Watermelon Door Hanger Giveaway

Megan, over at Crafter Club, finished our watermelon door hanger and is giving away this awesome summer craft on her blog. Check out her post here, Watermelon Door Hanger Giveaway, to enter to win your very own watermelon door hanger.It's super easy to enter, so be sure to check out her blog.

Look how cute her's turned out:

I Love You Word Set Tutorial by Guest Blogger, Talented Terrace Girls

Hi, this is Kayla from Talented Terrace Girls. We were asked to do another Wood Creations post and I volunteered because I love the store.  Last time I went I wanted to buy everything because I couldn't decide which project to do.  I decided to do the "I Love U" letter box.  Have I mentioned this store is a one stop shop? You can get pretty much everything you need to make and finish your project.  They have lots of paper to choose from, ribbon, paints etc.  So unless your looking for something specific, you can get it all here.  I'll just say again I love Wood Creations.

Here is what you will need:
-"I Love U" letter block set
-scrapbook paper
-paint
-foam brushes
-Mod Podge

1. Pick out paper and paint.
2. Paint letter blocks and let dry.
3. Trace blocks onto scrapbook paper.
4. Cut out traces.
5. Using Mod Podge put a layer on the front of the block with a foam brush and place the cut out letter onto the block.  Use a kitchen pan scraper to secure and work out bubbles. Let dry. Do this for each letter.
6. Using a foam brush layer Mod Podge over all surfaces of the letter including the front where you put the paper on.  Let dry.
7. Display your project in your house

My poor husband is doing homework and I am having fun crafting. 

You can find this awesome post linked up to the following Fantastic Parties:

Bat Dowel Set Tutorial by Guest Blogger, Talented Terrace Girls

Hello all you crafters! My name is Keri from the Talented Terrace Girls blog and I am SO excited to be a guest blogger for such a fabulous crafting store. I am seriously in love with this place and appreciate that not only do they carry adorable crafts but all the supplies needed to complete the project! Yay for effectiveness!

When I was given this amazing opportunity to complete a Halloween craft, I was giddy with excitement. Not only is Halloween a super fun holiday, but it is also my daughter's birthday! So needless to say we have a TON of Halloween decorations- and several of them were purchased at Wood Creations!

For this project you will need:

bat wooden dowel set from Wood Creations this sells in the store for $16.99

mod podge

wood glue

black and white craft paint

glitter

three different sheets of paper 

sponge brushes

sand paper

pencil

tulle or other embellishments for the dowel

The first thing I do when starting a project is lay out all my pieces and put them in little organized piles. That way I know all the pieces are there and I can keep them from getting lost. You can see that there is a cute wooden owl craft in this pic- my daughter picked this out to make. I love bonding over crafting!!

Lightly sand all the edges of your pieces.

Lay the bat front side down on the back of the paper you chose. Now it is time to trace! (And what a great educational activity for your preschoolers, too!)
Hint: Use a white colored pencil to trace when using dark paper- it will show up a lot better!

I always like to label the fronts of my pieces- that way I can easily tell which side doesn't need to be completely painted. And I know which side will be getting mod podged and papered!

Paint your pieces! Remember that you don't need to completely paint the front side of your bats- just get around the edges in case your paper doesn't quite match up.
Most everything on the bats will be black except the teeth and the scleras (the white part of the eye). I just thought I would throw in a little human anatomy fact during the craft. I am teacher crazy like that. :)


I added a little glitter to the teeth by sprinkling it on while the paint was still wet. I am not sure if this is the professional way of doing it but it worked for me. Wood Creations has a wide assortment of glitter!

The worst part of painting.

Now it's time for the tricky part. Add mod podge all over to the front side of the bats before placing your paper on them. Then use mod podge on top of the paper to secure it down.
I must admit that I have a love/hate relationship with mod podge. One day I will be able to do it bubble free!! I have heard you can smooth the bumps out with a credit card. I need to remember that tip for next time!

Start gluing the pieces together!
Hint: You only need a small amount of glue- wood glue spreads and it doesn't dry clear. (At least the one we have). In the past I had to repaint over glue that had stained my craft a beautiful brown color.

