Basket Full of Posies {Door Decor}

Arkansas weather has been DREARY lately. On a quick trip to Walmart Saturday afternoon, I couldn't resist the cheery pots of tulips tempting me on the way into the store. I wanted to share the cheer and drive away the gloom, so I decided to display them on my door. Here's how this easy and inexpensive project came together.

Grow With Me Rulers

Today I'm bragging on one of my favorite families to help them spread the word about a sweet product offering. This precious little model is showing off her Papa's creation - Grow With Me Rulers. 

Romance Ninja {Valentine Box}

BBC's teacher asked her class to create Valentine boxes instead of using paper sacks this year. A project with the boy is always fun. Of course BBC wanted a Green Ninja (from the Lego Ninjago series) themed box. He was very specific about the uniform he wanted for the box.

DH suggested we just pick up ninja stickers and do a collage. That was just silly-talk to this crafty mom. I had an idea in my head of what the box should look like. I tried to explain it but that didn't translate. I sketched it out on the box to help share the vision. DH thought the project was a bit too ambitious. That was just the challenge I needed. 

In addition to the TOMS shoe box and two empty toilet paper rolls, here are the supplies used to craft the box:

- green scrapbook paper (3 - 12 x 12 sheets)
- metallic gold scrapbook paper (3 - 8.5 x 11 sheets)
- green foam (1 - 8.5 x 11 sheet)
- yellow foam (1 - 8.5 x 11 sheet)
- black foam (2 - 12 x 18 sheets)
- black sharpie
- gold sharpie
- double-sided tape
- glue

Using double-sided tape along the edges, I covered the box in green paper. Then I added black foam to the lower front of the box to create the base of the uniform. The head was crafted from the green foam, a piece of yellow foam attached with tape and eyes drawn using the black sharpie. The gold accent was cut from paper, creased to create a molded affect and attached using double-sided tape as well. I did not attach the head to the box at this point because I needed to piece together the armor before doing so.

Next I traced and cut out the uniform embellishments from the green and gold papers, attached to the black foam using tape and added details with the black and gold sharpies. I pieced out the the shoulder armor using a combination of black foam with gold paper (attached with tape). The foam gave these pieces more visual weight. The gold sharpie was perfect to add tone on tone details to the armor.  Since the head and shoulder pieces extended beyond the box dimensions, I attached those to the box using the glue gun for more durability. 

The arms are simply green paper wrapped around toilet paper rolls and secured with tape. The hands are rectangles of black foam attached to the inside of the arms using hot glue. The arms were attached to both the shoulder armor and the side of the box using hot glue. 

The swords on the back of the box added depth and are a must-have for any ninja worth his weight. They were cut from black foam with gold paper wrapped around the handles and gold sharpie details. These were attached with hot glue as well. 

The project took a little longer than I anticipated but turned out better than I had planned. I wrapped up around midnight so I had to wait until morning to show BBC.  That was pure torture but his reaction was worth the wait and loss of sleep. It was kind of cool to impress DH as well. 

~Southern Fried Gal

February 2013 Door Decor

I fell in love with my door again this month.  

I've been playing around with larger scale lately. This over-sized heart (crafted from sheet metal and wire) works brilliantly inside the window frame.

While I was bored with my door, I hadn't lost that loving feeling for the wire bird feeders I used at Christmas. On a whim I tucked them around the base of the arborvitae on either side of the door.

That added just the right balance of color to the vignette to bring the eye down and across. Simple and lovely!

What's something you fallen back in love with this month?

~Southern Fried Gal

February Classroom Door

On a recent trip to Joann Fabric and Craft store I found a fun red burlap fabric with gold thread highlights. I was planning to do a burlap puffy heart for BBC's classroom door and this added an unexpected element. 

Having found my inspiration, I grabbed 3/4 yard of the burlap, a bundle of coordinating gold metallic embroidery thread, a small bag of polyfill and a small spool of 1/2 inch red burlap ribbon.

The puffy heart project was super simple. Using a heart pattern cut from a large sheet of tissue paper and pinned to the still doubled burlap, I cut the fabric yielding two equal hearts. To join the hearts I ran a very thin bead of hot glue close to the edges all the way around the heart leaving just enough room to put my hand in to add the polyfill. Once stuffed to my liking, I glued the opening closed.

Next using a large needle and the embroidery thread, I added a quick decorative stitch around the heart. I left the edges raw to fray a bit. Finally I stitched the burlap ribbon to the top of the heart.  

I had trouble deciding what message to put with the heart. Love to Learn would have been cute. Put Your Heart into Learning was another consideration. In the end I decided on Put Your Heart into Writing since the January door focused on reading. 

It's not quite as original as last month's door, but I think it's cute and of course it was crafted with love!

~Southern Fried Gal