St. Patrick's Day Decorations

In addition to my leprechauns that I made many, many years ago out of brown paper grocery bags, I created a shamrock garland for the front window, and some "Lucky" blocks, since it's too cold and snowy for my "Spring" blocks to come out, and the "Winter" ones have been out for too long.

The leprechauns were a bit time intensive, but pretty simple to do. I free-handed the different body parts on the paper bags, then painted them with Cermacoat paint and used scrapbooking supplies to embellish them. My mom had a paper crimper that I used to make the hair have texture, and that thing was AWESOME! And I used brads to attach the various body parts together. I think they took about two hours to make, but I can't remember for sure.

The blocks are easy too. I will give a step-by-step process.
1. Gather 2x4s (we always have tons of scrap pieces laying around that I use)
2. Cut 2x4s to random heights. I don't even measure. I just eyeball some bigger, some smaller and don't worry about perfection.
3. Sand 2x4s as needed.
4. Gather scrapbooking paper. The pieces need to be 3" wide, by whatever height you need.
5. Coat wood with Mod Podge and attach papers.
6. Cover papers with another coat of Mod Podge and attach letters.
7. Cover letters with another coat of Mod Podge and let dry.
8. When Mod Podge is dry add desired embellishments.

For my rainbow I used colored tape that I got from Oriental Trading Company years ago. You could just use a rainbow sticker or something though.

And for my garland, I keep the grapevine up all year long, and then change out the decorations. For this I had a shamrock die cut that I traced on coordinating pieces of scrapbook paper, and then cut out. I ran a ribbon through the grapevine, and tied the ribbon in several places to the curtain rod. To attach the shamrocks, I used gold brads that I put through the paper and the ribbon. And I attached some butterflies that I bought at Michael's to the grapevine. The butterflies came on wire, so I just wrapped the wire around the grapevine. Pretty simple, but I like it!

Shelves

I know you've all been waiting on pins and needles to see my shelves. If it makes you feel any better I've been waiting too. In fact, I'm still waiting for them to get installed, but until such a time, here's a teaser. I say teaser because some day these bad boys will be installed, the baskets will be completely black (no matter how many times I've spray painted them (okay, only twice, but still) from various angles there is still white showing through), the children's initials will be hung, and jackets, boots, gloves, snowpants, etc. will all be in their proper places. But until such a time, this is the larger of the two shelves, with will become Miss A's (she is older after all, and girls have more accessories than boys, so it only makes sense, right?), which was lying on my living room floor for the picture. But how awesome would shaggy carpet be on a wall? Ummm, yeah, that's what I thought too. I don't even like it on my floor, but considering how expensive carpet is, and that this carpet is only 5 1/2 years old, new carpet will just have to wait, no matter how flat it is.And now, the moment you've all been waiting for.....How I made them!

1. Take measurements of the place where you want to hang them.

2. Go to the store and buy some wood. If you don't have a planar, I would suggest shelling out the extra dough for the nice wood. That's what I did. I bought 2'x8' pine boards, because it's cheaper, and it's easier to make it masquerade as something else (unlike oak). And since you are already at the store, go ahead and pick up some hardware. Hooks to hang things from (like jackets) and also some sort of hardware to hang the shelves on the wall.

2. Bring wood home and start measuring the wood to cut it. The old adage, "measure twice, cut once" really does go a long way and saves you lots of frustration in the long run. Now, if you have a table saw you are in luck, you can cut each board in one cut and not have to worry about flipping the boards over and trying to line up the first cut exactly, perfectly right like I had to do using our chop saw (AKA miter saw). I cut my top and back pieces first, then the sides. My top piece was about 2" longer than the back piece, just for looks.

3. To cut the side pieces I cut a square first (I think the boards are actually 7 1/4", not 8"). Remember, measure twice, cut once. Then after the square was cut I rotated my saw blade so it would cut a 45 degree angle for the diagonal side.

4. Once all the pieces are cut, sand the edges (especially if you used a chop saw like I did). Try as I did to get my cuts to line up, none of them did, so I have some major sanding to do. Not a big deal, because I kind of like the rough look, but I didn't want things looking too rough, if you know what I mean.

5. Wipe off all the sawdust and stain your boards. Remember to stir all the way to the bottom of the can of stain, and follow all label directions. :)

6. If you want them to be a little bit shiny, instead of having a matte finish, do a top coat of polyurethane. This also protects the wood and finish.

