Christmas wood decor

I've continued to play around with wood, paint, crackling medium, and Cricut vinyl letters, and came up with this Christmas decoration. I like it so much that I want to make one that isn't in seasonal colors because of what it says about God and how I relate to Him. To me, He is my source of hope, joy, peace, and so much more, and He is definitely my Saviour. I used leftover pieces of 2 x 4's cut from the wood photo holders posted recently (from the http://www.howdoesshe.com/ site). I used a narrower piece of wood cut from a long board purchased and cut at Home Depot. I was originally going to put "Believe" on the long piece of wood as a separate decoration for Christmas, but then decided to use it with the 3 smaller pieces of wood. The whole thing was an experiment- I was going to put holiday words on the smaller pieces, and wasn't sure what all I was going to do. I'd also run out of the green and red paint, so I couldn't use the eight inch piece cut from the 2 x 4's that I had left over to put "Saviour" on, so I tried the one I'd originally intended for "Believe".. I'm really happy with how this turned out, and I can arrange the wood pieces however I want. I don't think my infatuation with wood, paint, and crackling medium is over yet... :)

More "Joy" wood photo holders

These are just a slightly bigger version of the "joy" block photo holders I posted recently. I made them the same way- paint, crackling medium, more paint, then I used a metal stem wire wrapped around the edge of needlenose pliers to make the spiral of sorts. I sanded slightly around the edges to distress it a little bit more. I used a finishing nail to make a hole the same diameter of the wire in the center of the wood, then pushed the wire in. Ta-da! Super easy secretary gifts for the ladies in the office at the boys' school. :)

Etched Glass Teacher Gifts

I bought these large square votive holders at the Dollar Store, then used Cricut vinyl to cut out the letter C- (both of the ladies who are co-leading our Bible Study at church have names that start with C). I used Armour Etching Paste to etch the glass. It's a little spendy, but it goes a long way, and when you scrape it off, you just put it back in the jar. Running your object under running water deactivates it, so it doesn't damage your pipes (just in case you wonder about things like that... ) I'm filling these with a candle and a little blank tag book- (paper cut as tags, then hole punched and held together with a book ring- I added ribbon to the book ring to pretty it up just a bit..) I think it will be a nice little gift, in which the recipients can use the glass holder as they wish, and fill the book with Scripture verses or quotes that they like. Easy peasy, and super fast!