DIY: Night Light Refrigerator Magnets

 

 

Had a blast coming up with this sweet little craft project.  It doesn’t cost much and doesn’t take much time.  You’ll like this one.

Supplies:

Paper mache’ box, one & a half inches deep (they have to be 1 & 1/2” deep, because the tea lights are 1” tall) My box is 3” x 3” x 1 1/2”.

One battery powered tea light (definitely not a candle!)

Glue

Brown paper bag

Butterfly stencil (optional, you can use a heart or a flower, whatever you prefer)

Screen wire (cheesecloth will also work for this and even lace would be beautiful) this is also optional if your design doesn’t have large open areas.

Two way tape

Magnets

Let’s make a refrigerator magnet night light!

Making the top:

1.  Cut a square of the brown paper bag where it will completely cover the top of the box.

 

2.  Trace your stencil on to the square brown paper.

3.  Using an xacto knife, cut the parts out of the drawn design that you want light to show through.

 

4.  Take the top of the box and cut out a square hole in it leaving just enough to glue the square brown paper cut out onto.

 

5.  Glue the brown paper onto what remains of the top of the box.  (I used a piece of two way tape to hold it in place while I glued to keep the paper in place, then glued right over the top of the tape to finish it off).

6.  When that is dry, turn the top upside down and glue the screen wire into the bottom.  (remember this is an optional step)

We are done with the top, unless you want to paint it.

 

Making the bottom:

1.  Turn the bottom of the box over and glue on the magnets.  I used two strips cut large to be sure it would hold the weight of the tea light and the box.  (I really wanted smaller boxes, but this is all I could find that the tea lights would fit in.

That’s it!  We are done.  When everything is dry, turn your tea light on, put it in the box, put the top on it and put it on the fridge!

I thought this was a sweet project.  I played around with my wood burner to see how it would look and I think I like it better.  If you try this method you won’t need the brown paper bag cut out.  I just burnt the top of the box.   Here’s a pic…

But I did almost catch it on fire!  So I really did light up my refrigerator magnet!

Have fun!

 

If you like this craft tune in to my face book page to see other stuff.  Thanks!

DIY Craft: Small Center Piece Crate

I wanted to share with you how to make this amazing little crate.  It’s really very simple and you can use it for a lot of different things.  I’m going to use mine for a centerpiece, but you could also put a handle made of ribbon on it and use it for an Easter basket.  It will also hold your favorite CD’s and many other things.  Paint it any color you like.  It’s made from paint sticks, paper rush, glue and nails.  That’s all the supplies you need to make this except for the tools. 
What you will need:
15 ----- 12” long paint sticks
Paper rush
40 small nails
Tropical Blue Acrylic Craft Paint
glue
wire clipper
hand saw

1.  Begin by building the four panels:


Take three of your paint sticks and cut them in half.


You will end up with six sticks 3”long.


Take two of the sticks, one with the handle of the stick at the top and one without the handle to be the bottom of your panel.  Place a dot of glue at each edge.


Place two sticks with handle cutouts on each side.  Put a dot of glue at each top and bottom edge.


Next put two more straight sticks on top.  Even up the edges to make it square.


Build four, these will make your crate.



Once your glue is dry, tack the four corners of each panel with the small nails.






Put in paper rush:


Make marks with a pencil at 1 7/8”, at 3”, and again at 4 1/8” along the top and bottom sticks of  your panel.  These marks are for keeping the paper rush straight.


Run the paper rush between the opening of the front side and back side of the top and bottom sticks.



Line up the paper rush with the pencil marks and tack with a small nail, top and bottom.  Then with a wire clipper, clip the paper rush even with the edge of the paint sticks.


Do this to all four of your panels.  Before moving on to the next step, be sure to clip all sharp ends of the small nails that came through the layers of sticks with your wire clippers.

2.  Put your four panels together:


Put a generous amount of glue on both edges of the top and bottom sticks of the panels.



Stand them up and add the other two panels, then tape to help keep them tight until the glue dries.

3.  Weave:


Once the glue dries, begin at the bottom edge placing the end of the paper rush between the side sticks at the corner.


Run the paper rush over the top of the paint stick and then under and over the paper rush that runs vertically and then again over the paint sticks at the corner.  Go all the way around the crate until you reach where you began.  Clip the paper rush and put through the opening at the corner where you began.  Glue.  Run as many strands of paper rush as you desire around your crate.  I used four as you can see.  My experience with this paper rush is as you add more it gets tighter and could end up warping the wood. 

Put in the bottom:


Cut six paint sticks to approximately 5 1/4”  long.  You can do this with three sticks.  Run a line of glue along the top edge of the bottom inside paint stick, then lay the sticks along the inside edge of the bottom paint sticks.  You may have to gently raise the bottom strand of paper rush to get the stick exactly where it’s suppose to be.  Just push the strand back down when you get the stick in place.
You have a small crate!

Paint:


Paint with whatever color you desire with a watered down acrylic craft paint.
Now you can decorate your crate or leave it as it is.  It will be pretty and practical whatever you do.
If you build this crate I’d love to see it.  I’d like to see some of the ways you decorate it.

Happy Crafting!

Craft: Sewing on Paper

 

 

 

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different techniques.  Sometimes you stumble upon ideas that are really satisfying and pleasing to the eye.  And then it opens up a whole new door of creativity.

I’ve seen some photos of sewing on paper, but wasn’t sure how it would work on this particular item I was constructing.  It’s just a simple stretcher strip frame with lace washed with acrylic and water, then the paper doily was used for a stencil overlapping in white atop the painted lace.  Two paint sticks put together to write the words on and glued to the inside of the frame.

My daughter has a cricket and I confiscated some butterflies she had left over from a project.  I am having a ball with them.  But I have actually used some of them as stencils and have hand cut with a craft knife some others using her butterflies as patterns.

But the main thing is that the butterflies, after being painted, were hand sewn on top of the lace.  It was intricate work, for fear I’d tear the paper after going this far with the project.  But I would almost think it would have to be done this way to keep everything centered.  I might try the machine next time and do the sewing first.

Well, I just wanted to share this with you today.

I hope you can see that you can try to do whatever you want and don’t have to stay within someone else’s guidelines.  We are all free to create!  And you should see the pile of craft bloopers I have.

 

 

You can get stretcher strips here.