Da Crafts*

Warning! Craft nerd alert! There's a lot of shop talk in this post, so of you're not the crafty sort, you'll want to just scroll through the pretty pictures and wait for the next entry!

Sharing the goods from this year's craft weekend. Loved them. Well, mostly...

My lima bean wreath (idea from All Things Thrifty). Love it, but learned that I'm way too anal for a project like this. It took me for-ev-er, trying to keep them in nice, neat rows. I also learned that spray paint basically melts styrofoam, so you shouldn't use a green wreath form if you're going to paint it cream. The paint just melted down the first layer of foam and left big, still green, pits all over. Altogether this wreath is, in the immortal words of Alicia Silverstone's character, Cher, in Clueless, a "full-on Monet...From far away, it's okay, but up close, it's a big ol' mess."

Too bad people who come to the door will always be up close and personal with the wreath...would it be wrong to put up a sign that asks them to please step back three feet after ringing the doorbell?

 

These are Shelly's geometric blocks she made for her kids (idea from mermag). Love them, but she learned that priming them would have made the painting much easier (the mdf soaked up the craft paint). And she learned that she should have planned out her colors a bit better in advance; she ended up re-painting several of them to get more variety in the patterns.

Chalkboard placemats (idea from Little Birdie Secrets). Just plain love these. And love that we were able to do this idea on the cheap by using clearanced vinyl tablecloths from Target as the backing, rather than buying oilcloth. I bought the chalkboard fabric from here: Nancy's Notions. We were able to get sixteen 11.5" x 18" placemats out of two yards. 

Three more projects: 1) Peep banner (idea from Made). I've actually finished sewing mine since this photo was taken. Go me! Hooray for finished projects! It's going to be so cute hanging up next Easter. 2) Glass tile necklaces (idea from The Idea Room). These were a big hit and SUPER simple and fast. The red one is mine, and the flower one is Gracie's. Cute, huh?

And finally, 3) Monogram polka-dot ornaments.

Oh, those ornaments...blast them. I'm pretty sure they were the bane of everyone's weekend (and beyond). Me, being the cheapskate that I am, attempted to save everyone some cash buy forgoing the only 4" white ornaments I could find in July ($7.00 per ornament, plus vinyl) and instead choosing the clear ones from Hobby Lobby that come four to a box for only $4.99. Add in a 40% off coupon and it's a no-brainer, right? I figured we could be super crafty and just add some pearl white paint to the inside, swish it around, and Viola! Uh, wrong. They turned out to be a disaster. No matter how long we let them dry, how much or how little paint we used, how much we swished and rotated, we still ended up with pooling and bald spots. (The picture above was taken in one of my ornaments "good moments" before it went the way of the rest.) Totally annoying. I'm pretty sure everyone would have happily forked over the extra cash for the from-the-factory-white ones. Sorry, guys!

The last crafty pics I'll share are just from the set-up. I found this adorable craft party decoration set on etsy.  (Seriously, you can find anything on there!) It was perfect for the weekend! Just printed it out and assembled (with some sisterly help). A fun little touch to an already fun gathering.

 

Local friends, I still have lots of my craft stuff out, and some leftovers of these projects. If you want to come over and get crafty, just let me know!

*Over the Fourth of July, Matt and Mandy were visiting and told us how one of their bishopric members in Chicago has a very thick accent...think "da Bears" and Bill Swerski from SNL. Clark started doing a nice imitation of a Swerski Superfan conducting Sacrament Meeting and got us laughing pretty hard. Ever since then, I can't get da accent outta my head!

Up next, da kids!