Craft Weekend 2014

WOW.  Big break there.  Definitely unintentional as always. And I miss it as always too.
So I sat down to figure out how in the world I would start this post, and realized I had written a post back in January about my craft weekend with friends.  And I never posted it.  So I'll just start with that because it's easy.

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This was our 6th Annual Craft Weekend.  One of those I missed because I was snuggling our newborn Gavin instead.

It started in 2009.  We rented a house in McPherson because the Whatever Craft House didn't exist yet.
This was our 3rd year at the Whatever Craft House.  It's the best place in the world to do this weekend, for sure.

I got there early to open the house up for everyone and get my soup going for dinner.  I had Christmas music blaring and my back was to the door and the first person had to scream at me to let me know they were there.  I was a little startled. But I'm glad she kept her distance and didn't just come up behind me and tap my shoulder.

 I love the Craft House for so many reasons, but mostly because it holds 16 of us so perfectly and comfortably and every where you look just screams happiness.

I'm a creature of habit.  I'm the type that orders the same meal every time.
I also choose the same bed at the craft house every time.
The back corner bed with the green quilt has been mine for 3 years.

One of these years I think I'll go early enough before anyone else gets there and just hang out in the bathtub for awhile.

 

I wasn't very good with pictures this year, only snapped a few. 

I've had some old sweaters stashed away for awhile and finally got a few of them made into pillow covers. 

And used the sleeves to make boot cuffs/leg warmers for my nieces.

All weekend we do whatever we want as far as crafts or projects. No one is the boss. While most of us use it as a time to spread out and create things we don't get to do at home, there is plenty of other stuff going on too.  No pressure, no expectations.  Just moms getting a break from being moms.

Every year we have a little different of a group.  But it's an awesome group every time!  I love the opportunity it gives us to get to know some girls that we don't get to know very well otherwise.

In past years, once I get there, I don't leave.  I stay up till 3 and 4am hanging out and crafting and sleep till 10 or 11am.  And pretty much stay in my pjs all weekend.

This year I had to be a grown up. 

Saturday morning I was basketball coach.  And Sunday morning I was Sunday School teacher. 

The plan was to make myself go to bed earlier than usual since there was no sleeping in this year.  But it didn't happen.  I still stayed up till 2 and 3 in the morning.   And I'll just say, waking up to an alarm in the craft house is no fun at all.

Check our our past craft weekends if you want to!
2013
2012
2010

the craft house & a wood sign tutorial

December started off with one of my favorite weekends of the year!

15 of us rent Megan's Craft House for the weekend and just get away (even if I was 2 minutes from my house, it's still an awesome get away).  

Dave had been sick for Thanksgiving and got better JUST in time that I could leave him with the kiddos for the weekend.  It was a much needed break after our first month of being sick. 

It's such a fun house.  But more than anything it's an escape from mama and wife duties to just get some personal things done, enjoy time with friends, sleep in, stay in our pajamas all weekend and just relax and be creative.

 

I got more projects done this year than any other.  Mostly because I stayed off my computer and away from some of the time-sucking projects I've done in the past. 

My first goal was to get a piece of barn door that we took from the original family homestead, Dave's great grandparents' farm, turned into a keepsake.  I debated and debated doing something that would be up all year long, or just Christmasy, and I went with Christmas, because that's where all my inspiration was coming from at the time.

I've had so many people asking me how I did it, and I am NO expert, I was nervous and scared to mess it up.  I kind of went in without an exact plan so it was nice to have lots of girls talk through my plan with me. 

So here goes (sorry I had no plans of posting a tutorial until so many people have asked for instructions, so I probably don't have very good pictures to go along with the directions):

1.  I printed my words at home.  I just used Microsoft Word, but for another sign I just did I used Photoshop Elements because it allowed me to stretch my words to the size how I wanted them.  In Microsoft Word I just kept changing the font and looking at the measurements until I felt like it was the size I wanted.

