plastic to secure, I twisted eye hooks into the back and hung with a ribbon. This is one of my signature photos at the bottom of the blog, This sign hangs on one of the cabinet handles in my craft corner. The "C" is cool, painted and "frosted." The "R" is wRapped in paper, complete with ribbon and accent. The "E" is Elaine's ideal world, surrounded by nature and people I love. The "A" is adorned in jewels, my daughter's initial, little princess. The "T" is a gingerbread type treat. The "E" is covered in Mary Engelbreit fabric. VOILA! My next attempt which I will start this week will be fo...

I know, I know! These tree skirt pictures are posted on the Christmas page, but I hadn't blogged about them so here goes. Way back, when I started collecting Mary Engelbreit Craft Books , it was by mail and I wallowed in pleasant surprise at each delivery for 3 years! I briefly pouted when I learned that it was only a three book series and that's when the search for more of her books hit full gear.  The illustrations and the crafts in these first books vary, there are all kinds, even recipes. But I believe, what we, ME fans, really wanted was to materialize her illustrations into 3-dimensional objects.  That's when, finally, this fabulous book came out which did just that.  What's more, they even show the illustrations that the craft projects were born from. (My ME ideas are not included...yet! LOL!)  Believe it or not I found this treasure on a bargain book aisle in Ba...