Wood Wall Hanging- Having somewhere to go is home...

I found this quote on a wall hanging idea at Craft Warehouse. I instantly wanted to make my own. I used my miter saw to cut a piece of wood I bought at Home Depot into 3 even pieces, then used my power drill, (Woohoo, girl with a saw AND a drill!!! could be dangerous! ). It was a little bit tricky getting the holes the same distance from the edge, but I think that's due more to learning curve with the drill more than anything else. I then base coated the wood pieces in a dark brown, allowed them to dry, applied Weathered Wood Crackling Medium by Americana, let it dry, then used Italian Sage colored paint by Folk Art. When that was all dry, I used dark brown grosgrain ribbon to tie them together. I did this first to see if I could make it work, before going to the time and trouble of cutting and applying vinyl lettering and having it not work right. Well, call me happily surprised, (Thanks, God! ) it actually looked alright to me, so I was content to cut my vinyl out with my Cricut. There you have it. This project is going into the MOPS auction this Friday... and that concludes, I think... all my planned and unplanned projects contributed to the auction... whew!

"Shh!! We're reading" sign

If you've checked out anything else on my blog, you'll at some point run across the mention of our MOPS group's spring auction and what I've made for it. I tend to make a variety of items- there are some things I've made several years in a row because they did really well, and then there are specific to the year and my whim and fancy. Anyhow, I digress..... :) Each year every table of ladies in the MOPS group comes up with a themed gift basket in which we put together items that go with that theme. Our table chose "Child's first library" in which all those classics are included that you'd typically buy for a new baby. I decided to contribute a little sign, the idea just came to me... thanks God!! I think God gives me the best ideas :) So, what popped into my mind was "Shh!! We're reading" Pretty basic, really. I painted a little plaque from Craft Warehouse a bottom coat of red, then painted over that with a light aqua color. I then sanded around the edges a bit and on the front to let the red show through slightly for contrast. I used a red ribbon hanger to complement the red and aqua, and then used my Cricut with the Alphalicious cartridge to cut out some vinyl lettering. I think it will be a fun addition to our First Library basket.

First project using my miter saw

This is my first project using my miter saw that I asked for (and received) for Christmas. Woohoo!!!!! Once I got headphones so the sound wouldn't make me completely weenie out from using it, the task was a lot easier to stand. I cut 8, 7, 6, 5, and 4 inch pieces of wood from a 2 x 4, then set to sanding and painting. I considered crackling, but figured with the patterned paper (and asking my best buddy who also is crafty), decided to go with painting 2 colors on the wood and distressing to show the bottom layer of paint. After that, I just used Mod Podge to glue strips of paper on, and cut names out with my Cricut and vinyl- I borrowed my best friend's Alphalicious cartridge for the font, and added shadow on some. I (literally) wrapped up the project with some wired ribbon. Pretty simple, once I had the means to cut the wood. Speaking of wood, have any of you seen that Geico commercial with the woodchucks? "Hey you dang woodchucks! You quit chucking my wood!!!"... sorry, I really get a kick out of that. Oh, I found the idea for this project from http://www.howdoesshe.com/- fabulous site!!!