7. Put the boards together. I used a nail gun (WAHOO, first time, go me, go me, go me!) to connect the top and back pieces first. Since I wanted the top shelf to be a little wider, I had to attach the boards differently than I originally planned, but that's okay. Then after attaching the top and back to each other, attach the side pieces.

8. Pre-drill holes for the hardware screws, then attach the hardware.

9. Hang up.

All in all, the project wasn't too hard. I still need to do a coat of poly (if I ever get around to it), and of course they shelves still need to get hung, but at least the shelves are assembled, right?

Project Report

Can I just say that I love that I put my list of projects up here? This way I'm able to self-check and make sure I'm getting things done. And getting things done I have been (too bad my house isn't as clean as it should be, so my budget for next month will be a little tight).

Things I've completed:
Love Blocks
Pink flower hair clips for BIL's wedding
Vinyl Nativity Glass Block
Redecorating for Valentine's Day (this was easy because all I have is two small metallic garlands and two sets of gel window clings (and now the wooden blocks too!)

Things in the works:
The coat hangers/shelves. I've stained all the wood (still need to do a coat of poly on top) and spray painted the baskets ($3 at DI!). Need to get the nail gun back from a friend so the bad boys can be assembled and installed.
Seed packet wall hangings. I figured out where to put them, but I need to take down the other ones, putty, texture, and touch-up the wall, then rearrange them all, since they are all going together. That's why it hasn't gotten done yet. So many steps, and so much laziness. It took long enough just to figure out where to put them. :)

The skirt idea got scratched off the list, since I found a super cute eyelet sundress at DI for $5. It does need a cardigan to go over it, but I'm hoping a few more trips to DI should solve that problem. Can you tell that I love thrifting?

Something I might do soon:
Work on my quilt. It would be nice to have done, but it's such a big project, involving pulling out the sewing machine and making a mess of the living room. Oh how I wish I had a craft room.
Oh, and I might work on painting those wooden fences from the dollar store. They will be super cute hanging on a wall in my living room if Spring ever shows up. Which should be around June here in Idaho.

And, some eye candy:

These blocks are so easy to do! If you have a huge stockpile of scrapbook paper and scrap 2x4s, they are basically free! These papers I actually printed off my computer. I have a former roommate that designs digital scrapbooking materials, and this is from one of her kits, Sweet Love O' Mine. Go here to get it. Go here to visit her blog. Yari is awesome and I love pretty much everything she designs! So, to make these blocks, cut some 2x4s. I don't measure I just cut some bigger, some smaller and really just eyeball it. Then I measure so my papers will be the right length. The papers need to be 3" wide, and whatever length. Mod Podge the background papers to the blocks. If you have a Silhouette or Cricket cutting out letters is easy. I don't, so sometimes I use an alpha set from a digital scrapbooking kit, but this time I made my own using a font from Photoshop, and then using the masking text tool and a few other steps to make the font, including a layer style to get the ridges around the edges. So, after I Mod Podge the background papers I Mod Podge on the letters, then put another coat of Mod Podge over the top. This can all be done in about an hour, if you don't have littles (children) distracting you. Or husbands, or pets, or life, or whatever. I might still add some ribbons or flowers or something, but I still have bathrooms and a kitchen to clean.

My vinyl Nativity. I love how this turned out. I ordered from the site Say it on the Wall and was very pleased with the outcome. Laura has an offer for people who become "affiliates" so I got $5 in free vinyl from her! I did have to pay shipping, but that's okay. And this was a custom design. She had quite a few Nativity designs, but I wasn't completely in love with any of them, so I asked her to tweak the "O Holy Night" one, and she was more than happy to oblige. She was great to work with! And her vinyl was the easiest to work with that I have ever done. I thought the hay in the manger was going to be a pain, but it was EASY! It was actually the bottom corner, under Joseph that almost ripped because I wasn't paying attention. But it didn't. Thanks, Laura!

Super Easy No-sew Tutu

Another guest post:

A tutu for Miss A. that Mr. B wears about as much as she does.

A Fall Wreath Tutorial Guest Post

I did a guest post on a friend's craft blog (well, I actually did two).

It's a fall wreath I made for under five dollars!

Go here to check out the tutorial: