January Craft Day

Hosted the first Craft Day of the year! For this craft day we went for a Valentine's Day wreath, inspired of course by Pinterest. Some decided to work on other projects, which came out great, while two of us stuck to the theme. 

Always a good time to hang out and crafting happens to be a bonus =)

Fall Banner

Fall is my favorite season! After the craft day was over, I got started on my fall banner. I used the paper bags from the grocery store and started cutting out the banner. 

September Craft Day

After taking the summer off, monthly craft days are back on! I love crafting and I love fall, so crafting for fall decor is perfection for me.

We had some beautiful fall crafts being made yesterday. Check it out:

5x5 Mixed Media Art

Full Sail University is hosting a Summer Art Show called 5x5 @5pm. All we had to do was pickup a canvas, create an original work of art and submit it for the show next month. It will be available for sale where all proceeds will go to benefitting the FS students. 

So naturally, I reserved a 5x5 canvas and created a mixed media piece which I always enjoy doing. I started by choosing the scrapbook paper I wanted and cut out a design I liked. I began using Mod Podge and glued each piece down. I decided not to paint any part of it, so I used paper even around the edges. 

Then I sanded down the corners and edges of the canvas and distressed it with an ink pad. I followed up with a Q-tip and ink highlighting the lines. Finally, I finished off with a brown ink pad and just spread it across the entire canvas to give it a more distressed tone.   

May Craft Day

May's craft day was a mix of crafts. The official craft project was to create a magnetic chalk board out of a cookie sheet pan, but basically, anything craft that's being worked on is fair game.

The goal of a craft party is to have fun. One of my friends couldn't make it last month, but she purchased all the supplies for the Spring Bird. So that's what she worked on. My other friend and I worked on the chalkboard project, while others just came to socialize and enjoy company.

Spring Bird

Create a cute spring bird that decorates your home. Super easy and fun to do. 

Here's what you'll need:

• Wooden bird (Michael's has it for $2.99)
• Scrapbook paper
• Mod Podge
• Gesso (optional)
• Varnish (optional)
• Sandpaper
• Black inkpad
• Q-tip
• Buttons
• Glue Dots

First, apply Gesso to the wood to allow for better adhesion of the scrapbook paper (this step is optional). Then, begin cutting out different shapes of scrapbook paper and applying them one by one on the bird where you want them with the Mod Podge. 

Once you have covered each part of the bird with the paper, wait a few minutes for it to dry and begin sanding down the edges to trim off any extra paper and give a white border to the bird. 

Then, get the inkpad and start rubbing it along the lining of the bird that you just sanded down to give a distressed look. After, I outlined the paper with a marker and went over it with a Q-tip and ink to smudge it and bring out each individual paper. 

Finally, I finished it off with a varnish to seal and protect the paper and then added the buttons for eyes with Glue Dots.

Our first song

Yet another inspired Pinterest craft! Here I printed out the lyrics to At Last by Etta James, since that was our first dance when my hubby and I were married. I framed it in a black frame and have it in our bedroom. I absolutely love this craft! 

January Craft Day!

First craft day of the year was based on a Valentines PINspiration. We had a great time even though I stared at my wooden piece for 3 hours without doing anything. It took me FOREVER to finally come up with something and I actually really liked the end result.

Creativity takes some people a little longer =)

Katherine worked on a potato stamp for V-day

Hilda created a V-day picture frame

Kim created a V-day art piece

My V-day craft project =)

Christmas Canvas Decor

Made from three small canvases, paint, ribbon, hot glue, Mod Podge, scrapbook paper and stickers, I created this beautiful Christmas decorative wall decor. 

Christmas Window Decor

Since it's officially December 1st and clearly Christmastime, I have continued to craft and make decorations in the home as much as possible. Today I completed yet another project: a window decor. I purchased shiny glitter paper in red, silver and green at Michael's.

Then I simply cut out the circles and used adhesive to secure them on the silver string. While the pictures may not do it justice, they look really great in person =)

Scrapbook Paper Christmas Tree

Photo Blocks

For my mom's 50th birthday, I wanted to make her a special unique gift that was customized and not generic. After 5 hours of creative work, my photo blocks were complete and she loved them!

Materials used:

• Sanded down wood blocks
• Sand paper (for the edges after applying the scrapbook paper and photos)
• Ink pad (for distressing the edges)
• Scissors
• Mod Podge* (to paste the scrapbook paper and photo)
• Gesso (to gloss the wood for better paper and photo application)
• Scrapbook paper (variety of patterns)
• Stickers, buttons or whatever flair you want to add
• Finishing sealer

*Use Mod Podge to gloss over the photo and paper but be careful that it's dry so you don't make holes in the picture or stretch it. 

It's not difficult to do this project and it's really fun. It can go in so many ways and end up being your child's name with images and different sayings or whatever you would like it to be. Sky's the limit!

Final product

Decorated each side for a variety of setups

September Pinterest Craft Day

As a result of my love for crafting, I created a monthly craft day at my home that started last month with four women. The way it goes is I take a pin or two from Pinterest and post it on an Evite with the supplies necessary.

You can follow my Pinterest boards here: http://pinterest.com/simplyjenelle/

We just finished our September Craft Day and it was a success.

Craft: a fall wreath that was Pininspired.

Tools:

• A round foam wreath — 2 inches with a flat top and sides (found at Hobby Lobby or Michaels). 
• Ribbon (about 9 yards for a 12 inch wreath)
• Gorilla Glue 
• Paint that matches your ribbon 
• Small Dowels or wooden beads 
• Round Wooden Craft Circles (also found at Hobby Lobby) 2 packages – approximately 30 circles of different sizes 
• 4 different patterns of decorative paper or scrapbook paper
• Glue gun and sticks OR Superglue

All the ladies did such an amazing job on making their fall wreaths unique and beautiful. We had a great time:

Around the table crafting

Katherine decided to work on her daughters' costumes

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After a little input, we added one more thing for a final touch =)

A bow...it came out awesome!

This was my fall wreath that I immediately hung. It was three dimensional

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Beautiful Fall Wreaths =)