Every year, at least a month before Christmas, we start our Wish List. It’s one piece of paper divided into sections – one section for each person. There they write what they wish for (one piece of paper makes it easy for me to grab and take shopping).
Back in 2006, I wrote “World Peace” in my section of my wish list. I must have just watched Miss Congeniality or something! And truthfully, I really wasn’t expecting to get “World Peace” for Christmas! So, imagine my surprise when I actually got “World Peace” from my imaginative oldest daughter for Christmas!!!
This is what she wrote on the back . . .And now . . . are you ready to see what “World Peace” looks like?
My Uncle Harvey has recently created his own casket. When I first saw these photo’s, I was enthralled! I’ve never seen anything like this before – and it’s gorgeous!!!
Yes, that’s Uncle Harvey – hopefully he’s not going to need his lovely ‘box’ for many years yet!!!
This is what he had to say about how this came about:
Thank you for your kind remarks about my lovely’ box’. An ex-pupil made it for me (he now owns a joinery factory) out of particle board to my style and specification. It was then painted “British Racing Green” – always been a favourite colour of mine. The painter did a great job and we have always used him whenever one of our cars needed attention.
Finally the graphics – a demanding job sorting out the appropriate photos and locating them in the best positions. An expert friend did this for me, but I did the pin stripe and fitted the handles and cover screws. Inside is finished to the same standard as the outside, and roomy enough for my dog if he’s still around.
The finished price of my box is the same price as the cheapest box available, so I am well pleased with the result. If you feel inclined, place it on your Blog – I might get some orders!
The center top panel is empty – that’s where the casket spray goes. The left panel is a great picture of my handsome Uncle, and the right panel has words. There are pictures around the entire box, with a larger one on each end.
I love how the whole box has such meaning to Uncle Harvey and those who know and love him.
Very impressive Uncle Harvey – and I’m sure your dog loves it too!
Edited to add: Unfortunately Uncle Harvey passed away last year (2017) and was laid to rest in his lovely box. Love you Uncle H!
I unpacked these little blue blocks the other day. But today I added the Be My Valentine words, because we all know that day of love is coming up in less than a month!!!
Originally I made the blocks for a Relief Society Party.
The purpose of Relief Society being: 1) Increase Faith 2) Strengthen Family and 3) Provide Relief.
Now that I don’t need the R.S. words anymore,
I thought it would be fun to make a bunch more words for the family to be creative with.
So I printed these on cardstock and distressed the edges. I keep thinking of more I should add, so I have a list for people to add more words as they think of them.
Here are a few other loving variations . . .
But right now there is only one possible message that could be on the blocks . . .. . . as she wrote her English Diploma exam today, with Math and Chemistry to follow next week. With them counting for 50% of her final grade, that’s a lot of pressure.
I like long wooden signs!!! I find them an easy way to have inspirational message in my home because they fit so nicely in often unused places – like over a door or window, or above and below pictures.
If they’re going to specific people, I often ask for a phrase preference and colour preference. Then I paint and plan it out on paper to make sure the spacing works.
These were some my sister’s requested . . .Isn’t “Did You Think to Pray?” a great one to have over your bedroom door (it’s okay, one of my sisters actually has a red and gold bedroom!)
“Live Without Regret” is one of my favourite quotes from Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley.
The wonky buttons actually match my sister’s area rug!!!
Another sis has six sons and a daughter and thinks of her home as a “Missionary Training Center”.
And I attached a Future Missionary tag with burlap.
The ladies I Visit Teach got these “Joy to the World” signs this Christmas.
Notice the green one (how could you not?) That’s my one – I made it many years ago and it’s reversible – looks the same as the others on the other side. It was perfect for a ledge in my house that was visible from both sides.
Just a close up of the etchings on the wood. The letters are just done with an alphabet stencil from Michaels.
And a few more . . .
“There is Beauty all Around” was the most sung Family Home Evening song in my guys home. So now this little sign hangs above his parents dining room window.
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart” is just a great scripture for us all to remember all the time.
I mod podged a picture of the Lord onto a heart.
And finally, “Family is Everything” because, it really is!!!
I had fun making signs this past Christmas (kinda helped to have that precut pile of wood piled up in the workshop!!!).
When Pres. Deiter F. Uchtdorf gave his magnificent talk at the 2011 Relief Society Broadcast (you can read it here), I knew I needed to make myself a visual reminder of the things he said. I wanted to “Forget Not” his inspiring words!!!
