Create a versatile decoration to be used for Christmas and more
Things happen for a reason.
I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Whether it is to teach you a lesson in life…like my recent experience of forgetting to roll up my car window completely when I got home and the next morning I had a soaked seat. Or the fact that my crafts almost never end up like they started, which in the case of this craft; is a wonderful thing!
I started this craft at the Magnolia Town Market in Hayes. We had brought yardsticks to give away like we do at the Lake Charles Home Show in the Civic Center.
In my down time between talking with people that came to our booth and visiting the other vendors to talk about Creative Crafter, I decided to start a craft using yard sticks. I took five yardsticks and glued them together on the edges using E6000 glue in a staggered design.
After the glue dried, I used a sanding block to sand the dried glue that had squished out the sides. My initial thought was to make a nice holiday sign like I see all over the place saying “Merry & Bright”.
So I painted the yard sticks white. Let that dry and then planned out my letters.
To center letters, measure the area you would like to have the words and find your center. Then count your letters including the spaces and divide by two. That letter or space will be where you marked the center.
For example: The area I wanted my letters to appear was 33” long. Half of that is 16.5” so I placed a mark at 16.5”. “Merry & Bright” is 14 counting the spaces between the words and the ampersand.
It just so happens that the ampersand is the middle letter so that would go on the mark of 16.5. I then sketched out my lettering for “Bright” and worked backwards for my lettering of “Merry”.
I thought a light blue would be really pretty for this sign so I mixed some blue with my white and started filling in my letters.
Well, this where things start to go awry. I really did not like how my letters were working so I decided to scrap that idea and repaint the whole thing.
I did not fully mix the white and blue paint and had it like a swirl so that when I painted the sign, some areas would be lighter and other areas would be darker which I feel gives it movement.
After that dried, I sent a text to my very crafty friend in Virginia asking her what she would do with this…while I was waiting for a reply I remembered that I had origami paper left over from when I sent out my wedding invitations.
I grabbed what I had left of those and lightly placed them on my sign. At this point it was coming together but I still wasn’t sure what else to do with it. As it was late and my friend was already asleep, I decided it was time for me to head to bed.
I kid you not, as soon as I laid down, everything was flowing into my brain as to what I needed to do to finish off this project. I set my alarm to remind me to run to the craft store on my lunch the next day to get more E6000, as I wasn’t sure if I would have enough, and clothespins.
The next morning I woke up and my friend had texted back, “What am I looking at? Lol.”
I explained everything I was doing and realized that it was a really random picture to send her and further told her that as soon as I laid down, everything came to me. And she replied, “Yeah well, that’s how it goes! Lol.”
While on lunch, I got the supplies I reminded myself to get along with green card stock and some glittery semi-wooden letter stickers.
Once I got home and got the chickens in for the night and the cat fed, I started on finishing my project. I dug out a glue stick from my craft box and glued the origami paper in diamond shapes. Grabbing five clothespins out of the package, I used E6000 to glue them in between the origami paper.
I then cut the green card stock the same size as the origami paper.
When I bought my supplies for the ornaments, I also picked up some red sparkly ribbon. I cut the ribbon a smidgen longer than the width of the green card stock squares and put two dabs of E6000 glue on the top and bottom of the ribbon.
I stuck the ribbon in the center of the green square, peeled the backing off of the letter I wanted to use and stuck it on there as well.
This craft couldn’t have turned out better. I now have a beautiful decoration we can use at our company Christmas party; when Christmas is over, I will just remove the “peace” lettering and replace it with something for my wedding.
When my wedding is over, I will find a place to hang it in my house to put cards or pictures and then next year, I will have a Christmas decoration already made to adorn the house.
Like I said in the beginning, everything happens for a reason and crafting is no exception. “Happy Accidents” are a great way to expand your creativity. As always, Happy Crafting!!
<hr /><p class="p2"><em><strong>Creative Crafting with Kim</strong> prints on Saturdays. If you would like to advertise your crafting business or sell leftover crafting supplies call the American Press Classified department at 337-494-4000 or email <a href="mailto:djean@americanpress.com">djean@americanpress.com</a>. Deadline to place a display ad is Wednesday at 4pm and line ad deadline is Friday at 4pm. Feedback about this article can be sent to <a href="mailto:kwright@americanpress.com">kwright@americanpress.com</a>.</em>