Ho Ho Ho Wood blocks

Oh, how I love wood blocks! These were just 4" blocks cut from a 2 x 4 piece of wood. Painted and crackled- and ho, ho, ho added. The bummer: I just made them. After Christmas. And my decorations are put away. Bummer. They get to go in the box of decorations that I'm adding to- either by finding randomly around the house, or making. It's never too late or too early to make decorations, is it? I hope not. It's almost more relaxing now when there isn't the pressure of everything else to do. Have I mentioned how much I love blocks already? (Just kidding :) ).

Count Your Blessings Wood Decor- Craft Warehouse project

I did it! I finally finished this after having it sitting for months half done. I bought this at Craft Warehouse- for a steal- $5! Their project idea was for a chore chart, but I wanted to go with this instead. I numbered the frames and will place pictures of my children and of my husband and I together in one- counting my blessings :) I painted the base color brown, let it dry, then used Americana brand Weathered Wood Crackling Medium. My top coat was a nice off white/cream color. I sanded a little bit around the edges, not too much though. I think I will at some point change out the twine with some nice dark brown ribbon and add a ribbon hanger. I think I will like it better that way. I used my Cricut to cut out lettering and the numbers. I love the song with "count your blessings" . "Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God has done." Amen.

Laundry Room Sign

This is another style of the laundry room sign I made several months ago. I ran out of the 1 x 4 x 8 pieces of lumber I normally use, and used a big square piece I had previously cut instead. I pretty much did the same thing, only the layout is obviously a bit different because of the shape of the wood. Crackling, sanding around the edges, then Cricut vinyl letters. I can't remember where I got the black ribbon of sorts- it's a nice wide grosgrain type- but I know that I recycled it off something, probably a gift one of the kids got. ( I always feel a bit excited when I can do that :) ). This was made for a friend who is putting together a basket for an auction, and she asked me if I could make the laundry sign for it. No problem! It came together quickly. I like this big square size from the lumber that I cut- it's about 9 x 9 inches.

More wood plaques-

These are just the same phrases I cut out of Cricut vinyl as the last 2 plaques- only I put them on 5 3/4 inch by 5 3/4 inch wood squares I cut from a board I bought from Home Depot- (love my miter saw!!!).. Anyhow, one I crackled, one I didn't- I painted the dark brown base and light aqua top coat and distressed. I used my drill to make holes to make a hanger with ribbon to match. These are for my best buddy, she liked the cream and brown ones, and I mentioned the light aqua color and she said "OOH". I may make more for others, depends on what people like. Anyhow, you can see the difference in appearance for the same colors of paint when using crackling versus just distressing (sanding the edges) and no crackling. I'm really loving that light aqua color... :)

Christmas wood block photo holders

I think I was inspired by http://www.howdoesshe.com/ for these with all their wood crafts, I can't remember anymore.. but I know at the very least that's what triggered my thinking... I happened upon these handy little blocks out of the generosity of my best buddy (also a very crafty buddy at that :) ) I decided to try and paint then crackle them with holiday colors, and add the word "joy" on them (since it's short and sweet, and these are small blocks). The crackling worked, and then I sanded a bit around the edges of them, to add even more detail to them. I used Weathered Wood Crackling Medium by Americana- I mentioned in my previous post with my wood signs that I have figured out how to make it work for me for the most part without it dragging and ruining the whole look.. I found it at Michaels for under three dollars, and it goes pretty far. Anyhow, I used my Cricut to cut out vinyl letters and stuck them on there- but you could paint them on there or use stickers, whatever you want. The next point of the experiment was to see if I could manage to get a wire photo holder in the wood without mangling everything. I used metal stem wire- found in the floral arrangement dept. in JoAnn's- it was a package of about 20, and I cut them in half. I wrapped one of the ends around the end of a pair of needle nose pliers to make the spiral holder, then added another loop in the middle by wrapping it around my finger. I used a finishing nail the same width as the stem wire to make a hole. I dabbed the ends of the stem wire in E-6000 glue before pushing them into the hole, and to my happiness, it fit tightly and securely. Woohoo! These were totally inexpensive- you could use scraps of wood for anything. I highly recommend using crackling medium to instantly make something a little fancier. I'm excited that this actually worked out- those ideas in my head don't often have success :) ..

"Family" wooden decoration- Dollar Tree find

I found this 'Family' plaque at Dollar Tree- unpainted, and I used good old acrylic paint- the kind you get in a bottle for under a dollar. I painted it a sage green then used crackling medium and a cream colored paint over that. I think the brand for the crackling medium was DecoArt- it's inexpensive, and I found it with the sealers and such in the paints area of the craft store. I have to say that before I tried crackling medium, I was a bit unsure of how to use it. So, after much procrastination, I took a deep breath, read the directions on the bottle, and found out it's pretty basic. You get a couple of contrasting colors of paint- the darker one usually looks best underneath, the lighter one crackles and shows streaks of the darker. Paint your project with the darker color then let dry completely. Brush your crackling medium on. The trick is to not let it dry completely, so you have to keep checking on it, until it feels tacky. You then carefully brush your lighter coat of paint in the same direction as the brush strokes you used for the crackling medium. It begins to crackle with a couple of minutes. After it is completely dry, you can add a clear coat of sealer if you'd like- I don't generally, but it depends on how much touching it's going to get. Then I just used ribbon and buttons to decorate it. I'm giving it to my best buddy, and since I bought 2 of them, I need to work on one for myself too. Maybe this will give you a new outlook towards Dollar Tree craft items. I'm glad I gave it a chance.