homemade blocks

Back when I was in Dominica, I started thinking of all these crafts and projects I wanted to make, but of course, didn't have the supplies for. Bummer. I emailed Lee (Paul's dad) about one of them, and asked him to cut me some blocks so that when I got there to Arizona in December, that I could drive them out with the rest of our stuff and FINALLY do this block idea... He agreed. Hooray! He made me a million of them.

I added brown paint to all the edges, and then traced the blocks on pieces of scrap booking paper. I cut each square slightly smaller than the block and glued it on with mod podge (my new favorite medium).

This particular set I made, was for little miss Penelope Jane (love her name!) who is Hawken's future wife, FYI. I tried to find cute lettering in the fonts I have and was then going to print them, but I couldn't find anything that I really liked, so I lettered it myself. It turned out mostly how I wanted it to. Then I roughed up the edges with a little more brown paint and sand paper. Perfect.

I have since made some blocks for the boys and have many other ideas on the list already... Lee, I may be emailing you again soon. :) The only thing I have changed in my process is rather than painting the edges brown (or any other color) first, I save that for last and just do it carefully. I think it makes them look more polished. But if you're going for a rougher look, more shabby sheek, then paint it first. I can't wait until we have a house that I can have a crafty room in. :) That would be great.