And this is what I ended up with!
And I LOVE it!!!
I started with this really rough piece of 2×6 (I wanted a rough look!) and some 2×4’s. I sanded and spray painted and sanded a bit more. Made myself a forget-me-not flower template and printed my words out on the computer.
I’ve never tried the carbon paper method before but it worked really well. I just put a piece of carbon paper between my computer printed words and the wood, and traced around the letters. It left me a nice little outline of my letters on the wood. Now I just had to hand paint in the lines.
I only hand-painted my big words – the others were just printed on the computer and then distressed and mod podged onto the blocks of wood along with scrapbook paper.
I stained my blocks before I added any paper though – I’ve had bad luck with stain and mod podged paper before, so I always stain first, and it always turns out!!!
Isn’t it cute? I used burnt umber oil paint to colour my leaves and add a little more distressing.
And the blocks can be arranged many different ways, much to the children’s delight!
A close-up of the Forget-Me-Not flower (at least, my version of it – I googled it and there are tons of varieties of this little flower!!!) and the etchings.
And now it sits on my dresser and I see it whenever I leave my bedroom, reminding me daily of what I need to “Forget Not”.
Just four days ago, my guy grabbed the bottom piece – the one that says “The difference between good and foolish sacrifices” and brought it to me in bed. I was still in sleep mode at 8:20am – on the last Saturday of Christmas holidays! He suggest that my foolish sacrifice was lounging around in bed when I should be getting up and going to support my daughter at her basketball game. And he was right! I got ready in ten minutes and ate my breakfast in the car as we drove the half hour drive. We got seated just in time for the opening jump ball.
I made my guy a Sequence game for Christmas this year. We had good memories of playing it with friends in our pre-children days, so I thought it would be fun to have our own game in the house. And I knew I could make it for way cheaper than I could buy it! It was funny when he opened the gift because I had wrapped it in two parts. The first part he opened was a bag of playing cards and poker chips. His only comment was “Odd!” I think he thought I wanted him to take up gambling or something!!!
Sequence is the game where you try to be first to get two rows of five chips (see the blue chips above have one row). Fun and easy to learn, and you can play with 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 or 12 players – either as singles or teams. All you need to buy are two decks of cards and a bunch of poker chips in three different colours.
I Googled Sequence and it showed me exactly how the cards are to be placed on the board and what all the rules of the game were. Notice there are no Jacks on the board. The Jacks all go into the playing deck and they are the wild cards: one-eyed Jacks remove a chip and two-eyed Jacks place a chip. My board is a 19″ x 19″ square with the cards mod podged on it. You could even do it on cardboard. The size doesn’t really matter as long as the squares on the board are big enough to hold your poker chip – you just need to be able to see the number and suit. You chop your cards in half and use each half of the card on the board. The Joker cards in the corners are free spaces.
This game sits out on the coffee table all the time, but usually the Sequence side is down and the . . .
. . . checkerboard side is up because it’s much prettier!!! I painted on the light squares and then stained the board to make the dark parts. I love these playing pieces!!! Of course the poker chips would work just fine for checkers, but my oldest daughter who has since left home made these for me when she was about twelve. She chopped a wooden dowel on the chop saw – I love all the different widths of the pieces!!! And then she painted each side red or blue so they’re great to play – what’s that game called? Othello? – where you flip your pieces over to get the board in your colour. Love that game!
And if you get bored playing board games, you could always . . .
My daughter Min made these blocks to display at her very first Young Women in Excellence evening (she’s now a second year Laurel working on her Honor Bee). She’d been twelve for a month and needed a project right away. Since we always have wood around, we decided on a 2×4 project. She picked a favourite phrase and then stamped it onto painted 2×4’s, and did some sanding and staining.
The neat thing about these blocks is that they’re reversible!
She chose a scripture for the other side:
Psalms 66:1 “Make a joyful noise unto God”
I like this scripture – it doesn’t say we have to be in tune or have perfect pitch – it just says to be joyful as we praise our Heavenly Father.
And I enjoyed seeing this in Min’s room while she was practicing her flute over and over and over and over and . . .
This fun stamp set came from Stampin’ Up – it’s one of my favourite alphabets! There are letters on each side of the blocks, and another set of matching numbers.
