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I woke up early today (actually, I didnt sleep much--darn insomnia!)

and wanted to get some things done before the World Cup...

Or the rain...

Or before the tiredness of lack of sleep catches up...

I wanted to do some of my much needed to-do that involved 

tools and  wood.

And I remembered an old friend that I had bought once upon a time ago that 

I shoved in the shed until now.

(It's the one on the ground....ignore my rigged up miter saw table)

Now why did I not pull this machine out a long time ago?!

Oh my.... Look at those routed edges!!  :)
{SIGH!}. Its sooooooo preeeeetty!!!

The clouds are opening up and I finished staining right before the rain started...

Yup, that's Florida weather for ya!...

Can't wait to show you when it's done!

By the way,...the wood?...

They're recycled, of course!

By the way, did I tell you that I love comments?  ;)
Tells me that someone is reading!!  :)

The Invite

A dear auntie of mine was married for the first time
at the beautiful age of 70something. 

She is so happy.

...and it is beautiful to see.

I told her that as a wedding present to them

I would help her out with some of her wedding preparations.

First things first,

the invitation.

Materials
cardboard stock
vellum
printer
ribbon
scissors
Small holed hole puncher


You print the wording onto the vellum paper.
I bought mine at Office Depot and then found out that Target Copy had them too.
They come in regular 8-1/2" x 11" sheets.
I also bought ribbon.
Its cheaper if you buy them by the spool.
I got the spools at Michaels.

I cut the cardboard stock exactly in half.

Then I got the wording printed two per vellum sheet;
then cut smaller than the cardboard stock.
I laid the vellum over the cardboard just the way I wanted it to look.
I then punched two holes on the top where I want the ribbon to go.
(The top picture shows you the template I made to make the hole cutting easier.)



 You will want to get a hole puncher that is smaller than the regular hole punch.
This heart one was all I had.
...and I know that it will be upside down
but that doesn't matter since the ribbon will cover it.

I then put the ribbon through both holes from the front.

You then pull one taught and out of the way 

for the other to be put through and bring it up to the front.

Do it to the other side and voila!

This pretty much shows you the basic guidelines to make your own invitation.

There are so many pretty ribbons out there and different sorts of papers.

You can also play around with different fonts.

Definitely more economical than the price for invitations nowadays!
I made our wedding invites too back on the day.
Who else out there made their own  also?

Chore/Reminder Sticks

There's an easy pinterest craft that I've been wanting to make

...and with the boys away, it was a perfect project for me and T.

Responsibilities and time management are the hot topic here in our house.

...and for me, memory.  ;P

So with the labeler, she printed out their daily to-dos
And also all their weekend chores...

...and stuck them on the jumbo sticks.

...and depending on your household, each stick/chore can be worth a treat.
In our house, it's more computer time.
(But only on weekends).  ;)

We also made daily reminder sticks.

When your container has something in it,
then you know that you're forgetting something.
For now we're using cups because that is what we had
but we will add containers such as tin cans as we use and recycle.
When the boys get home,
we will decide how many points (time) each stick are worth depending on the chore.

Notice how "mommy" has one too?  ;)
What do you do in your home to keep your young'uns in check?
Or you?  ;)

Get Well Soon

One of my students visited and told me that he would like to see more DIY on my blog.
So CG, this post is for you! ;)

One of our Aunts was feeling under the weather...

...and we didn't want to just send a card.

...so we decided to make her something.

It is so much better than giving just a card.

And you can personalize it in so many ways.

With Valentine's day just around the corner, it's the perfect gift to make.

The materials that you need are:

Canvas

Paint brush or paint sponge

Paint (we used acrylic)

Thin fabric scraps
scissors

paint markers (we used Painters brand)

decoupage medium (we used Royal Coat brand)

paper plate

pencil

Paper (we used a napkin) ;)

So here's what you do.
Step 1.

Paint your entire canvas. 

 If you want to skip this step and leave your background white you can do so.

We painted ours black.

Let the canvas dry completely.

This drying is very important.

Step 2.

Cut hearts out of your fabric scraps.

It doesn't matter what size and how many.

This depends completely on how you want your canvas to look.

We wanted my hearts to fill the canvas so we would have cut out 30 total.

But we had 4 messages for Aunt Mary.

So we only cut out 26 hearts.

Step 3.

Lay them out on the canvas the way you want it to look.

This is where you should take your time.

Make sure that you like the layout before you proceed to the next phase.

Step 4.
Turn a heart upside down on the paper plate.

Step 5.
And brush the entire surface with the découpage medium.

Step 6.
Place the heart where you want it on the canvas.
Do this process for all the hearts~laying it however you want your canvas to look.

Step 7.
For your messages, take your pencil and sketch it out on paper
depending on how you want it to look on the canvass.
This will take a little bit of practice depending on the design and layout you want.
We purposely chose certain words for the theme and its word length.

Step 8.
Once you have practiced the lettering and the design,
Replicate it onto the canvas.
Repeat the process onto the canvas with your paint marker.
We chose silver because we knew it would really stand out against the black.
Repeat this process for all your words or messages.
It is important that the marker dries completely.
(notice the heart next to it drying.  It was just decoupaged.)

Step 9.
Bush the entire front surface of the heart with the decoupage medium.
Be liberal with the medium.
~especially at the edges to make sure that the edges are really glued down.
Do  this for all the hearts.

Step 10.

Once you've finished decoupaging the front surface of the hearts then

completely brush all of the canvas with the medium including over the messages.

As you can see, there were some places where the marker was not completely dry.

This caused it to smear when the medium was applied.  

This will also happen on step 4 if you don't let the base paint dry completely.

Step 11.
Let it thoroughly dry in a place where dirt cannot stick on it while curing.

The great thing about this project is that it can be designed to be in any color scheme
to fit in any home.  It is fun, easy and a great project for kids.
This can be personalized with people's name or signatures.

Please send me a picture of your finished canvas if you do decide to do this!
I' d love to see how yours turns out. ;)


This post is partying at:
The Turquoise Home : Work It Wednesday #31