Craft: Welcome to Our Home

     As promised, today brings a craft post! FINALLY.

     When someone goes to their happy place they may picture their feet in the sand, with the crashing of waves on the beach. Or perhaps you go to a forest with sunlight streaming through the leaves and the sounds of birds chirping around you.
     I go to Michael's. That's right. Don't judge. The smell of craft supplies and endless varieties of options makes me excited and relaxed all at once. For a few brief shining moments, Michael's had a Membership Rewards program. In the few months that it existed, I made it to Gold member status.

I SAID DON'T JUDGE. haha.

Let's face it. I LOVE crafts and would empty my bank account on crafts if I could.

     With that being said, I have been eager to create things for decor in our new house. I lucked out on a recent trip to Michael's and knew just what I wanted to do. As I browsed Michael's to refresh some calligraphy materials for a wedding order, I happened upon these simple dudes.

     For $0.99 I got myself two wooden frames that fit a 5x7 image. Our front door has had an empty hook for the last 4 months and this was going to fix that! While these are adorable, they are also slightly blah.
     My first step was to change their coloring. I knew I wanted to keep the integrity of the wood, and I also had no official stain. I had read various posts on using tea to stain things. So I got myself a mug of very concentrated tea.

     To apply the tea, I used one of those $1 foam wedge "brushes." WARNING. After about 4-5 coats of tea you could barely tell the difference and my patience was slowly slipping away from me. Understatement, my patience was gone. I thought through my options and refused the option of going to buy stain or paint. I could solve this. And solve it I did.

     What got me this beautiful walnut coloring you ask?!? Instant Espresso. No joke. It was one shelf below the tea and I knew it would be much stronger. :) So I forged ahead with my sponge brush and a cup of espresso. Ok, two cups of espresso. One to drink, one to craft with.
      In my many hours of Pinterest browsing, I came upon this cute little graphic. I originally was not sure what I wanted to do with it, but as soon as I found the frames, it was set.

     I printed this out on regular printer paper with my home printer. In order to cut it to the correct size, I laid the image underneath of the frame exactly how I wanted it. From here, I used a pencil to mark the lines of the little semi-circles that lined the OUTSIDE of the inner frame. (If that's confusing, refer back to the first picture...) I basically wanted to make sure I would have enough paper to glue it to the back of the frame. Cutting it down was as simple as pulling out my paper cutter and lining up the marks.
     The final step was to apply some Mod Podge to the back of the frame and line up my picture correctly. After this dried, I added an extra coat of Mod Podge to the paper that was touching the frame as an additional safety measure. The awesome thing about this craft is, it only cost me 99 CENTS! And I still have another frame to be crafty with. I was even very resourceful and used the twine that held the two frames together originally to hang this new art on the front door.

     Here is the final product! I am very pleased with how it turned out. Especially the color (and scent!) of the wood. My brain is already buzzing with ideas for the second frame- so keep your eyes peeled for another craft!
     Have a wonderful sunny Saturday and be well friends. I am enjoying these last few days of summer before school starts up. Then you will get some posts about my organized classroom! Can't wait to show you the theme for this year!
     
                 <3