For the past few Thanksgivings our lil family has done crafts as part of what to do on Thanksgiving. It's time together, fun, laughter, joy. Three ladies: 35, 36, and 65... no traditional children, just inner kids :-)
To make sure I get something down for our reference, and anyone who stumbles upon this blog, I am drafting this post while doing things. We'll see how that works ;-) I went totally brain dead on Halloween time and forgot to post the cupcakes we did for the folks at the doctor's office.
Here we go. I will likely switch between past and present tense depending on when I wrote the passage.
MAKING OUR HOLIDAY TREE
Our youngest cat hurt herself on last year's tree, so we wanted something that didn't cost an arm & a leg and also wouldn't hurt her. We'll see what happens with this idea.
WHAT I (THINK I) NEED
- Foam Boards
- Paint
- Paint brush, naturally
- paint palette (I'm using an old unwanted DVD... Speed Racer)
- Clear laminate (like "contact paper")
- glue gun
- pencil
- single sided razor blade (or with it in it's box cutter)
- paper towels
- q-tips for paint mixing
- water for brush cleaning
|
some supplies I think I need |
THE PROCESS
Mixed green and blue paints to make green of course. Paint foam board surface. Remix paint as needed the hope is a more "natural" variation. We'll see.
|
the DVD palette |
I found that I had to retire the DVD for a disposable condiment cup due to the cat. This project is so interesting... yeah that... with a cat "helping."
|
easier with the cup -- naturally |
As I am painting both sides I thought I would add why --- I didn't like the shade of green board we found at wally world and we weren't able to make it to Michaels... so... Dollar Tree it is.
|
dabbing paint on board #1 |
Hazards of painting by the laptop... green dots to be scratched off, or coaxed off with a dab of water.
Well, got done with the second side, and the once straight board is now bowed, guess our tree grew crooked, reaching for the sun.
Then I drew the tree shape on the boards and cut 'em out. I want to use as much as the board as possible, so I don't think the shape is going to be too classic. I started cutting when I forgot to apply the contact paper.... oops, applied and continued cutting. on the second board I laminated before cutting (used board #1 as template for shape). After board #2 is cut... I cut it in half from top to bottom.
|
laminating |
The halves of #2 will be hot glued to #1. (the paper came apart from the foam and since I can't find my packing tape, I'm using my foam glue to glue the parts back) my foam glue sucks. parts are still curling up. So I'm heating up the glue gun -- I'll get the stubborn corners then glue the halves to the whole. First I put a strip of glue on the half then pressed it to the center of the whole. Then "caulked" both sides to fill in the gaps. Side 2 of this 3D tree is a little trickier, since you're working upright ;-)
|
"caulking" to secure |
and then, after about 4-5 hours... huh?! geez! I am done. Now we can make our own paper ornaments and use removable glue dots or looped tape to stick to the laminated tree, ideally it will be able to be removed.
I think I did alright considering that I had only a vague idea in my noggin. :-)
FINISHED!
I still need to post our ornaments - hopefully I will remember.