Tutorial: Covering Wood Letters with Scrapbook Paper (without modpodge)

I did this project a couple months ago for Finley's bedroom.  I loved the way it turned out that I knew I would do it again for the baby's room.  It's easy and inexpensive (thanks to not having to buy Modpodge) which is just my kind of project.

Supplies Needed:

Wood Letters- I bought mine at Hobby Lobby.  Wood Letters were 50% off so they were $1.50 each.

Scrapbook Paper- I bought individual sheets at Hobby Lobby, but you can save even more money if you have some laying around at home.  (I did, but it was a bit girly for a boy nursery)

All Purpose Glue

Foam Paint Brush


Instructions:

1.  Trace your letters on the right side of the paper. 

2.  Cut out your traced letters on the inside of the drawn lines. 

3. Make sure your cut out letters fit the wood letters.  If there are areas where the paper goes over the edge just trim.

4.  Coat the wood letters with the All Purpose glue.  Using the foam paint brush, spread the glue into an even layer covering the entire front side of the letter.

5.  Place the paper on top of the glue.  Press the paper down and try to eliminate any air bubbles.

6.  In a small bowl/jar mix about a quarter size amount of glue with a dash of water to create a milky glue mixture.  This is just like Modpodge and dries clear.

7.  Coat the letters with the paper glued on with the milky watered down glue.  This will become the clear coat.  You can decide to coat it only once or up to 3 times.  The more layers... the more protected the paper will be.

8.  Hang and Enjoy!

All in all, for a 6 letter name, this project cost me $12.  Not too shabby!

Tips: Lets learn from my mistakes, shall we? (mostly due to laziness and impatience)

• Make sure the letters are upright when tracing.  Pretty self-explanatory, but leave it to me to trace my S upside down on paper that couldn't be used in either direction.  Oh well, I improvised and hung the letter upside down on the wall. 
• To trim excess paper on the letters, you can use a knife or a nail file.  The nail file will give it a distressed or softened edge which looks quite nice.  I did this to Finley's letters.
• To help eliminate air bubbles, use a spatula or a roller when pressing the paper onto the glued covered wood.
• Be careful when pressing paper onto the wood.  If you press too hard, the paper may rip.  oops!
• Do 2-3 coats of clear coat... I did only 1 here and the paper wasn't as protected as I would have liked.  Damn my impatience!
• Let the letters fully dry after the clear coat.  I hung my letters while they were semi-wet and some of the paper tore on one letter because of this.  Again, damn my impatience!

Grandpa Barbs

Today was a really good day.  It's one of those days where you are relaxed, you are with family, and you are just perfect with all that is around you.  We went up north to visit my Grandpa... Finley's Great Grandpa Wayne.  I don't know why but she kept getting his name confused with my Grandmother Barb and kept saying how excited she was to go to "Grandpa Barbs" house today.  After correcting her for the 30th time, I just gave up and today he will be known as Grandpa Barb.

The weather at first wasn't ideal.  The clouds were dark and stormy.  There was rain and lightening, but we didn't let that ruin our day.  No, instead we had a fabulous lunch together.  It wasn't too long after lunch that the sun decided to peak out.  That's when the fun began... we went fishing!

Finley has been begging since spring to go fishing, so fishing we did.  Finley caught 3 fish and Andy and I caught 1 each.  All baby bluegills.  It was fun and Finley got to practice casting.  She was successful in not hooking one of us or a dog.  Plus, we got to discover that Finley does not like live worms or wiggly fish.  She was quite scared of the fish she did catch and it took a lot of coaxing to get her to stand next to them for a picture.  She'll have to toughen up if she wants to go fishing more often.

Here is a great picture capturing Finley's disgust.

Andy caught the biggest fish of the group... Appetizer anyone?

Of course, I have to be the one to catch the tiniest fish. 



As you can see, fun was definitely had.  It was so nice to be out and spending it with family.  How did you spend your day?

Joy

There are moments during the week that make me pause.  They make me pause because my heart swells up and fills with so much joy, I can only stand there and take in the moment.  I take a deep breath and try to imprint the memory deep into my brain so it can last forever.  Sometimes I even get a chance to take a picture.  Of course some weeks I barely slow down enough to notice the beauty around me and other weeks they are so full of joyous moments.  Luckily, this week was full... as full as my joyous heart that's nearly ready to burst.  Here are few I was able to capture.

A gymnastics leotard, cowgirl boot, sunhat wearing girl watering the garden.

Our first harvest of peppers.  Those purple ones are my favorite.

A huge pile of baby clothes.

Laundry drying outside on the line. 

These two, Curly Sue and Ruby, begging... always.

The first heirloom tomatoes of the season turning red.

What filled your heart with joy this week?

Tutorial: Seed Bombs

Today's tutorial is making seed bombs.  What are seed bombs?  Well they are little balls of clay and dirt filled with various seeds.  You simply take a seed bomb and you toss it where you please.  See an empty lot or abandoned property that could use some plant goodness?  See an empty corner in your garden?  Perfect!  The movement is called Guerrilla Gardening.  You can read more about it here: Guerrilla Gardening.  The directions are simple:  Toss, Water, and Grow.  Once the seed bombs are watered via rain or you, the clay will and dirt will break down a bit and the seeds will begin to germinate.  Over time, pretty flowers are growing where there once was only dirt or weeds. Pretty Cool, huh?

I am hosting a booth at this Saturday's Neenah Farmers Market as a representative for the Sustainable Neenah Committee.  The theme is composting.  While seed bombs are not really about composting, I thought they would be a great freebie giveaway and they do contain my compost in them.

On to the tutorial! This will make approximately 30 seed bombs.

Ingredients Needed:

• 1/4 cup of various seeds.  Seeds I used were nasturtium, sunflower, marigold, sage, thyme, etc...  It would be wise to use seeds that are native to your area and will grow in the time frame you plan on tossing them (spring/fall)
• 1 1/2 cups of compost/dirt.
• 35 oz of air drying clay.  I got mine at hobby lobby: air dry clay

Steps:

Combine and mix together the seeds and compost.

Break up the clay into tiny pieces and add to the seed/dirt mixture.  Adding a tablespoon of water here an there, mix everything together.  I mixed with my hands, I can't imagine using a spoon or anything.  You really need to work the clay so everything is combined well.      
               

 

 

Once everything is mixed together roll mixture into balls.  Mine were about 1/2" - 1" big.

 

 

 

I put my seed bombs into egg cartons just to separate them for easy drying.  I then put the seed bombs outside and let them dry for 24-48 hours.

 

 

Once dry your seed bombs are complete!

 

For easy grabbing at the farmers market, I decided to wrap the bombs up in fabric.  This step is of course optional.

 

 

Toss-Water-Grow

Why, Hello There!

It's a new Blog!  I don't even know when the last time was that I did a post on my Peace, Love, and Homesteading blog.  I got burnt out and quite frankly didn't think I had any good tales to tell.  But after a couple requests to get back to blogging, I thought what the heck.  So to motivate myself this new blog was created... and I am thrilled!  I mean, seriously, how can you not want to read future posts with cute ass chickens/birds for the background?  Stay tuned because I will be doing a tutorial  on how to make your own seed bombs shortly.  What are seed bombs, you say?  Well, you'll just have to wait to find out!

Cheers!