Craft Goodies Remembering "Mom"...

Hello fellow crafters and happy April!

 I'm happy to be posting today and even happier to be one step ahead in the race to get a Mother's Day gift finished. (Being ahead of anything doesn't happen much for me...)

 

My mind was swimming with ideas once Candace and Nicole shared their theme and originally I thought I'd be a bit selfish and do something for me. I am after all a mom too, right?

These are my monkeys...

 But in the end, my sentimental side won out-- I wanted to do something simple, that could be easily replicated, and that reminded me of my mom.
 

 

I cut out 2 letter M's from MDF and added in a small oval picture frame to spell out M-O-M.

 

 (If you don't cut your own wood you can find letters at most craft stores these days. Add a fun frame and you've got the same thing. Add a picture of your kiddos or family, or do like I am and add a picture of your mom. You could even spell out "Nana" or "Gran" with frames for the A's to give one to grandma too!)

My mom has been gone from us now for just shy of 20 years and yet it seems like just yesterday that she was here. I miss her everyday. I love getting the chance to share things I learned from and  remember about her with my girls-she was an amazing person.

I plan to make a set for each of my sisters and my brother, they need a Mother's day hug too!

 

 I added mine to the pictures I have of my girls in my craft room, so now I have all my favorite ladies in one place! It can't get any better than that...

 

Thank you Candace and Nicole for a great excuse to remember more about my mom, to create something fun, and to get share it with others. And to all of you moms out there--

Happy Mother's Day! Make it the best one yet.

 

Happy Crafting!

 

 

 

 

 

GROWING...with Craft Goodies

Happy Tuesday everybody! Hope it's off to a great start.

It's Wendy here today to share my version of this month's fun with you.

I loved this theme as soon as Candace and Nicole shared it with us. I'm in the middle of finishing up my girl's playroom (we just moved) and thought a growth chart would be a fun touch . Then reality hit me, and I knew that I wouldn't use it properly--I am that mom that started baby #1 scrapbook, got through the first 9 months and then just started putting all the pictures into a Rubbermaid to "get to later". Well, baby #1 is now 13 and has 4 more sisters and "later" is still a long way away!

Terrible I know, but it's who I am.

I still wanted something big and fun, and it does have the potential to actually function as a proper growth chart (if I remember to do it!)...

I am totally into typography these days so opted to cut the word "GROW" from 1/2 inch particle board. I found the font I wanted online, printed it out, and then used an overhead projector to get the size I wanted. Traced, cut, sanded, and painted and then nailed them to the wall!

The parenthesis (or big mustache--ask my 6 yr old) is 1 inch pine and will serve as my marking board, maybe.

 I played around with adding numbers, but just didn't like it.

It did get one little extra though...

Make my heart melt! I LOVE this little guy!

He is a combo of 1/2 inch and1/4 inch MDF and has made his home in the bottom of the "O".

I plan on adding a strip of measuring tape to his beak but haven't made it to the store yet.

But, marked or not I am thrilled with how this came out and the pop of color it adds to the room!

Thanks ladies for yet another great theme, my home is a bit homier because of it.

Can't wait to see what Melinda and Krystal share, have a great week!

Happy crafting.

Family Motto Picture Frame

Hello! Its Krystal from Sassy Sanctuary here today!  I'm so excited to show you guys my take on Wendy's adorable Family Rules Sign.

To be honest, I was a little nervous about this months project because we are in the process of moving to another state and my husband has packed up all the tools and moved them to our new house!  So I knew that whatever I made, I was going to have to take some help from the craft store. There is nothing wrong in that right?!

So I went to one of my favorite local stores.  (It's called Porter's if any of you have one near you) and found a 12x12 unfinished MDF frame that had a 4x4 opening.  I grabbed that and went to see if I could find some scrapbook paper inspiration and found one of those 5x7 paper packs in adorable prints.  Then a light bulb went off in my head! 