Once the glue is dry I added some sparkly orange glitter tulle. I LOVE how the glitter sprinkled onto the base of the bat. So festive!


Then sit back and admire your craft! Aren't these bats ADORABLE?!

The bats now sit on top of the bookcase in our living room and are the first thing people see when they walk into our house!

I want to thank Wood Creations for this opportunity to share our creation journey with you guys!

Happy Crafting!

Stars and Stripes Post by Guest Blogger, Talented Terrace Girls

Hey everyone! =)  This is Trinity Hansen over at Talented Terrace Girls.  I was super excited to hear that the wonderful people at Wood Creations wanted us to do a guest post for them. We all seriously love this store!  If I'm not careful I can get into lots of trouble and go a little crazy with the cute projects in that store....... 

I was also excited that they wanted us to do a 4th of July themed one.  I am seriously lacking in my patriotic decor so I loved the chance to do this project.  there are sooooo many cute projects there so you need to scurry on over there and get your's =)

Ok, now on to the tutorial:

This project was actually pretty simple to do.  The hardest part was deciding which papers I wanted to

use for it =)

The project I chose was,"Stars and Stripes", this set is $14.99 in the store.

Here is my finished product.  Now I'll show you the different steps I used to get to it.

Start out with your unfinished wood.  I was happy that the stars came with the holes already in them to thread the wire through.  

Start painting your letters.  There's a lot of painting since the letters a bit bigger so feel free to recruit some help like I did.  =)  The colors I used for my letters were red, blue and silver (it was a light silver that covered the wood better then white)

I painted the bead board part of the star silver as well.  It took a couple coats.  Then when it was dry I sprayed it with some glitter to make it different the the rest of the star. You can't see the glitter too well in the picture, but it's a subtle glitter that has lots of reds, blues, and silvers in them.  It went perfect with it and didn't overpower the rest of it.

Then, once all my letters were dry, I figured out which ones I wanted to do scrapbook paper on and then which patterns I wanted to use.  That took more time for me to decide than anything.  =) 

I just traced an outline the letters and shapes and then cut it out.  Don't worry about them being perfect (unless you are a perfectionist and you like to have the edges exact)

Next get out your trusty mod podge and do a layer on the letters and shapes that you want to put scrap paper on.  Then take the paper and smooth it down on the wood.  To make sure and get all the bubbles out you could run something with a straight edge, like a credit card, over it.  Then let it set and dry for a few minutes.

Since my lines and edges weren't exact, I got some sandpaper and sanded the excess off.  This also gives the edges a distressed look when you are finished, which I love.  You can distress it as much as you want but if you don't want a whole lot, just sand the very edge and it will get the paper off (or you could use an exact-o-knife to make it straight) 

The next step, put your vinyl on.  Make sure it is smooth and straight.  I like to seal my paper and vinyle with a layer of mod podge over top as well.  (I have kids that like to play with the letters so they need a little extra help to withstand them =)  ) Then let it dry for a little while.

Then you can start adding your finishing touches.  I decided to add a few extra stars and I used wire to wrap around the letters instead of ribbon.  To give a swirly look to the wire just wrap it around a pencil or pen and then slide it off.

I did little curly cues with the wire in the cent of the stars

I did scrap paper on the star and then my sparkly bead board star.  I was hoping takings the picture in the sun would show the sparkles but it didn't work like I thought.  

I added some stars to the "S."  I sprayed the "t" with some glitter too. I added some wiring with some curls to a few letters.

For my letter "R" I did a star in the middle where hole would usually go. (those are also sprayed with glitter) I also sprayed the "S"  with some glitter spray too.  In person the glitter is more noticeable and looks great.  It gives it a subtle sparkle.

This was a fun project to do.  Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to do it and to share it with everyone.  I look forward to visiting the store a lot and getting more super cute crafts to do (just don't tell my husband where the extra money is going.....=) )  This is one of my favorite stores. I love that they have so many styles of crafts and that we take home the unfinished project and make it our own.  Keep up the good work, Wood Creations!!!