Organized Thoughts

Do you have someone in your life that needs a little help getting organized? Or do you have a gob of Christmas photos and cards and no where to display them? Corkboards are great ways to get organized and don’t cost very much. Plus they’re even better when you decorate them!

The great thing is that you can personalize this to the person you’re giving it to. If they’re a pink and green kind of person or have lots of team spirit, you can pick the specific colors that will bring a smile to their face.

Another great thing about this project is, if you’re making it for yourself, you can change out the colors and patterns every season and you’ll stay organized for years to come!

If you can’t find corkboard, you can alter the project by using a lightweight piece of wood or even a heavy piece of matboard. It’ll just have to be a bit more permanent this way.

Fabric Bulletin Board

Materials and Supplies:

~ Corkboard

~ Material

~ Ribbon (lots and lots)

~ Scissors

~ Stapler or staple gun or glue

~ Pretty thumbtacks

Directions:

1. Measure a piece of material that’s about two inches bigger all around the board (4” wider and 4” taller). This really is a project that you can use anything you have around the house. If you have any batting left over from yesterday’s project, you can add that in between the material and corkboard for a fluffier looking board.

2. Place the material face down on the table (place the batting on top of that if you have it). Place the board on top of the material.

3. If you’re using corkboard and you have short staples, staple the material around the back of the board. If you’re using matboard, glue the material in place. A hot glue gun will be your best friend for this project. I was using corkboard and just used the hot glue gun.

4. Flip the board over. Take strips of ribbon and lay them criss-cross over the board. There is no right or wrong way to do this but if you want a pattern, go from corner to corner, making a big X for the first two then add ribbon at the halfway point on each side, connecting it to the halfway point of the top or bottom of the board.

5. Glue or tack down at the points the ribbon cross. It's important that you only glue down the ribbon at the points where they overlap, otherwise you won't be able to put photos under the ribbon. Where the ribbons cross, place a drop of glue under the bottom ribbon on the material and then under the top ribbon on the bottom ribbon ( material, glue, ribbon, glue ribbon).

Extra idea?

Once you figure out how to make these, they're pretty easy. You can include with this gift the materials to change the look of the board later on in the year. If they have any questions, you can refer them to this blog. :)

Family Tree

Genealogy work is something that lots of people are doing these days. It’s really neat to find out who you are through your relatives and it’s important to make sure no one’s forgotten through time. It is something that’s great to do with family members, too, so for the extra idea, might I suggest spending time with your giftee and doing some research about their family tree.

Even if you don’t know your family tree very far back, this gift is great for the immediate family in your life. If you don’t have a big family, include several pictures of each member, friends or places that are special to you and yours.

Stores like Hallmark have little kits that have the picture frames and wire tree stands ready to go and all you have to do is print off the pictures and insert them into the frames. You use wallet-sized images and it's a very regal way to present family photos.

I thought long and hard about what kind of tree to make for this project because I wanted to make those little trees....I still haven’t come up with anything that doesn't involve a soldering iron or bandsaw. But then when I was looking at the Christmas tree I thought, “How neat would it be to have ornaments for your tree with different portraits of your family members?”

So today’s project is a picture frame ornament to put family photos in.

Picture Frame:

Materials and Supplies:

~ Sturdy cardboard or matboard

~ Box cutter or Xacto knife

~ Felt or thin quilting batting

~ Material

~ Scissors

~ Glue

~ Ruler

~ Tape

~ Photographs

Directions:

1. Measure and cut the cardboard pieces. There’s a front and back to the frame so there should be two pieces that are the same size—say 5” by 5”—and one of those should have a hole cut out of it. If you want a circle, trace around a glass. If you’re using a 4 x 6 photo, don’t cut the hole bigger than 3.75” x 5.75” (of course, if your frame is on 5” x 5”, your measurements will be smaller!). It’s a good rule to leave about an inch of frame around the picture so the hole will be about 3” x 3”.

2. Cut batting or felt to the size of the front frame, cutting out the hole just the same. Use a dot of glue in a few places to keep it in place.

3. Lay a piece of fabric right side down on the table. Make sure it’s bigger than the frame on all sides, about one inch all around is good. Place the frame batting side down on the material. Trace all around the outside edge and around the frame opening.

4. Cut the aperture out of the fabric. Make sure you leave about an inch of material so that you can tuck the material back around the frame, make it nice and pretty.

5. Glue the material onto the frame. Place it back within the guidelines and carefully pull the material snug as you go.

6. Glue material onto the back piece of matboard. Follow the same process of laying the material right side down on the table, place the board on top of it and glue the edges to the board.

7. Tape the photograph to the front piece of matboard so you know it’s secure and won’t go anywhere.

8. Glue the back board to the front board. Don't forget to glue in a piece of ribbon to hang it from!

Extra idea?

If you’re using photographs of relatives that have amazing stories, create a companion book to go with the ornaments that you can read for years to come.

Frosty the Snowman was a Jolly Happy Soul

Though there’s snow-a-plenty this year, bringing snowmen inside isn’t exactly the best of plans—I haven’t found a way yet to keep them from melting and making a mess. So this trio of chums is a happy replacement that can be put out for years to come.

The thing I love about these little guys is that, for blocks of wood, they really have a lot of personality! I wish I could take the credit for these but we did them at a Super Saturday for church so I’m just passing the idea on to you.

Since I own a saw (I realize a lot of people do not), I cut the blocks of wood myself so that I can determine the sizes that I want. I’m not certain if you can buy scraps of wood or have them cut it for you at Lowe’s or Home Depot but it’s worth asking about because these guys are worth it. If anything, you never know when you may need a hand saw so pick up a cheap one for five dollars. : )

Wooden Snowmen

Materials and Supplies:

~ 2 x 4 wood blocks at various heights

~ Material

~ White paint

~ Newspaper for easy clean up

~ Black, orange, pink paint

~ Buttons

~ Hot glue gun

Directions:

1. Cut the 2 x 4 wood to various heights. Remember, if you make them too tall they’ll be wobbly. Mine are about 12”, 9”, and 5”

2. Paint them white and let dry.

3. Paint a sweet little face. Don’t forget the carrot nose and eyebrows!

4. Cut the material for the hats. Since the blocks of wood are all 2 x 4, the material should be about 14” wide and about 6” tall. Roll up the bottom edge (for a little brim) and glue to the front of the wood block over the face making sure there’s an overhang at the top to gather the material to tie off the hat. Glue around the block in different places making sure it’s secure.

5. At the back, fold over one side (like you would to make a package look nice) and glue in place.

6. Cut off a strip of material, either from the same material or contrasting, and tie off the hat close to the wood. Fluff the top so that it looks nice and pretty and warm.

7. Glue on buttons.

8. Cut a bit wider strip for a scarf and tie it around the snowman’s neck.

Extra idea?

The more the merrier! Have a big family? Make one for every member of the family! Think of how cute a little baby block snowman would be!