The Good Shepherd--Craft Goodies

Good morning everyone and happy {almost} spring!

It's Wendy from Craft Goodies here today to wrap up this great week of Easter inspiration.

And it has been such a great week, the WYLTC ladies are amazing! I'm hoping my little project here doesn't let anyone down!

 

I was super excited for this theme, I love Easter! So here is what I did...

 

 

My mind kept telling me I wanted a little sheep in my project. When I think of Easter and it's meaning I find myself thinking more of the amazing amount of love that the Savior has for each of us and how He is indeed our shepherd. He loves and cares for each of us, each a vital part of His flock.

 

 

So that's where I went. I found a simple shepherd coloring page online, enlarged it, and cut it from 1/2 inch MDF. Same with the sheep. I wanted a simple, almost silhouette-ish look so the painting was kept really minimal.

 

Just like the other ladies, I wanted to make it interactive, a way to share the Easter story with my kids but had a small problem. My oldest daughter is going to be making the "12 Days of Easter" eggs next week in Young Women's so I didn't want to duplicate it.

 Enter The Friend!

(The Friend is a magazine for children put together by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

 

Download the activity HERE

This month's issue has advent of sorts already to go. Simply cut the picture into pieces, and then the week before Easter pick out one per day, match it to the corresponding spot on the activity page, and do the activity. 

 

That's what went into my eggs, but where to put them? Every little sheep needs a meadow to hang out in, so a meadow we have!

 

 

 I wrapped a 12 inch strip of 1x3 in green felt. Cut two strips of felt to look like grass, glued one to the back and the other to the front. And then used jumbo popsicle sticks to make a little fence. I glued the sticks together (I did trim a few of the edges) and then wrapped a little jute at the joints, just for fun. I used my staple gun to attach the sticks to the 1x3 and then put it all together...

 

 

My girls saw it this morning on the mantle and just gushed!

{I think they just like the idea that Easter is coming...} But I am thrilled with how it came out and more so that we will get to keep a bit more of Christ in our celebration.

 

Thanks Krystal for a great theme, and to all of you for some great ideas to file away--they really are each just amazing. Have a wonderful day and Easter and we'll see you next month.

Happy Crafting!

 





He Has Risen -- Under My Umbrella

Hey crafty ladies!  It's me, Melinda, from over at Under My Umbrella here to share my Christ Centered Easter Project.  What a wonderful theme for this month!  Here is what I came up with....

Along with the other ladies of WYLTC I focused on an advent/countdown calendar of sorts.  Each paper has a scripture that teaches the story of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.  What you can't see is each paper is attached to a Hersey chocolate egg.  Each day a family member gets to take one down (eat the candy) and then we look up the scripture and read it together.  Good quality family time (there is a shortage of that due to crazy schedules)!!  I was worried about if I didn't have eggs or something kid like on my project my kids wouldn't be interested.  Not true.  They woke up this morning and kept asking about the project sitting on the bookcase.  When I told them what it is they wanted to start today!  I also think they can smell chocolate :)

Here is how I made this project.  First of all I need to give credit to Beckie over at Infarrantly Creative for the board idea.  My local craft group did her Valentine's Day countdown in February and we used her tutorial linked above.  I was so crazy busy I didn't get to work on mine during out craft day and had a blank board just hanging out in my house.   Why not use it?!!!  I sanded it and painted it gray.

I printed some vinyl out on my good old vinyl machine and applied it to the board.

Last I wrote scriptures on the papers, glued a ribbon to them and glue dotted them to the chocolate egg which nicely fits in the hole.  You could use Hersey kisses too or skip the candy all together.  I wasn't sure about this project in the works but think it turned out rather nice!

Thanks Krystal for inspiring me to make something that helps me and those around me remember what is really important at Easter time.  Happy Easter!

Crafty Sisters Easter Bunny Countdown

Easter Greetings from Crafty Sisters!
We are sure excited about Krystal's theme this month, especially since we love the scripture egg countdown.

Last year we made about 20 egg kits up for my Activity Day Church girls and although they look
cute in the egg carton we've always wanted a better way to really display them.

We cut them out of 1/2" MDF, making sure to cut the sides and bottom using a miter saw for straight sides and bottoms~so they'd stand up and we could hinge them together.

Yes, I said hinge!  We got these cute little hinges at Hobby Lobby and fastened them on accordion style
so that when they stand up they'll have some extra structure and cuteness of course!

We did a quick coat of white spray paint~note to self~make sure it's warmer so the paint doesn't glop.
I seem to need a refresher on this point every year...and I remember it about a year later when I glop my paint again.....

We then took plastic Easter eggs and using velcro dots, attached them to the belly of each bunny.  Then we just glue gunned on a cute little matching bow.

These work great for displaying the 12 scripture eggs but you could also put little treats in them too.  Our kids would be happy to have a count down calendar every month if we let them!
Thanks Krystal for the great inspiration piece!  Can't wait to see what Wendy and Melinda do!

12 Days of Easter Advent- Sassy Sanctuary

Hello everyone!  It Wood You Like To Craft time again!  I'm SO super excited about this month. Since Easter falls on the 31st of March this year I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for some Easter crafting.  We decided to focus on the meaning of Easter and our theme for this month is A Christ Centered Easter.  I have a lovely idea for you all today and I can't wait to see what all the other ladies came up with.

First off, have you all heard about the 12 days of Easter?  There are several variations around the web but the basic idea is that you gather 12 Easter eggs, number them, and put a scripture and small object in each one that teaches the story of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.  You gather as a family each night, open one egg and read that scripture and talk about that part of the story as you count down to Easter.  The first egg will be opened on March 20th this year, with the final egg being opened Easter Sunday. 

Here is a link to the list of scriptures and objects I am using, but if you google "12 days of Easter" you'll find a bunch of variations that could work for your family.

{The 12 days of Easter}

 Now you can just put all these eggs in a cute basket, but this is WYLTC!  So I came up with a fun way to display our 12 Days of Easter Advent.

It's a simple wooden board, cut to the shape of a church, with 12 hooks to hang the 12 eggs.  Now I'm an awful blogger.  I had every intention to document my process for you but before I knew it I was all done and hadn't taken any pictures along the way.  (I tend to get caught up in my projects and completely space it!) So you'll have to forgive me as I try and explain my process without pictures.

Get a wooden board and cut it to a church shape.  Which is basically a house shape with a triangle roof and a steeple.

I got all my house pieces at Hobby Lobby in their doll house section.  The door is a doll house window.  And the windows are also pieces of doll house windows cut down to smaller sizes.

The trim pieces are also from Hobby Lobby and are along the bottom by the door and roof line.

All the trim pieces, doors and windows are just glued on with wood glue.

Then you paint, add the hooks, hot glue little loops of ribbon to each egg so you can hang them, and add scrapbook number stickers to each egg.

Done.

The church was a lot of fun but even just a square board with cute scrapbook paper and hooks would be a fun variation of the same idea.

Here are some close- ups of the details.

The door and windows...

The eggs....

 

And the upper window, roof, and steeple.

And that's it!

 

I hope you'll all join me and celebrate the 12 days of Easter this year, no matter how you decide to display them.   

And come back for the rest of the week to see what other great ideas the WYLTC ladies have to keep Christ the center of your Easter celebration.

Thanks for reading!

Sassy Sanctuary

Crafty Sisters Chevron Heart Flower Garden Stakes

Hello it's Candace and Nicole from Crafty Sisters! It is good to be back!  

We missed working with the WYLTC ladies, but sometimes life can get so crazy and busy. 

We were excited with chevron as this month's theme so we decided to combine chevron with hearts in honor of Valentine's Day and made Heart Flower Garden Stakes! 

Creating intricate chevron patterns with tape and paint is a little tricky...so we decided to stick with cute patterns of paper and Mod Podge instead.  There are SO many choices of chevron paper in the scrapbook section.  It was almost everywhere we turned!

The paper we used comes from American Crafts ( Funny Valentine) and last year's Basic Grey (Better Half). 

The heart flowers fit perfectly in empty pots waiting eagerly for Spring to come!

The flowers are so simple to make and are a great beginning project for those learning how to use a scroll saw or a jig saw.  First we found a heart shape that we liked. A large heart (about 7 inches) for the flower and a small heart (about 3 inches) for the stem. You can make these any size you want based on your needs. We traced the heart onto wood and cut with a scroll saw.

Supplies:

1 inch Pine Wood

1/2" wood dowels

Heavy Wire (fencing wire works great and you can get a roll for under $5)

Craft Acrylic Paint

Paper & Mod Podge

Glue

On each large heart, we cut a straight edge at the bottom where we later drilled a hole and inserted the dowel. We also drilled a small hole at the bottom to fit the wire in each small heart leaf.  Next, we painted the hearts, dowel and wire. After painting we Mod Podged scrapbook paper to each wood heart. Finally, we glued the hearts to the dowels, and twisted the wire around each dowel to create leaves. 

Our hearts are under a covered porch and should hold up with a coat of Mod Podge over the top and edges of the paper. We suggest using paint instead of paper and a sealer if they are exposed to wet weather. 

                 

Super simple!  We love the whimsy they add to the front porch.  There's nothing like some pink to brighten up the cold month of February! Thanks again ladies for the fun theme and for the "push" to get up and create something! Make sure to tune in for next month!

Craft Goodies--Frames with a Dash of Chevron...

Hello to you all!

{Sorry for the late start of this post, I had to remember how to do it}

Now that I think I have it figured out let me start by saying it's GREAT to be back!

It's Wendy here today, and I can't think of a better place to be...

 

When Melinda shared her idea for a theme with us I knew exactly what I wanted to do:

(card image from catchmyparty.com)

 

 I had pinned this back in December while trying to find the "perfect" Christmas card with the idea of making it into a large wall frame.

I have to say, this is on my top 5 WYLTC projects, want to see?

 

It went together pretty simply with stuff I had here at the house and a quick trip to the dollar store.

 

The dollar store provided the 11x14 inch frame and foam-core board for the backing.

The wood planks were given to me from my in-laws--they are building a new house and these strips were in between the cedar logs they are using on the house face. I used the foam core for support because they are so thin and flexible.

And last, the pieces with the chevron pattern are cut to size 1/4 inch MDF.

 

 

1. The planks measure 5 1/2 inches wide--the same as a fence board, which is what I would have used if I didn't have the other. I sanded, stained and then did a black wash over each board before gluing them down to the foam board.

2. The picture frame is an 11x14 that opens from the front, so I just glued it into place too. The glass pops out if and when I want to change out the pictures--super easy and only $1!

3. These pieces are 1/4 MDF cut to 7 inches by 7 3/4 inches. I taped off the pattern and then painted, sanded, added the same black wash, and then glued them into place as well.

 

I like it so much, I actually made two! It's just enough pattern and color to not overwhelm your eyes and brain, and accents the color of my craft room so nicely.

 

 

Thanks Melinda for getting this one off of the "to-do" list and on to the wall.

Happy crafting to you all-

 



Chevron "Love"- Sassy Sanctuary

Hello!  It is so good to be back!  Sorry for the crickets over here.   Sometimes life gets in the way but I think I can speak for all the WYLTC ladies in saying that we are so happy to be back!

Isn't Melinda's chevron sign adorable?  Love it.  When I was given the assignment to make something chevron I went to good old Pinterest to see if there was anything on my project "to-do" list that I could interpret with a chevron twist.  I been wanting to make a love sign like this for above my bed, and with Valentines just around the corner it seemed perfect!

(I can't source this image... I appears that it was from an Etsy shop that is no longer in Biz. Although there are many Etsy shops with similar signs if you are looking for something similar.)

Here is how mine turned out with its chevron spin...

And I "love" it!  hehe

The Chevron pattern is fairly subtle (but not so much as the pictures make it out to be.)  But it really adds a fun texture to the peice and is a great addition to my bedroom.

(Sorry for the funky lighting.  The morning sun was shinning in.)

Here is a better representation of the color and pattern.

It was really simple to make.

I just got a big old peice of wood and drew on my word.

Cut it out with a jig saw.  Broke the "L" in half on my last cut and had to glue it back together.  Sigh...

Painted some chevron pattern in black.

About gave my husband a heart attack because it is so busy it makes you go cross-eyed.  Assured him I wasn't done and to trust me. 

Then covered the whole thing with dark brown stain.

I think I'm going to actually put a high gloss finish coat on it, but until I get around to it I'm happy.

Thanks for reading!