Babies are almost here... time to finish up the nursery with one more craft!

I love the painted signs you can find at craft shops. I always admire the pretty paint jobs, but I some times gasp at the price. I came across a link on Pinterest to a tutorial for printing your own professional looking letters. 

I decided I could make my own sign for the nursery using this method. Best of all? I had all the supplies I needed, so the project was essentially free!

First, I found a nice scrap board in the garage. I cut it down to the approximate size I needed and proceeded to stain it.

Like my staining bench? It's a big cardboard box in the basement that I use so I don't get paint or stain anywhere. I started on the back of the board, then I did the sides. This way, I was doing the front last, so I could make sure it blended in well with the sides.

I'm kind of impatient, so I barely let the stain dry 15 minutes before I moved on to the next step. In Microsoft Word, I typed the phrase, "We love you to the moon and back." I used the font Optima ExtraBlack in size 110. I printed it off and was ready to proceed.

I cropped the bottom of the page off, so there was an equal margin at the top and bottom of the page, and then I centered it side to side and top to bottom on the board. I secured it with scotch tape. As you can see, my stain wasn't quite dry, because it bled through the paper, but it didn't affect anything.

I was skeptical of the next step, but it worked like a charm. I used a normal ball point point and traced over the letters. It was really hard not to peek, but I didn't want to risk pulling up the paper to look and then not getting the letters lined up again!

If I was going to do this step again, I might trace over each letter twice. It made a good imprint in the wood, but because the stain was dark, it was challenging to see.

I filled in the letters with acrylic paint and a small paint brush. After all of the letters were painted, this is what I had:

I decided it needed something else, so I found some star and moon clipart online, and I repeated the imprint process at the top and bottom. And here's the finished product:

This was seriously a super-easy project. From start to finish, it took a little over an hour. The technique is fool-proof! The sign is now hung on the nursery wall, so these babies can come at any time!

Nursery crafts numero tres

I was inspired by this link on Pinterest. I thought it would make a cute addition to the nursery wall. Like many things on Pinterest, it was easier said than done. However, a few headaches later, I completed my own take on the sunburst mirror:

Here's how I did it.

First, the tutorials on the web called for paint sticks. I felt straight-up weird going to the Lowe's paint counter and asking for 50 paint sticks. I considered swiping them from the unattended counter at Walmart, but a few months ago, I took about 30 paint swatches for another craft project, and I still feel a twinge of guilt. So, I started thinking of other options. I considered wood shims, which is what the link above used, but I wasn't sure how smooth of a finish they would have. I also thought about buying $.50 yard sticks at Wally World and cutting them down. Then, I realized I teach shop, and I have an endless supply of scrap 2x4s! So, as luck would have it, I had a couple of students who had nothing to do, so I put them to work. They used the table saw to rip the scrap boards into approximately 3/16 inch thick pieces. Then, they used the miter saw to cut them to 9 inch lengths. Voila! Problem one solved.

Next, I took the pieces home and painted them with acrylic paint, using the four main colors I'm decorating the nursery with. I started with 40 sticks, because I had no idea how many I would need to go around my 9 inch mirror.

I knew I couldn't glue the sticks directly to the mirror, so I decided to lay out the sticks on a cardboard cake circle. I used an 8 inch circle, since my mirror was 9 inches, but I later put a 10 inch circle behind it for reinforcement, and you can't see the extra cardboard behind the mirror once it's on the wall.

During this step, I also cut every other stick down to 5 inches. This helped free up room and gave the project some dimension. I used a ruler to divide the cake circle like a pie. The long sticks went down two inches on each line, and the short sticks went in between.

I used some hefty craft glue to glue the sticks to the circle, then I placed some heavy books on top while the glue dried. I repeated the same process to glue the mirror on top of the sticks. Two days later, I called it good!

So, here's how that wall of the nursery looks now:

I'm going to attempt one more craft project tonight. Details coming soon!

Nursery Crafts... Part 2

In the last post I shared Greg's and my big news. I also mentioned a few craft projects I've been doing to get ready for the little ones. Today, I have another quick, easy project to show.

I started with a blank, 11x14 canvas from Hobby Lobby ($5.97 for a pack of two.) I also had an assortment of paints, in cream, yellow, sage green, navy, and brown. I picked up a pack up round sponge brushes ($3.97, also at Hobby Lobby), and I went to town.

