2x4 Pumpkins

I love fall!  So of course I love to craft and decorate for the season.  This year I made a few things with scrap wood.  I did this for a couple of reasons.  1.  My boys think of it more as "Building" not crafting and 2. They have discovered that they love to paint.  I love when they want to participate so I am all for it!  Don't be surprised if  I continue the "building" crafts into winter!  

Supplies:

• 2x4 (or 2x2) Piece of wood
• Orange Paint
• Wood Glue
• Various Artificial Fall Foliage, Berries, or other
• Ribbon
• A stick with approximately a 1 inch diameter (for the stem)
• A Piece of Sand Paper
• Hot Glue Gun

First I cut the 2x4 to the appropriate lengths.  I made the large pumpkin with 2- 8 inch and 2-10 inch pieces.  The smaller ones are made with 2- 6 inch and 1-8 inch pieces.  This allowed me to make 3 small and 1 large without wasting any of the piece of wood.  PERFECT!!!!  Next, I lightly sanded the rough edges.  I then glued the pieces together.  The small pumpkin has 6 inch, 8 inch, 6 inch and the large is 8 inch, 10 inch, 10 inch, 8 inch.   Make sure to center the smaller pieces on the larger ones.  Then using two shades of orange paint ( I put them both on a paper plate and lightly swirled them together as I painted the wood) I painted all sides of the wood.  The wood needed to coats of paint.

After they were dry I glued a piece of the stick to the top of the pumpkin.  When that glue was dry, I tied a piece of ribbon around the stick and then attached a few pieces of the accessories.  I used the hot glue gun to secure them in place.

Make sure to check out the Frankenstein I made with a piece of scrap wood
Here is the link to Frankenstein

I am a PROUD Mommy!

Now that both of my boys are in school, they both bring home lots of projects and assignments that make me SUPER proud. I want them to know how proud of them I am, so I have decided that I am going to create a better way to display their prize pieces. In the past, I have taped them to the kitchen cabinets, hung them on our (teeny tiny) bulletin board, and hung them on a magnet board in the play room. I have seen lots of ideas that involve framing the item, collecting to put in a scrapbook, or taking pictures of the pieces to compile for a photo book. I love the idea of being able to EASILY change out and showcase a new piece. So I decided to to make a couple of cork board frames to hang in the kitchen. Since almost anyone that comes over will see them I wanted them to look tasteful as well. I bought a roll of cork from my local craft store and I used two black 11X14 frames that I already had at the house. I used my cutting mat, a box cutter, and a measuring tape to cut the board to the correct size. Then I simply put the cork pieces in the frame and then hung (ok my husband hung) the frames in the kitchen. The frames can either be hung horizontally or vertically so I can change them to meet the needs of the current masterpiece!

Googly Eye Valentine's Cards

Since I'm crafty, i figured why bother buying my kids Valentine's Cards for their class this year, i will just make them. I searched pinterest for cute ideas and came across ones that had glasses on them and then you stuck google eyes from the craft store on the lenses and it said "I have my eyes on you." They were darling but the person was charging like $6 for the digital design. I also liked some others I saw with Valentine's jokes on them and I know how much kids like jokes- so I thought I'd design my own and incorporate the two themes. Even better, I'll put the jpeg up here so you can just right click, save it as a picture, then print out and attach the googly eyes yourself!

I didn't want them all to have the same joke, so i made 4 versions. Here are the files-  (without the eyes of course).