Friday 18 November 2011

Love

I'm getting a tad carried away making these blocks now and yet I still have more on the go!
These were actually some of the first I ever made but I made a mess of the paint colour choice and then wasn't so keen on the paper choice I made either. However, they've been just staring at me for weeks now pleading to be finished so I figured I'd fit them in in between other projects (why do I seem to have so many on the go!)

Anyhoo these are the blocks:
The finished item.

The process for making them is really, really simple.
I cut 4 blocks from some rough 2"x2" wood and gave them a really good sand down. The corners and edges were sanded with a mega mother of all sand papers (I do have mechanical sander but I'm too lazy to get it set up    I enjoy hand sanding).
Once the corners and edges were rounded I used 2 other grades of sandpaper to smooth the blocks even more:

Before & After.

Next, and this is where it all goes Pete Tong, I painted all the blocks with Laura Ashleys 'Duck egg'. I figured a blast of colour would be just what was needed after so many recent projects have been Cream but once they'd dried I decided it wasn't really what I wanted, so I painted them cream - of course!
Once dried I sanded the whole thing paying more attention to the edges and corners.
Next I took some Latin font vellum, cut pieces to fit the front of each one and glued them on using watered down PVA glue.
This is a process I've never done before and I didn't realise that the vellum would stretch and crinkle so much which is another reason I abandoned the project after this point.

The edges of the paper were also sanded once dried.

Fast forward a few weeks and I decided to finish the blocks mainly because I'd just bought a Gold permanent marker for xmas projects and wanted to try it on something else first.
The marker is by 'Pilot' and I have to say it was a dream to use, as was the White Pilot pen I used on another project, plus I got them dirt cheap along with a Silver one off EBay!
So I attempted to transfer letters onto the blocks the usual way of tracing and scribbling buut even with a dark soft pencil nothing would trace onto the dried glue. In the end I had to hand draw the letters onto each one.

Love!

Apologies for the lack of staging.

Not too shabby huh!

So there you have it, yet more wooden blocks. Enjoy!
Thanks for popping by.





Linked to:

'My Romantic Home'
'Stuff and Nonsense'
'French Country Cottage'
'The Shabby Nest'
'Craft Scrappy Happy'
'Finding Fabulous'
'Craft Envy'
'Craft Junkie Too'
'Todays creative blog'

5 comments:

Felicity said...

They are lovely and your handwriting is fantastic! I wish I were so skillful! Looking forward to your next project!

Heaven's Walk said...

Sweet, Linda! I painted some children's blocks a couple weeks ago and posted about how much fun it was to "play" with them. lol! You've given me another idea using the script first! Thanks! :)

xoxo laurie

Jaime Lyn at Crafty Scrappy Happy said...

beautiful! I love these! Thank you so much for sharing and linking up at crafty scrappy happy
Jaime

Jaime Lyn at Crafty Scrappy Happy said...

beautiful! I love these! Thank you so much for sharing and linking up at crafty scrappy happy
Jaime

Tracy said...

Hi Linda,
Thanks for linking up at Craft Junkie Too last week -- you're one of our Favorite Features.
Congrats! Stop by and grab the featured me button if you'd like.

Thanks!
Tracy
http://www.craftjunkietoo.com/2012/02/tgif-linky-party-45_16.html