:'(

1000% disappointed in my federal government and judicial system.

DIY: Customized Checkers

My hubby, NukeBoy, turned the big 5-0 this week. I had planned on a big Hawaiian vacation for this momentous occasion, but the arrival of our precious MonkeyBoy curtailed the trip this year. I'll take him when our off-spring is a little older to handle that kind of cross-global flight, and when we actually have money again. I LOVE staying at home with my little guy, but boy our we broke! Just keepin' it real!

In light of our new budget, I've been crafting up a storm for Father's Day and birthdays. So, the second of three posts this week is to demonstrate how I made a customized checkers set for my husband with all of our faces as the pieces. 

The first thing I did was buy a 12" x 12" piece of ceramic tile for $1 at a thrift store. From my fabric stash, I cut up 32 black squares from left over black felt that I have apparently saved from a Halloween costume I made for my "baby" cousin 15 years ago. (I guess it's good to be a hoarder, in this case!) I also cut out a 12" x 12" piece to line the back of the tile.

The Math:  8 squares across divided into 12" = 1.5" per square (black and white).  I cut the black squares just shy of 1.5" so I could cut a boarder around the board with the same black felt. I eye-balled it.



With a basic tacky glue, I glued all the black squares on the board, along with the black boarder and the black backing. I used the rotary cutter to trim any excess along the sides.

Next step was to create the checkers. I purchased 1.5" wooden craft discs at the local craft store and used that measurement to create the pictures for the game pieces. I thought it would be cute if I used the faces of our family as the checkers. In Photoshop, I cut out faces of my son, hubby, and myself, then placed it on a red or black checkered background. That was for the front; on the back I took the same pictures of us and placed a crown on our heads to create Kings.

After cutting out 72 circles (ugh!), I glued them to the faces of the discs.

And there we have it!  A personalized checkerboard perfect for family game night.

Not pictured, I went a step further and sewed a drawstring bag for the checkers, and hot glued fabric to a box to create a fancy case to hold the game.










I think it came out great, but I still would rather be in Hawai'i right now!

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG

DIY: Photo Paperweights

Wow, have I been busy these last two weeks. Between Father's Day and my husband's 50th birthday, I've had Pinterest on overload and my glue gun HOT!

The first of three posts this week is my take on this post by inmyownstyle.com for decoupaging paperweights. I modified the project by using images of my son and giving the weights a rope border to add more mass.

The first thing I needed was some glass, so I found this old light fixture for $5 at my local ReStore and tore at it. Be very careful not to cut yourself on the old soldering.

After ejecting all the plates, I gave them a good wash in warm, soapy water.

Next, measuring. I used these measurements to edit photos of my son to decoupage onto the glass and also to cut a black, felt backing.

The one very disappointing turn this project took was that the decoupage didn't work with the glossy photo paper, and I didn't have the time to try to find out a better way to do this. So, I ended up using very small dabs of clear super glue to adhere the photos to the back of the glass plates. It didn't turn out so bad, and you can barely see the glus lines.

Once in place, I used basic tacky glue to put the felt backing in place.

I used my new fangled rotary cutter to cut out the pictures, the felt backing, and to trim around the glass once everything dried. 

Although cute, I felt the the bare glass was a bit unsafe. Digging into my craft tub, I came across some rope and hot glued it around the edges.

Voila!

The old light fixture ended up giving me eight glass plates. I made a set of four for my husband and another set for my father-in-law.

A little something precious to stare at during the course of a busy work day.

Until the next!

Yankee Doodle Dandy,

–TYG