I printed several test copies and laid them on the board until I knew they were the right size. 

I tried to mix fonts without over-mixing.  But I'm not a font expert that's for sure.  That was actually maybe one of the hardest parts of the entire project.

2.  There may be an easier way to do all of this but I knew that I didn't want to try free-handing any part of this, so I knew I needed to come up with a stencil of some sort. I ended up taping the papers from my computer to contact paper (making sure that the words would be the right direction when the contact paper was sticky side down). Make sure you double check this so that when you peel the contact paper apart and lay the sticky side down on your wood, the words will go the right way.

3.  I taped my words to the contact paper in order to keep them from slipping as I cut them out. 

I used an exacto knife to cut out all the words.  So i was cutting through both the paper from my computer and the contact paper at the same time.  It was time consuming and my hand cramped up by the end.  And swirly letters weren't so fun, but it was worth it.  I guess if there is a way to put your contact paper through the printer that would be the easiest.  Make sure to keep all your centers of letters, like the o's, e's, etc.

4.  One word at a time, I stuck the contact paper down on my wood and pressed it down as hard as I could.  It doesn't have the best stick, but it was enough to hold my word in place so I could paint the insides.

5.  On the edges, swipe the foam brush across the edge of the letter going in towards the letter and not away from it.  This just helps the contact paper seal down instead of my brush peeling it up.  If I was worried about bleeding under the contact paper or messing the contact paper up in spots, I just used a dabbing motion instead of brushing my foam brush across.

6.  I peeled up each word while the paint was still wet, in hopes to not peel up paint once it dried.  This worked fine. 

7.  I didn't have anything I wanted to touch up, but if you do, you could wait till it's dry and then use a tiny brush to touch up edges wherever needed.

I realized when I was done that my words all looked a little too far to the right.  I wanted them towards the right, but didn't really plan for all the blank space in that left bottom corner.  But it ended up working perfectly when the star I already had planned to use beside the sign.

 If you plan to use the sign outside like these other signs I did a few weeks later as gifts, then you need to cover them with a clear top coat/protector of some sort.

I got the sign done in a few hours and then moved on to my other projects.  

I've had throw pillows for our couch for a long time just sitting in our basement because I didn't really like them anymore.  So I made new covers for them using this tutorial.

Yay for new pillows!!

I covered cardboard JOY letters from Hobby Lobby with an old sweater (it was harder than I thought because I used a super sheer sweater that kind of shed and fell apart as I cut it up, and I burned my fingers like crazy with the hot glue).  But up on our shelf they look great!

I used my scraps from the pillow covers to cover HOME letters also, so when I take the JOY letters down and pack them up with Christmas decorations, I'll have something else to put up.

And at the last minute, because those pillow covers were so easy, I made Christmas covers for the pillows too.

Man, it feels so good to get some things done that have been on my list for so long.  And before you talk about how crafty I am, please please know that none of these ideas are unique really.  In the world of Pinterest and online tutorials, I am thankful to get to COPY.  They are things that pretty much anyone can do. While I'm not great at coming up with creative ideas of my own, I can totally use others and duplicate.  And I think that's a huge purpose of the social media community we have...to share ideas.  So copy away!  It definitely makes getting to sew and create things a little more enjoyable to me, and I can get so much more done without figuring it all out on my own...especially when I pretty much do this kind of stuff one weekend a year.

Craft Weekend 2014 is already booked!!

Craft Weekend 2012

Craft Weekend was wonderful. 

 

 It is horribly difficult to get out of the house sometimes. And as much as I would love for the ideal picture of my departure to go as planned...you know, a clean and happy house, dinner made for my family, my bags and supplies packed hours in advance so that I can cuddle my babies before I go with no rushing, and a husband and kiddos sad to see Mom go...reality is that it was not like that at all.  I'll spare you all the details.  But I'm pretty sure my family was probably ready to get rid of me for a bit.  (dinner was ready for them, but that may be the only thing that went as planned).

