Grow!

Hello!  It's Melinda from over at Under My Umbrella.   I'm excited to be blogging today.  Lately life hasn't allowed me the time to post my projects so I'm grateful I'm part of this group of women who inspire me to keep going.  Today I'm going to share my what I'm calling my "grow" project.  I'm sure many of you know how I love umbrellas and really, really, really wanted to include an umbrella in my project....but....It's been raining a whole lot here in the Northwest.   I mean buckets and buckets.  With that said I wanted to focus on the happy stuff the rain makes happen...GROWING!   My camera is MIA so today I'm using my cell phone and a fabulous app called instagram.  If you haven't checked it out yet you should right after your done creating something fantastic for our linky party!  Here we go.....

I will always love rosettes.  Person who came up with it...you deserve more credit than you get!

This sign has made it's home in my vegetable garden.  It's not even planted yet because of the crazy weather we are having.  I just want to make sure it doesn't snow again.  Right now I'm just battling those darn poky weeds!

Well that's it!  I hope you all like it.  It's a fun addition to my garden!

Umbrella Garden Stake

Hello everyone!  Krystal from Sassy Sanctuary here today!  I'm so excited to show you my take on Wendy's fun theme.  I have always loved the phrase "April Showers bring May flowers" because it reminds us that there is always beauty after the storm.   And I just adore Spring!  Whats not to love about warmer days and new life?!

Anyway, I so excited to craft for spring and wanted to make something for my flower beds.  Sadly though, we don't currently have a flowers bed... we have a weed bed.  Remember we moved into a new (to us) house in December that was banked owned.  So the yard has been very neglected.  Once its safe to plant we plan on redoing the beds but for now I have to be happy with a few potted plants.

But even my pots can use some spring love!  So I made an umbrella garden stake.  It looks super cute in with all my happy flowers and just screams "April showers!"
 
It was such a fun and quick project.  All I did was cut out the umbrella shape from 1/2" plywood and glue (I used wood glue) it to a yard stake.  Stain the whole thing, add some scrapbook paper, and then give it several good coats of finish.

But my favorite part is the raindrops!  I got some crystal scrapbook embellishments and sandwiched a piece of thread between them to create little crystal droplets to hang from each peak.  They sparkle in the sun and dance in the breeze and I just adore it!

They are attached to the back of the umbrella with a tiny bead of hot glue.

And that's it!

It is such a happy addition to the front of my house and helps draw your attention from the weed beds. (or at least that's what I'm telling myself) 

Thanks for the inspiration Wendy!

Umbrellas or Parasols....

Hello from Crafty Sisters!

Today we are getting a bit sentimental

with this month's theme.

When Wendy showed us her super cute Umbrella idea

the only thing that came to mind was the beautiful quilt block

from our childhood.

So while Candace has been so busy finishing up her Master Bedroom reveal

I of course couldn't pass up a fun opportunity to work with wood.
Our Grandmother made everyone a quilt when they were married 

and the one she gave our parents we called

"The Pink Lady Blankey".

I snuck some pictures this weekend of the quilt while our parents

have been out of town.

We loved this blanket~I mean what little girl wouldn't?

All the pretty fabric's used on the dresses, bows and parasols!

Against my mother's wishes I snuck it away with me to college

where I'm sure it got most of it's damage.

I've always wanted to recreate it and I have great plans to this summer,

but until then I thought this would be a fun way to do it.

This can of course be done with any favorite quilting block pattern.

I traced a pattern as best I could and sketched the rest out on paper.

Then I made a copy so I still had the original to go off of.

Using a glue stick you can glue it right to your wood.
It makes it really easy to cut out instead of tracing each individual piece.
Plus the paper just peels off when you are done or can
be easily sanded away.

I used 1/8" MDF to cut it out of.

I cut a plaque out of 3/4" MDF that was approximately 18" in size.

After you cut them out, lightly sand.

It's like putting together a puzzle~my daughter loved it!

I gave everything a quick coat of white paint

and then Modge Podged some cute papers on.

Then you just glue the wood pieces onto the plaque and it's ready to hang!

Pretty simple and pretty fun!

Thanks for great inspiration Wendy!

Umrella Planter Tutorial from Craft Goodies!!!

Welcome to WYLTC and APRIL SHOWERS!!!

I love Spring! So when my month to host WYLTC ended up being April I was nothing but smiles.

I love the sight of all the color coming back, the grass and tree, the birds that sing endlessly, and the flowers!!! Those first little sprouts of soon-to-be tulips and daffodils are pure joy to me and I wanted a way to show them off. My project for this month was the perfect way to do that... 

Here's what I used to make my umbrella planter:

1/2 inch and 1/4 inch MDF

Wood Glue and Staples

PAINT in bright spring colors!

1/2 inch eye screw

Sandpaper

Glitter, Ribbons, Puffy Paint

Tulip bunch and greenery

I started by drawing out the umbrella parts and figuring out the planter. The planter sits on a slight angle so that it wouldn't stick out to far off of my door and is on the smaller side because I only wanted a few flowers tucked inside there.

Then I traced the patterns onto the wood and cut them out with my jigsaw. The handle and planter pieces are each cut on the 1/2 inch MDF. The umbrella and panel pieces are cut from 1/4 inch MDF.

