Thursday, February 3, 2011

Craft Night With Friends

I recently had another fun Craft Night with some of my girlfriends. It's so fun to get together to chat, create and eat! Here's a few of our finished projects...

My friend, Brandi, created this super fun altered tool box. She said she got her inspiration from her friend, Sarah (a.k.a. the Silhouette Girl), because she also created a box similar to the one Brandi created. It's such a great box, not just because of it's cute-ness, but it's also very functional with lots of great compartments to store things. Brandi plans on using hers to house her beads for making jewelry. My favorite touch is the extra "bling" she glued on the fleur de lis & crowns :-)


My friend, Christine, Mod Podged these super cute hearts for Valentine's Day...




I love this "L-O-V-E" banner my Fab Friend, Jess, made. I especially like the vintage paper she used and the ribbons are a fun touch!


My friend, Kelly, made this adorable scrapbook page of her new daughter, Kate. I love the color choices and the cute border she used...


My friend, Jennifer, crocheted these cute facial scrubbers. I love the bright, fun colors!


And I made this Meal Planner Board. I'm hoping after 18 years of marriage, it will encourage me to Menu Plan! I got inspiration for this project on the "all things beautiful" blog. I love to take other people's ideas and tweak them ;-)


I have a few friends that have asked how I made this so here's a short tutorial...

Supplies needed:

* Mod Podge
* Bulletin Board (mine is about 1 1/2 ' x 2')
* Decorative Corner Wood Pieces
* 3 Wooden Boxes
* 7 Flat 1" Glass Beads and thumb tacks
* Scrapbook Paper
* Wooden Letters
* Paint
* Hot Glue Gun
* Meal and Recipe Cards (printed on cardstock and laminated)
* Scissors
* Foam Brush
* Paint Brush


First, I painted my bulletin board black and the frame an off-white. After it dried, I hot glued my painted decorative corner pieces on to the board. I also painted my wooden letters cream colored, as well. Then I distressed all the off-white paint with a dry-brush technique using black paint.


Next, I traced around the boxes on scrapbook paper. I cut them out and Mod Podged the paper to the boxes, covering all the sides. Ahead of time, I printed labels for my boxes from my computer. After the boxes were covered, I Mod Podged the labels to the front of them.


Next, I made thumbtacks to hang the meal cards from. I made 1" red circles with a black fleur de lis' on the computer. After I printed them off, I punched them out with a 1" hole punch. Then I Mod Podged them to the backs of flat glass beads and hot glued thumbtacks to the backs of the beads. Simple and fun!


Last, I laid everything out to make sure the placement was where I wanted everything.


Then I hot glued the letters and boxes in place.


I printed off my meal and recipe cards (using Print Artist software) from the computer and laminated them with clear Contact Paper - just because I had some and it saved me a trip to the store & laminating costs!

Voila! It is finished! I think I'm the last of my friends to Menu Plan so hopefully this will encourage me to be better organized! (Plus, I'm sure my girlz will keep me on my toes, too, now that it's hanging in our kitchen!)


And here's a few great Meal Planning websites I found that can save you time and money...

Dinner Planner (about $5 p/month)

e-Mealz (about $5 p/month)







handmade projects

2 comments:

T. said...

I love this! You always inspire me girl! Think I will try this one out myself. ;) T.

FABJESS said...

Such a FUN night! Love it all! I love menu planning because it's one less thing I have to think about! Here's to many more FAB craft nights! Wooo to the hooo!