“HOME” Project & a Puzzle

August

September

and a few more I am currently working on for other months.. actually there are a lot more I have done but do not have in my possession..as soon as I do, I will post pic! I am gathering quite a few ideas..multiples for each month…

Nov, June, Aug

       

For the Birthday Week

Another fun project. I bought (less than $2) a 2x2 board from Home Depot and cut it into square with my Miter Saw. Then I bought a cute little (about 6” x 6”) calendar from Michaels for $1. Cut the calendar to fit the blocks and decoupaged them on. THEN I went over them all with a sanding brick and sanded all the edges and corners. And finally went over the top of them with decoupage again to seal it all. I sanded them after so I could sand down the pics and make them flush with the wood.. I didn’t want the pics to hang out over the blocks. SO this is a 6 sided puzzle. Different pic on each side. My 4 year old can do it..but needs a little help at times. With 54 puzzle pieces..and only 9 needed at a time.. it can be a little hard for young ones! I am going to try this with pictures of the family soon!

     

   

Some calendars from Michaels. I have also gotten them from Target dollar bins in years past.. but don’t pay more than a dollar! You can actually get 2 full puzzles out of one book, since you only need 6 pictures and calendars have 12! Great Christmas gifts too!!

 

Brush Stroke Mod Podge

I was helping out in Activity Days last week, teaching the 8-11 year olds and their moms how to decorate cupcakes with a star tip. I had a blast, probably more fun than they did! They all did a great job though! So, besides cupcake decorating, they also did this little craft. I asked how to do it, and the sister let me try it! I can’t wait to buy some and do some more pictures of my kids on canvas!

It’s a brush stroke ModPodge over some pictures.. really easy.

These are the pictures I did.

It is really neat looking when it is all done! (I don’t know if you can tell here very well what the finish looks like, but it’s the best I can get!)

You can get the mod podge from any big local craft store, but make sure you have your coupon! Make sure you buy the one that says “Brushstroke” on the bottle! You’ll also need a small 1/2” or so, bristle brush.

Streak the mod podge on in long strokes, just to get the picture covered at first, then you can go back over it in just little “x” like strokes to cover the whole thing. If you drop a hair of the brush, just pick it out with your fingers and brush over that spot again. It is very forgiving and you can put a couple layers on. My picture bubbled up a little when it was wet, but as it dried, it flattened back out!

If you use this style for photo pictures, you do need to seal the picture first with some kind of Clear Acrylic Sealer (there are lots of different brands), but if it’s just a picture like the ones I have here, you can go right for the mod podge.

Color is bad on this one, but you can see the brush stroke better on it.

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6 in1 Puzzle

Since my kids are 1 & 3 and don’t look at my blog! Here is something I’m working on for them for Christmas! Puzzles!

2x2 from Home Depot “Orange” was about $1.70ish (will get 2 puzzles from it!)

Calendar f/Target dollar bins $1 (..can get 2 if you cut right!) Here are some of the options. They also have a Pixar which (shockingly) my son did not pick..he chose the Madagascar instead.

Total Project: about $4 with paint and mod podge.

1. Cut blocks w/Miter saw to square: 1 1/2”x1 1/2” and sand! Cut as many as you need for how big the pictures are. For smaller kids, you may want to find smaller pictures, or a bigger piece of wood for bigger blocks somewhere, the calendar pictures I found will use 25 blocks.

2. Paint blocks. You could just paint all the edges, but I painted the whole block. I figure the wood will soak up some of the paint, so the mod podge would work better, rather than soaking up some of the mod podge!

3. While waiting for those to dry, pick your 6 most favorite pics. from the calendars. remember you will be cutting them down, and a little off the edges, so make sure your picture subject is somewhat centered!

4. Cut. Cut off the top (calendar hole) first.

Then you’ll want to cut the whole picture down to size. Measure you blocks first. I found my pictures would need to be measured at 1 3/8” square..since it is 5 blocks across..I need to cut the whole picture to 6 7/8” Square.

Then proceed to cut your 1 3/8” squares. should end up with exactly 25 – 1 3/8” square squares..be careful not to mess up and cut wrong!

Easies to cut strips first, then back to squares. You can cut one pic at a time and mod podge it on, or cut all 6, just make sure you don’t mix them up or you’ll have 2 pieces of the same pic on one block and that would mess the whole thing up!

5. Mod Podge the pics to the blocks! One picture at a time! Using the Mod Podge as the glue.

**Hint, for easier puzzles, keep all the blocks in order (ie… top left corner of ever picture on same block, etc.. For Harder puzzles, mix up the blocks or turn them for every puzzle!**

I don’t know what the difference is between the different types of Mod Podge, but I used the puzzle saver kind.

When done Mod Podging all the pics to the 6 sides of the blocks, run a light coat of Mod Podge over the top of all the pics on all sides of the blocks!

You could also do this with family pictures. I think you would just need to mod podge the back to help it stick..not the front of the picture..but I haven’t tried it to find out.

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Super Saturday

Super Saturday = Heaven in my book! Today was our Ward’s Super Saturday. It was a BLAST, but from behind the scenes it was EXHAUSTING! Here are some of the crafts we did. To see a full list of all the crafts, visit THIS BLOG.