I started at the top with the biggest foam brushes, and I worked my way down, incorporating smaller dots and leaving more white space. In between brush sizes, I used my blow dryer to dry the previous coat.

I can't paint. It's a known fact. That being said, I guess I shouldn't be too upset with how this turned out. Hopefully it will add a splash of color on a nursery wall.

Back to the blog

So it's been a while since I've updated the ol'e blog, but here I am again. Since I posted last, Greg and I made it Facebook official, with this photo:

Yep, after some ups and downs in the baby-making world, we're expecting... TWINS! We are very excited to meet our little ones. They're anticipated arrival is May 1, though they could make their appearance sooner. Most common question I receive: how are you feeling? Answer: pretty good. I had some severe vomiting for about the first three months, but it's down to about once a week now. I'm getting some energy back, and as long as I can work around my growing belly, I seem to be pretty productive. Second most common question I receive: are you finding out what you're having? Answer: NOPE!

Anywho, I've been working on some craft projects to get the nursery ready. The first one is not one I would replicate, but thanks to the help of my handy crafting partner, Toni, it's finished!

We're not really decorating with a theme, but the people that lived in the house before us left literally hundreds of glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, so we're working in some star and moon accessories with the colors navy, brown, cream, gold, and sage green.

To complete this project (which in case you can't tell, is a yarn-ball mobile), these are the steps you need to follow:

1. Blow up balloons. We used 7 inch round balloons and 5 inch "super soaker" balloons. We started with 8 big balloons and 8 small balloons.
2. Create a mixture of Elmer's glue and water. We couldn't find any good web tutorials, so we had to guess here. We used a big, plastic bowl, poured in Elmer's, and watered it down so it was the consistency of a melted milkshake. This stuff gets really messy! We regrettably didn't cover the counters, but we should have.
3. Next, cut off a large section of yarn in the color of your choice. We used pieces that were 7 arms-lengths long. The large balloons would have been better with more yarn. Go with what you think will work. 
4. Dip the yarn in the glue mixture and wrap it around the balloon, alternating directions. We found the best system was to have one of us dip it in the glue, wipe off the extra glue, and hand it the other person, who wrapped the balloon.
5. After the balloons are completely covered, sit them on wax paper to dry over night.
6. Once they feel sufficiently dry, pop the balloon and pull out the pieces from the middle. (We experimented with spraying them with starch, thinking that the starch would help add stiffness to the yarn, but it really just made the glue wet again, and we ruined a couple of balloons. Without the starch, the yarn balls are strong enough.)
7. Cover an embroidery hoop with yarn or ribbon and attach a hanging system to the top. We used yarn in a cross pattern for that role as well.
8. Tie yarn to each yarn ball and hang it from the embroidery hoop in a pattern you like.

Voila! A complex project, but one I'm glad to see finished! Thanks Toni for your awesome help! Total cost break-down:

• Four spools of yarn: $11.88
• Two bottles of Elmer's: $2.46
• Two packs of balloons: $1.94
• Two embroidery hoops: $5.88
• Total cost for two nursery mobiles: $22.16

Pinterest Inspired

I'm slightly addicted to Pinterest.

Over the summer, I didn't spend much time on it, and you can tell, since I haven't blogged about any crafty projects lately. However, recently, I upgraded to a fancy new Droid, and now I can "pin" on the go from my phone.

Last week, I came across this project:

I thought it looked like an easy project to crank out in a day, and I had all of the supplies on hand, so I set out to replicate it. There weren't clear directions with the pin, so I made them up as I went.

First, I found an almost-empty box in the pantry. It turns out this box was the perfect size for the finished product.

Then, I created a template on construction paper to give the sides a little jazz.  I traced it onto the box and used an Exacto knife to cut it.

Next, I traced the template onto white cardstock to cover the box, and then I traced it onto scrapbook paper. I cut the scrapbook paper slightly smaller than the cardstock, so the cardstock would leave a white boarder. I also traced the sides of the box onto the paper.

After gluing the paper onto the box (I used a hot glue gun for the cardstock and a glue stick for the scrapbook paper), this is what I had:

I fiddled around making a tab pattern. I'm not crazy about how the tabs turned out, so I would probably do something different the next time. I gathered up my greeting cards that I had on hand, and filed them away into the finished product.

Any suggestions on how to do the tabs differently? What crafty projects have you been working on?