I painted everything next, just base coats--no detail yet, distressed the edges and then glued the planter box pieces together and the umbrella pieces together.

 {I aded a few staples to the plant box just to be safe, but really, they weren't needed.}

Once the planter box was good and dry, I glued it to the umbrella pieces and then ran and did a load of dishes while it dried.

At that point the "hard" stuff was over and it was time to decorate!

I added the line details with white puff paint, drew on the little circles with the puff paint and loaded them up with iridescent glitter. Once everything was dry it got a good coat of sealer.

I added the eye screw into the back of the handle, ran a ribbon through it to hang it up. And then added my bow to the front of the planter.

And last...

Added the greenery and flowers and hung my little umbrella on the door.

It's so fun to see this when I pull into my driveway--totally makes me smile. I hope your spring is full of fun and flowers and even a shower or two. I can't wait to see what the other ladies have made to go long with this month's theme of April Showers. I can't wait to see what all of you come up with either, be sure to check back all week. You're sure to find something to inspire you...{just a quick note, you can find the kit for this planter in my shop. Be sure to check it out!} Happy Crafting!

April Showers are coming!

Hey all you fellow crafters out there!

Just a quick little post to let you know we've all been a little busy/crazy lately, it's that time of year after all...

SPRING BREAK!

It's put us a bit behind so this month's projects will all post next week.

If you'd like a jump start to our theme this month start getting your

"April Shower" projects ready.

I'm kicking things off on Monday with this little beauty:

I'll share all the how-to's to create your own or you can find the kit in my shop.

Then you'll be treated to great projects from the other WYLTC gals the rest of the week. So get crafting--we can't wait to see what you come up with!

Silhouette Linky Party

Hello again!  Welcome to the Wood You Like To Craft? Linky Party for

SILHOUETTES!

Wendy pointed out that Wood You Like To Craft? is now one. Happy Birthday to us!

 We have had so much fun creating with all of you and look forward to many more wood projects!

Well, Nicole and I were feeling ambitious this week and decided to make a few more silhouettes.

We made silhouettes of our children and we absolutely love with them.  There is something about tracing and cutting your own child's face that is special.  Our kids also got a kick out of seeing themselves up on the wall too!

We found a really easy tutorial on how to make silhouettes at Design Dazzle. 

 You don't need all the fancy photo programs, we used Picasa's light/shadow controls to whip ours up...

and I even traced right from the computer screen!   

We used our scroll saw to cut all the fine details out in the face and hair. 

 It's really not bad,  just go slow and steady. 

I hung my silhouettes with ribbon and drawer knobs. 

It is fun to see the differences and similarities in each of your children. 

To review the Silhouette week here at WYLTC,

we started off with wooden silhouette bunnies on stands.   

Krystal made an oh so pretty wood shamrock

 covered with hounds tooth paper and tied with a beautiful ribbon.

  Who knew shamrocks could be so pretty?:) 

Melinda, despite some saw troubles,

created these very cool wood vases.  I love tulips, especially yellow.   

Wendy ended the week with some very cute Easter silhouette projects.  I love the Bunny Tales!

Now it's your turn!

Come join the Link Party and share your "wood" themed silhouette!

The Link will be open for one week, so you have plenty of time to create!

Thanks!

Bunny Tales and Carrots by Craft Goodies!!!

WOWZA! What a week!

It's Wendy from Craft Goodies.

I'm really excited to be sharing my projects with you--yes, {once again} I said projects, as in plural!

If I've learned anything from this group, it's that I'm a whole lot more indecisive that I ever realized I was.

 So here you go, silhouettes done Wendy-style:

So, funny enough, this wasn't my original plan. I wanted to do classic silhouette cutouts of my girls on these curvy little frames but I ran into a few problems.
 1-- I couldn't get them to sit still long enough to trace a descent image. 2-- once I got it small enough to fit inside the frame I was afraid I'd loose the detail of the image to the saw blade, and 3--I'd already cut the frame out so enlarging it wasn't an option.
So what to do...cut  a carrot instead! But don't you just love it?

I cut the blue part of the frame from 3/4 inch MDF and the insert from bead board. I used the skill saw to cut both. And the carrot is 1/4 inch MDF.
{Completely off track but as I was finishing this piece it kind of reminded me of the very first project we ever did here on WYLTC? And then I realized that that was ONE YEAR ago!!! Holy cow--Happy Birthday WYLTC!!! We're officially one!}

My little carrot needed a buddy to fill up the shelf and what goes better with carrots than bunnies?

I was obsessed with the idea of a big, fluffy bunny tail. So the idea of a silhouette was perfect because what do you really see? That big, fluffy bunny's tail!
She too is cut from 3/4 inch MDF and then mounted onto a chunk of 2x4.
The tail is a tan tulle, scrapbook paper on the 2x4 and a sharpie to apply the lettering.

The whole thing makes me very "HOPPY".
Hooray for ideas that go astray!!!

Thank you ladies for yet another fun month! And really for a super fun and inspiring year--I'm so glad I get to do this every month!!!
Can't wait to see what you've all been up to.
Happy Crafting.