Noel

So for the first time in god only knows how many years we have decided to get the tree and decs up now rather that 3 days before xmas day. The reason? Well we're kind of settled in our new home now and have so much more room than we've been used to these past 8 years so we figured it will be nice to make a bit more of the holiday season and spirit. Heck even hubby has done all his shopping! Not only that but he's wrapped everything too! Not bad considering he normally leaves it till xmas eve eh! His wrapping would be rushed and a disaster and if he bothered to put a tag on it it would simply say 'Linda'. Not very inspiring is it! Hence why I am very impressed with him this year, though I do draw the line at putting the pressies under the tree - I'm left alone here far too much to resist that temptation!

Look at that, I've managed to digress from a xmas tree to my pressies!

Anyway like I said I've been putting up the tree and decs today and what would normally have taken me a few hours has so far taken me the best part of a day and they're still not finished.

What I have managed to get finished though are some xmas blocks I recently made. They're not brilliant I'll admit because although I have the lettering down (finally) I'm not too hot on adding embellishments.
Here's the Noel blocks:

These were so easy to make. I simply cut out square blocks from any scrap wood, sanded the edges and corners and then lightly sanded the fronts and backs.
2 of the blocks were painted using Laura Ashleys 'Summer Pudding' and the other 2 were painted with Crowns Metallic 'Striking'. All 4 were given a good 2 coats.
Next is the bit I always look forward to and enjoy - the lettering.
I always seem to prefer opening up CS5 (though you could use any word document) and then typing the letters and playing with the fonts.
Once I have the font I want and have stretched it to the size I want I trace them onto paper from the laptop using the backlight as a sort of lightbox. I only do this because I'm having printer problems but I find it pretty easy and quick.
Once I had them on paper I turned the paper over and traced the image on the back from the front and then it's just a case of lining each letter up correctly on the block and scribbling over the letter to produce a vague outline to follow later.
With that done I nicked my daughters Calligraphy ink again (Eek) in Black and using one of her artists brushes I traced over the N & E outlines and filled in where needed.
The O & L were traced and filled in with a gold Pilot pen.
Finally I added a bow (albeit tacky one) and some strands to the N & E, glueing them on using a hot glue gun.
For the O & L I attempted to replicate snow but it kinda went wrong!

Next I finished these blocks:

These were mega easy to make also, using the exact same method as above.
The only difference is that I traced the letters from a book I have and the Black & Gold are both calligraphy inks and were used with a glass calligraphy pen (it's more of a glass stick TBH).
The top of these ones are simply some fake Holly leaves I found with some fake berries attached, hot glued on with some squirly ribbon.
Like I said, neither are perfect but still look pretty cool!

So thanks for taking a look. I'll be posting wreaths etc I've made soon and I've been enjoying checking out all your own Xmas crafts.
Happy Xmas crafting y'all.



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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.





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'Todays creative blog'

Wooden blocks

Whilst scouring the net for inspiration (as always cos my imagination is non existant) I noticed alot of wooden blocks with lettering or phrases on them - love em!
A while back I had a go at 'these' ones and loved the outcome but I'm really wanting to have a go at the ones that look like childrens building blocks.

So here is what I came up with:

and:

You wouldn't believe how simple these were to make.
Both sets began the same way. For the 'HOME' set I cut 4 blocks from a length of 2"x2" scrap wood and each one was sanded quite alot. To get the curved edges I used a seriously hard core piece of sandpaper (I do have mechanical tools for the job but I luuurve hand sanding) and then I used 2 other grades to smooth it out.

unsanded left, sanded right. But I'm guessing you knew that!

Next I gave it 2 thin coats of Patio Paint, waited for it to dry and then sanded those corners and edges back.
When it came to the lettering I discovered the ink was out in the printer - don't you just love it when that happens! NOT!! - and my Cricut machine blade obviously needs replacing as it just teared anything I put in it - I'm soooo not organised!
Just as I was about to produce a mammoth sulk I remembered a book on lettering my mum gave me a couple of weeks ago which is full of font samples in the back. Saved!!!
So I simply traced the letters the way I did for 'this' project onto paper, traced again on the reverse of the paper, laid it on the block and scribbled over it to trace the letter to the block.
Finally I used my 'stabilo' & 'Sharpie' permanent pens and traced the letters - seemples!

Sitting nicely on an old book on my sideboard.

Finished 'HOME' blocks.

The 'Home Sweet Home' blocks were produced the same way except for longer cuts of the 2"x2" obviously.
Originally I painted them Laura Ashleys 'Duck Egg' but as it dried I decided it wouldn't really look quite right with the other projects it was going to go with so I went over the 'Duck Egg' with Patio paints 'Patio Brick'.
Once dried I sanded those edges and corners again and a little to the fronts as well.
Originally I wanted to do the lettering White but it looked awful. I'm a bit picky when it comes to my lettering and if I feel the control isn't right then I'm not going to like the outcome. Obviously with no White pen (Do those exist?) I had to use paint and an adapted paintbrush - it's so never going to work!
Looked terrible so I started again and traced letters the same way as above and went over it with the trusty 'Stabilo' & 'Sharpie' pens.

