Back in craftin action...

So I have been crafting up a storm here!

We had our monthly craft group on Saturday at my sister in laws house (Thanks Lyndsy, for hosting!) I had fallen in love with this idea on the adorable Shanty 2 Chic blog. I was unable to find everything that Whitney used, so I filled in with a few ideas of my own...

Here is my take on them


This project cost me about $12 for the three of them. But I did not have to buy the roof flashing, my brother had that in his archives. And my hubby works at Lowe's, so he gets a (small) discount. But it should not cost more than $14 to do all three of these.

I knew that I wanted all three to have a different finial on top. So I didn't want to buy three of the same thing.
For this one

I purchased a banister post at Lowe's. That was the most expensive thing it was $3.50.

This one

I found the finial in the same place, by the banister pieces. It was $2.50. It has thread with a screw piece so it did not have to be glued. The post is a dowel that I got at Micheal's it was $2.50 and I had my brother cut it into a 11" piece a 10" piece and I had a left over piece about 12" long. So I could have just used the dowel for all three if I had not bought a full banister piece.

I am not sure what this piece


is suppose to be used for. I found it at Micheal's by the dowel section. Unlike the banister piece it was not pre set with a screw. So I used E600 glue and some hot glue to attach it to the top of my dowel.

For the base

I used a piece of moulding that I found at Lowe's with all the decorative moulding. (There are some really cool pieces in the decorative moulding section, it is totally giving me some ideas!) These were around $1.20 each.

For the flat piece


on the front I used a blank wooden plaque that I found at Walmart. These were 98 cents each! (Yea I know I was giddy too!)

I attached all the pieces with the E600 and hot glue, including the roof flashing. To make the base and dowel attachment sturdier,I had Mr Toadly Crafty put a screw threw the bottom up into the banister/dowel piece. After they were all glued together I painted them black. Whitney did some really cute white ones washed with brown here that she is using for a recipe holder. I love the colors on this one too. I am in plans to make one like this for my kitchen with a twist fun twist and one for my desk at work.

For the last step I made some simple glass magnets and used them to hold my picture on the front

(isn't my sweet Missy MayMay adorable!?)

A Spooky Craft Day...

I am part of a monthly craft group that we have nicknamed The Sisterhood of the traveling Paints. My mom my sisters (although one keeps dogging out on with the lame excuse "it takes four hours to get there"!), my three cousins and my aunt. We rotate houses, bring yummy food and put together a few cute crafts. This month it was my turn to host.
I already posted two cute crafts I did, but here is what everyone else was working on.

My cutie cousin, who has never been able to finish a craft...actually got one done..these cute boo and EEk blocks! (Go Alisha!!)


My Cousin in law, Wendy made these cute calendar blocks. I love the colors, I was secretly hoping she would forget them so I could keep them for my very own!


Here is my mom at our local craft store, modeling what she wanted to make. This was her inspiration for...


turning this naked wood (should I have marked this post rated R ;-)into..


nope not yet, still working on it....


Into this...


I must say I am proud of her! Maybe I am starting to wear off on her, after all, this is paper crafting, a form of scrapbooking, which if you follow her blog you know she considers scrapbooking to be a form of torture.

I wish I had gotten a cute picture of my Aunt Cec's wicked blocks before she took them home. Or my other Cousin, Amy's, cute Eek blocks.

But I did get this one

the other thing that my mom made. The crow on top is from the dollar store! The vinyl and the blocks were cute by my brother.

We all got so many cute things done! I can't wait for next month!!

Spooky fun

I added this idea to my blogger friend's Make you Monday linky party, go check out all the other fun ideas this week from other creative ladies in blogger land here. Also check out Someday Crafts linky party for more fun fall ideas.


Remember these from the last post?

Well yesterday was craft day and look at them now!




I made this to go by my front door. I had the wheat garage sale find from last month there. But I just wasn't loving it. So I have decided to make this my little seasonal corner. I only decorate really big for Halloween and Christmas. So this is were I can put at least a little nod for the remainder of the holidays.

I also made these..
(If you want to do your own, I would be happy to email the pictures to you, just leave a comment with your email address or email me at coryshilokids@netzero.com)

My DH loves Halloween! Every year we set up a haunted house look in the front yard about a week before Halloween. I wanted to keep the same creepy feeling in the front entry were the trick or treaters will be coming. Here is the front table so far with my craft day projects.
I won't be adding the final touches to this until it is a little closer to the holiday, but Halloween has definately entered the Johnson home!

I heart Craft Day!

Yesterday was my monthly craft day. I love craft day!!! My gorgeous cousin, Alisha, hosted it at her house this month. Yummy food, no kids, the girls and cute crafts...yea it was a good day!

This month we decided to make these from Not So Idle Hands. (love her blogs, check out all the cute ideas she has on there) We used this tutorial from How about Orange for tacks.

These cute stamped washers from Bizzy Bee Creations. (Also a really cute blog)

And a really cute set of blocks that were a few different ideas combined into one. It was Cory, my DH, turn to do the cutting. We have the DH take turns with any cutting of wood, metal, etc that needs to be done. So his idea of cutting the wood was taking it to Lowe's, were he works, and having his friend in lumber cut them for him. I asked him what else he pawns off on his honey do list. Oh well, at least it got done!

So first we had to sand, and sand and sand. I sanded down the frames and all my blocks for my words. I knew I wanted a long word. I wanted something that isn't used alot (like love, family, home. I came up with quite a good list of words (serenity, dream, affection, simplify, amazing, cherish, delight, Amore, Adore, Laugh) and finally decided on Happiness. My mom, the Clever Rose, did family and fall and my sister, Starlee, did Beautiful. They printed there pics in Sepia. So cute!

I used my picture editor, and lowered the tint on all the pictures, so that the color was all washed out and faded.

I love the way that they turned out! They look really cute in the family room. DH loves the fact that I used one of his pics from his Nascar races and the kiddos had fun pointing to all the pictures of themselves.

Here is a how quick how to. Paint the block and let dry. Coat the block with modge podge, then set the picture on top. Use a old gift card or credit card to smooth out any bubbles. Then use a slightly wet rag with black paint and tab it on the edges. Then sand the edges of the picture. Last, apply a coat over the top of it all to seal it in. Coat the back of your letter with modge podge and place it on the letter, pressing firmly. Tadda!

Here are my frames after painting.

I could not find and 12x12 frames that I liked, that weren't a fortune. So my dad made these for me out of some spare molding he had. They are so pretty! (thanks dad!) I wanted two one on each side of my metal board in my craft/dining room. DH is suppose to hang them up tomorrow, on his day off. (Added to the "honey do list") But here is the completed project.

(That is My 10 year old hiding behind there).

Another hit! My boys each want one for there room. Except my 7 year old doesn't want it all "girly" he said maybe some skull and crossbone fabric with some guitar tacks would be awesome. (Another project for the to do list)

But that left no time for the washer necklaces. So the pieces are lying in my craft room just waiting. I plan on making one for Gunner and Gavin. Taya didn't seem to care for them to much. I also want to use them to make a fall wreath for my door. With the words fall, apple, leaf, etc type things stamped on it. (Any other fall like word suggestions for me?)

As a bonus, I got some awesome recipes for the binder I made last month. I loved Aunt Cec's taco soup and the cake was so good and so forbidden! Cory, DH, would love it!!

Can't wait for the next one!!