But I'm thankful for a husband who knows when I just need to get away.  I'm thankful that he assures me everything will be okay and that he can handle everything (even the fussy baby that I couldn't even handle that day).  I'm thankful that even when one of the kids throws up in the night and he's up from 4:30am on...that he doesn't make me feel guilty for being gone and tells me everything is just fine.

Maybe I should learn some lessons from him.

 

Megan's house is such a fun place to be, and it was perfect for our girls weekend away. Even if it was just 3 minutes from home.  Even when we love our kiddos with every ounce of our soul, it's so necessary to just get away from mom-responsibilities sometimes.  It's lovely to go to bed super super late and know that you can sleep till you wake up on your won.  It's wonderful to sit and eat a meal and only have to dish myself a plate.  Sometimes it just feels good to get some things accomplished that just don't get done when you're playing, cleaning, reading, singing, cooking, picking up, cuddling and caring for others all day long.  A break makes me ready to go home and have a fresh start (especially after the way I left).   It's just what I need to return to the job that, while draining and demanding some days, it's the job that I'm most grateful for.  

 

Did you look at the pictures from the posts that I posted earlier?  They are way better pictures than what I took. 

But here's a little peak into the happiness of Megan's "craft house"...

 

 

This was the room I stayed in.  One of the happiest rooms ever.

 

I loved all the little details of her house.  The floors, the colorful quilts, everything on the walls, the warm personal touches.

 



 

 

 

I guess some of you may be wondering what we did.  I had a friend ask me "what in the world do you do on an all-weekend craft weekend?"

 

I was on my computer most of one evening, editing pictures, working on Christmas cards and fighting with Photoshop.

 

 

We sat around the table one night and just chatted, and laughed and cried.

I felt blessed to be in a room with such amazing girls.  All such wonderful Godly women, who are encouraging and fun.   And it makes it even better when we all share the love of crafting enough to make a whole weekend of it.

 

 

But don't you worry, we didn't craft non-stop.  A group of us took about a 4 hour break to do some antique and barn shopping!  And there was even some K-State Football action in a house of 12 girls.

 I came away with a few new treasures that I love.  Some more turquoise mason jars, a red lantern and a wire basket to hold towels in our bathroom.  No pictures though.  Maybe eventually I'll show you where they are now in my house.

 

As far as crafts, I definitely didn't get through my entire to-do list.  Things always seem to take way longer than I planned on.  And most of the time I deal with a sewing machine, it involves some frustrations, and this time was no exception.  The good thing about having 11 crafty friends around me is that someone always comes to my rescue. 

We've always done our craft weekend on the first weekend of December because it's good timing to make gifts.  Cheap gifts are always the hardest part of my Christmas shopping/planning.  You know, those people you would love to give gifts to, but you have to keep them under $10, and sometimes even $5.  I just feel like it's so hard to come up with something that is meaningful and that someone will actually like and use.  So I made 15 Noel banners.  Super easy, cheap gifts.  And it's something that I would love (well, actually I have one on my mantel now, and love it!).  So I'm hoping the recipients love them too.

 

 

And since all things are wrapped in jute these days. I made these for my mantle too.

 



 

 

And I planned out our advent calendar of activities and tasks, and got the little numbered envelopes ready to go for when I got home.  We've all agreed that this is our most favorite thing in the house right now!

 

 

My crafts are easy and pretty self-explanatory.  That's kind of how I roll.  But I'll try to post some details of them soon.

 

I love our annual craft weekend.  I loved everything about Megan's house, and the girls I got to spend the weekend with, and I love being able to create.  I remember back in 2009 and even 2010 we all had to ask each other for help with ideas of things to make.  Thanks to Pinterest now, I don't think anyone has any trouble coming up with a list of ideas to tackle. 

It's just too bad it only gets to happen once a year.