Homemade Cork Board

So I saw a picture of project making a cork board from wine corks (probably on Michael's site, I'm dangerous in that store!) and decided to try it out.

I started out getting enough wine corks for the project from my mom (thanks mom!) and an 8x10 picture frame (just a cheap one).  I left it up to hubby to figure out how to make the picture frame into a shadow like box for me (he's so sweet) and then painted the whole thing black.

Plain Jane picture frame

Hubby cutting back from my frame :)

Modified Back of the picture frame (thanks hubby!)

Frame painted and waiting on corks

Before I actually did any gluing of the corks I layed out my design inside the frame first.  Since corks are not all the same size hubby had to cut some small pieces down for me to fit in on the sides.

Testing out the fit.

You'll see in the finished project I did end up change how some of the corks laid around the F, it looked better to me as I was gluing them in place (that or it was the glue high telling me it looked better!!!).  For the corks that made up the F, those were stood up straight and cut in approximately half so they were the same height as the corks laying down.

Hung with a ribbon in my new beading area (that's another post!)

Melted Crayon Art

I meant to post this like 2 weeks ago, things just got in the way!  Enjoy. 

So I saw on another bloggers site (here and here) about an art project melting crayons on canvas and just had to try it with the girls.  On Sunday after going to Michael's to get some canvas, the car battery dying, my husband having to come jump the car off, we headed home to start our project but got side tracked with getting Chinese food from ChopStix with my friend Robin.

Finally we settled down to start our art project.  We all decided to peal the labels off the crayons not knowing if the paper would catch on fire or not with the heat gun we were going to use.

Robin waiting to get the glue from my girls!

          Amber not wanting to share the glue...

 Daryan said it was not ready to have it's picture taken!

Amber watching the "LOL Cow" one getting melted.

AND the finished projects, hubby made the frames for them.  These are hanging above the girls desk area.  Somehow I missed taking a finished one of Robin's "melting love" and Amber's "lol cow" once they were framed.  Amber gave the "lol cow" to her best friend, of course she LOVED it!  Strange kids...

Sunday Project with the Girls

We started with empty tp rolls and paper towel rolls too. We cut some done to make different sizes. 

 Then we put glue on the rolls, then rolled scrapbooking paper around them in different colors.

 Daryan rolling up her tube!

 I cut a cardboard shape cover it with paper for the bottom, glued the tubes together, then ran glue around the bottom of the tubes to glue them to the base/bottom.  I sprayed the whole thing down with a clear varnish to make it a bit sturdier and....

 The finished product!

It's all ready to hold pencils, scissors, paper clips, rubberbands - always lots of little stuff floating around our house to put in it!

Painting

Since it rained off and on for most of our 4th, we stayed in doing little projects around the house.  And if you ask my husband I came up with a thousand more for us to do!

With our son back home (we are happy about this!) we've had to do some re-arranging of where stuff goes.  We needed a new sewing desk to fit in the new sewing area so we have re-purposed the old vanity my daughter didn't want anymore.

This is how it started out looking (minus the mirror the dog broke!)...

In progress pictures...both daughter started out helping paint, only one continued!

First coats done...

Second coats is done (no picture yet) on the desk and it just needs a finishing clear coat.  The drawers need to be sanded and re-painted cause apparently I didn't notice they had a clear coat before the girls started painting on them.  But my youngest LOVES to paint so that will not be a problem.

I'll post of pictures of the finished project this week, now it's time to head off to work.

And look Dad, it's red, but at least it's not red walls!