'Home Sweet Home' sitting on my 'Shabby Shelf ' which hasn't been put up yet!

I absolutely enjoyed making these. It's always nice when a project takes such a small amount of time especially if you have larger pieces on the go too.
I'm going to make more of these blocks for Christmas decorations so look out for more of em!

Thanks for popping in again. Hope you liked em. Please leave a comment as I read every single one and love to get them. xx




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Old aged letters

I never really got the 'shabby chic' look, it all seemed such a waste of time to me. After all why would anyone want to go to all that trouble of lovingly painting furniture to then just rough it up, sand it down and make it look old again?
It just seemed so ... well....pointless!

But then during one of my 'visit as many random blogs as possible' moments I happened across the most amazing gorgeous 'shabby' 'aged' 'distressed' (whatever you wanna call it) project on an amazingly inspirational blog and I was hooked.
The project in question was a wall sign and the blog I was loving was 'eleven-o-one creations' Not just fabulous signs either, just check out the 'Furniture Portfolio' of 'eleven-o-one creations', it's Amazing.
Once I'd seen the signs that Fran had created I was determined to create my own however no matter how much I searched the net I just couldn't find a tutorial that seemed to result in the same look as Frans' creations and as I've never done these paint effects before I wasn't confident that I could pull it off without some form of guidance (I'm not patient enough to spend days practising till I figure it all out).
So I contacted Fran to ask if she knew of a decent tutorial and I was so chuffed when Fran took the time to get right back to me with a tutorial all of her own. Thank you Fran.

Although ultimately I want a couple of signs for my upstairs bathroom I decided I would learn the technique on some wooden blocks that I wanted to letter for the same bathroom. I wanted to create the word 'Relax' in wooden blocks.
One of the reasons I wanted to start there was because I have recently updated my craft stamps and have unmounted them from their wooden blocks, mounted them on UMount and filed them away in files to save on storage.
But I was left with numerous blocks like these

I knew they'd come in handy for something though and figured they'd be great for the bathroom letters.
That is some super tacky glue they use to mount the stamps to the blocks though and it took me a fair while to scrape it all off. The sanding down was a breeze however and I kinda didn't want to stop!

That's them all sanded and ready to go.
Usually I like symmetry and wouldn't go for the different sizes but I decided to be adventurous here.

Fran had told me in her tutorial the paints she would normally use but me being the most impatient person alive I couldn't wait for a paint supply to arrive and so I figured I'd try using 'Patio Paints' and see how they worked.
While I'd been researching the 'Milk Paint' that Fran mentioned I noticed on their website a series of colour layers that resulted is a finish similar to Frans so I used the 'Patio Paints' as close to those colours as I could.
The first 2 layers were 'Wrought Iron Black' followed by 1 layer of 'Cloud White' and finally 1 coat of 'Daisy cream'.
The hardest part of the project was the drying time for each layer, like I said I'm not terribly patient!
While they were drying though I opened up 'Photoshop' on the puter, created the letters I needed in a calligraphy font and printed them out onto regular paper.
Next I went back to the now dried out blocks and went at them with P80 electro coated sandpaper. This was a real fun part but be warned, you have to know when to stop! It's sooooooo easy to get carried away and then you end with something that just looks wrong!
At this stage I stopped the 'roughing up' just short of finished as I figured there'd be more to do once the letters were on, after all solid, new looking letters would look a bit naff on a weathered piece of wood.
The look I wanted was Black edges with the corners and a few other areas sanded down to the bare wood. I also like the White showing through before the Black, it gives it a more weathered look.
Next I transferred those letters to each block by tracing the letter on the reverse of the paper before laying it on the block (original side up obviously) and tracing - ok scribbling - over the top.

You're then left with a fine outline on the actual block which you need to go over with your choice of pen or paint.
On my first attempt I used a 'sharpie' pen. The 'Sharpie' is much easier to use than a paintbrush and the edges are much more defined

However 'Sharpie' has a tendency to smudge or bleed with some varnishes so if you intend to varnish the project use a paint - I learned that one the hard way and I ended up having to sand the whole lot down, front and back and start again.
Next time round I used the 'Wrought Iron Black' 'Patio Paints' and cut down an artist brush so it was small enough to use - this is not ideal though and TBH I'm not 100% pleased with the result.
Once the lettering was dry I gave it another sand down and then gave it just the 1 coat of floor varnish.

The finished result

They are a bit mored weathered and aged than is showing on the photo.
I'm actually quite chuffed with them and am loving this look now. I can see many many future projects being lovingly painted just to be roughed up and sanded down to look old again. lol.

I'm dedicating this post to fran of 'eleven-o-one creations'. Thank you Fran for taking the time to help me out and for your inspirational blog.



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