I wanted to make 4x4 compartments and use each square to place a quote.  Then thanks to pinterest I found the PERFECT family motto to put in my frame. 

Here is the final result.

Ahhhh!!!! I love it!  Seriously this is one of my favorite things I have ever made! (I swear I say that about every WYLTC project, but this time I mean it!)

So, do you want to make your own?  This is how I did it.

A- First get a 12x12 frame with a 4x4 opening.
B- Paint it a base color that goes with all your papers
C- Cut your papers to 4x4 squares and arrange them how you would like them on your frame.
D- Modge Podge the paper on.  I found it best to do the corners first and then the middle squares.
E-  Once its good and dry, cut vinyl to make a stencil for your text. (if you don't have a craft cutter, you could use Wendy's transfer method too!)
F-  Paint your text.  I found it turned out better if I let my paint dry to the touch before removing my stencil.

And that's it!

Oh.... but you may have noticed that my frame has a good amount of distressing.

Funny story about that....

I walked away from this project to use the bathroom after doing the text in one square.... and left it and my paint sitting on the counter. (Do you see where this is going?)  When I came back my 3 year old daughter had painted brown paint all over it!

I screamed.

Then I got a rag and scrubbed the thing off.  Luckily the modge podge sealed it pretty well and most of the paint came off... Except for in a few spots where I scrubbed through the paper!

Then I cried.

Once I regained my composure I decided to just go with it.  I strategically scrapped up the surface of the paper (just using my fingernails) and rubbed brown paint into the scratches.   I actually LOVE the way it looks. So yay for happy accidents!

So anyway... thats it.  My family motto picture frame.

I hope you love it as much as I do!
I can't wait to see what everyone else does!

November...It's all about FAMILY!!!

Holy cow! Another month has flown by and it's time to get crafting again.

With all the excitement of the upcoming holiday season my thoughts are turned directly towards my family.

So what better theme for this month's project than that...FAMILY!

Not so super original-these are so popular lately! But it fit the theme and well, I wanted one so this is what you get.

Overall, it wasn't hard but it was a little time consuming. In other words, a great project for the upcoming Thanksgiving break.

Here's what I used:

1/2 inch MDF cut to 12 inches wide by 24 inches long

Valspar Spray Paint in Mediterranean Blue

Ceramcoat acrylic paint in Antique White

Paint brushes

Sand Paper

paper and pencils

To start I painted the board, a few quick coats of beautiful blue and then set it aside to dry.

Next I made a list of "Rules" that I wanted on my board and then I played around on my computer with fonts and sizes until I had something I liked.

It took 3 pages set on landscape to fill the board. You can print off the pages here if you wish...

Top Page

Middle Page

Bottom Page

I then taped the pages together omitting the margins so that everything lined up nicely. Then I used the old-school graphite transfer method to get my rules onto the board-you know the one. Rub your pencil all over the back side of the image, flip it back over-right side up. Tape it into place on the base board and then trace the outline of the image. The image is then transferred onto the wood leaving you a great pattern to follow.

From there started the time consuming part...filling in all the letters! I used the acrylic paint, thinned out just a bit with water and a fine detail paint brush. To get the color level I wanted I repeated this process once the first coat was dry. 

Sand paper and distressing was last.

I hit the edges hard with the power sander and then went over the lettering with a fine grit sand paper to soften up the lines a bit.

 {I'm still debating with myself if I should add a layer of stain or not.}

But there you go! Not to bad right? You could do it too!

I love it, my friends love it, and more than that my kiddos read it and talk about what it says. Maybe one of these days they'll put it all into action!

An after thought to share...

If I were to do this again I would use 1 inch pine instead of the MDF just so that I could get a little more character from the wood, kind of like this:

Love that you can see the grain and the knots! Oh well, next time right?

Until then, have fun creating.

I hope you'll check back in over the week to see what the other WYLTC gals have to share when it comes to FAMILY for them. And don't forget the linky party opens on Friday, we want to see how you celebrate FAMILY too...

Happy Crafting!