Now it’s time to get creative with the blocks and see what other phrases we can come up with . . .
Haha! Okay, maybe not!
This one’s much better . . .
. . . a beautiful reminder especially at Thanksgiving.
Ahhh, there were lots of inspiring talks at Conference!!! Can’t wait to attack my copy of the Ensign with a highlighter, looking for special quotes that touch my heart that I can turn into a craft!!!
And yes, I got lots of cross-stitching time in! Took breaks only to stand up and sing the rest hymn and to nurse my baby. Here’s how it looked at the end of conference . . .
Getting lots of background done – it goes so much faster as lots of it is only a half-stitch.
Can you remember how much was done before the weekend? I can’t!!!
Oh wow – I got lots done!!! Good for me!
Look at all those stitches!!! It’ll be even more clear when I outline it someday with a dark backstitch.
And now I might dig it out and stitch a little for a day or two, but mostly it will sit until the next conference in six months. And just think – then I’ll be doing it in my new house!!!
About five years ago I was the Activity Days leader in our ward for girls aged 8 and 9. I came up with this wood craft because
1) I love wood crafts and,
2) because I wanted the girls to have something that could sit in their rooms and be pretty, but also remind them to have Faith In God. It needed to be something that wasn’t too challenging or messy!!! And because I could only fit eight around my table at once, we did it in two shifts. I think the biggest challenge for the girls was choosing their three colours and button centers.
I cut the wood and made word stencils. All the girls had to do was their base coat, sanding and stenciling. I handled the blade for etching the flowers, and did all the staining.
Embroidery thread in the button centers looks extra cute too.
Aren’t they adorable? I got lucky – had two daughters in my group so they each got one, and they still proudly display them in their rooms.
Today my heart was touched as I attended the funerals of two fourteen year old girls in my town. There, on the table amidst all of Jorden’s pictures, awards and memories, were her Faith In God blocks that she had made in my Activity Day group so many years ago. Hers were light purple with pink words and white flowers. Their message stood out loud and clear on the table they were displayed on:
Faith in God.
And now that is what their families cling to – their faith in Heavenly Father and His great Plan of Happiness. And they know that they will see their beloved daughters again.
I have a bathroom scale! Got it for a wedding present almost 22 years ago. It’s getting old, and dirty, and there is a crack across the glass, but hey, it still tells me my weight every time I want to know. It’s been gauging my weight gain with me through seven pregnancies and my weight loss after seven pregnancies. My scales and I have a great relationship.
So one day I was perusing through an old magazine and found this picture . . .. . . of a bathroom scale remodel!!! They did it with fabric and painting and lots of other steps and it sounded really complicated. And honestly, I didn’t really like the finished look, although I’m sure it was lovely back in the 90’s when the magazine was published!
But it got me thinking about a modern day version of a scale update, using some of my favourite things – scrapbook paper and mod podge!!!
So the first step (and the one that took the longest) was to choose some scrapbook paper!!!
This was difficult because we’re in the process of building a new home and I don’t know what colour my bathroom will be yet. So I chose a neutral kinda vintage newsprint type paper that would probably look pretty good with anything. And if it doesn’t, I can redo it!
I should also mention here that I did clean my scales a little before this big makeover!
I cut the paper to fit my scales and then used a scrap-booking corner rounder to make the corners match.
Then I used my exacto knife to carve out the scale part. It easily cut around the grooves.
Don’t worry if you make a mistake like I did. Once it’s all mod podged down, you’ll never notice!
Ooops!
I did a thin layer of mod podge under the paper and let it dry overnight. The dryer the underneath layer, the less likely it is to get bubbles, especially if the paper is pretty thin.
This picture shows the top coat of mod podge. I do it in a cross hatch pattern to make it look like canvas. And I always choose matte finish over gloss.
When this coat dried, I did another coat over top just for extra strength. After all, we are going to be standing on it!
And there are the newly remodeled bathroom scales!!! How fun and easy is that?
My guy really liked this project. He thinks they look SO much better, and they do. Now they need a place of honour in the bathroom – not just hiding away in some corner.
There’s only one problem . . .. . . the extra weight of the paper and mod podge now make the scales weigh about five pounds heavier!!! 😉
And now . . . are you ready to see what “World Peace” looks like?
And now . . . are you ready to see what “World Peace” looks like?
Ahhh!!! We now have “World Peace”.
