Blocks

If you've been to any sort of craft show you've seen the blocks that have letters on them. And most of the time they sell for like 5-10 dollars, depending on the amount of blocks of course. I've always wanted to make some myself but thought it would be to expensive or to much work. Man was I wrong! Okay first of all if your crafty or even if your not this was so easy to do. It was a little time consuming but I was doing 11 blocks. And can I say cheapest project ever. I'll go over the cost at the end. So here we go, I'm so happy with how these turned out! I didn't want to give them away...

First thing I did was measure out my my blocks. I bought a 2x4x10 and had home depot cut it down into 3rds, mainly so I could get to fit in my car. (And they can cut any wood down to a foot, and for free, just an FYI) I was surprised when i discovered a 2x4 isn't really 4 inches, more like 3 1/2... So I cut mine 3 1/2 x 3 1/2.


I used a Chop saw to do the cutting. Luckily my brother left all his tools over from when he did the trim in my sons room. I figured I can use them, I'll just try my best not to break anything...


After I cut them down, they were all splintered....As you can see, but I was planing on sanding them down any ways to soften the edges up.


Now the fun stuff. Paint! I like painting, I don't know why but I do. I don't like painting houses but small things, oh and no details just solids colors...I know I'm weird, anyways....I just painted them all the same color, and it matched the paper I was using.

While my blocks were drying I cut out all my paper. I cut my squares of paper 3 1/4 x 3 1/4. I then inked the edges. Cut out and assembled the letters, and decorated my squares of paper before adhering them to the blocks.

After my paint was dry, I sanded down all the edges. Just to give them a worn look.
And then glued my paper down using "clear tacky glue" And TADA all finished!

The 2x4x10 only cost $2.48. And if my math is right you can get 33 blocks out of the 10 feet. So you could do the alphabet! But anyways I know I haven't posting much, but I recently found out I'm pregnant, and the morning/all day sickness isn't helping my crafty side at all. Hopefully only a few more weeks of this and then I can get back to myself.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Today was my mother-in-laws birthday, so I made her a set of cards. She's always saying how much she loves my cards....I think she trying to kiss up to me, so she can have more time with my son Jacob (so far hes her only grandson). So well see if she puts them to use. I used really simple layouts, I liked the paper and wanted that to be the focus. Also I was trying to make 6 cards within a short time period.....So I hope you enjoy!



On a side note.... I know I said I'd post my new shelf, it is done and up on the wall...but I'm waiting to post pics, because now I have to decorate it. I was thinking jars with ribbon and buttons. And maybe some pictures....I don't know, I don't know, you'll see what I come up with..... Hope you're enjoying your day! Check back soon.....

MDF boards are the best!

A few weeks ago we (Matt and I) made these...And hung them above our desk, where I do all my crafts.




So heres the story..

We got the MDF at home depot, and they even cut them down for us. Awesome right?!? Well the guy must of measured wrong because instead of 12x12's we got 12x12 1/4. You would think no big deal right but it was kind of a pain having to cut the paper down. Also did I mention you have to buy the whole board! I was hoping we could buy it by the foot but nope. So I was kinda annoyed. BUT! we had him cut the whole thing down, so I ended up with about 15 extra boards to do whatever with!

Heres a couple of the other things I made...

This one was a Birthday present.


And this now has a home in my living room. I just love this saying, and I need to be reminded of it everyday!

Now you might be wondering how do you make these!! Well it took some trial and error, but in the end I got them to work just how I wanted.

So here we go. First go to home depot and the get the boards. You could do this project with couple friends, and then split the cost of the huge MDF board. I bought the thinnest one just an FYI. And get some spray paint, and begin by spray painting the edges.


Once they are done drying, get your paper ready. I wanted a little border, so I trimmed mine down.

WARNING! Don't use spray adhesive!! Or at least don't use "Elmers." The paper started pealing off. It could of been the MDF or the paper? I don't know so after we got them all hung up and a few days pasted it really started to bug me. You could see all the little corners peeling up and it was so annoying! So I eventually peeled them off and used Mod podge as my adhesive (thanks to Jennifer for that little tip! You should check out her blog, "Just for Rachael") They look so much better now.

After I stuck the paper on I Mod Podged them and sanded over the top, just to distress them a little. Hope you enjoy!

I made a shelf to go up next to it, you'll see that in my next post!

Have a great day!