A Thanksgiving DYI Project

While out shopping a couple of weeks ago, I saw this cute fall/Thanksgiving decoration. It was a set of blocks, different sizes and colours that spelled out the words: Give Thanks. I thought it was cute and was going to buy it but then decided it was something I could make (and I knew I had everything I needed already at home). Of course my version isn't as cute but I thought it came out nice enough. I'd like to make some for Christmas and make them look nicer, I have some ideas! Here is a pictorial run through of what I did:

I used Rub On letters, figured it was the easiest option

My husband cut the blocks for me and I sanded them down. I made sure to sand all the ends and corners to round them off, looks nicer.


I painted them various fall colours and let them dry (my boys insisted that purple and blue were not fall colours, but I'm sure there are fall flowers of those colours!)


Fuzzy picture I know! Next step was to apply the rub-ons. I learned with one letter how important it is to make they are completely dry!

And Ta-Da! This is the end result! I'm going to spray a finish on them to give them a bit of gloss and protect them. I'm going to get more creative with my next try for Christmas but this was fun and costed me $0! Hope all my fellow Canadians had a great Thanksgiving!

My Husband, The Toy Maker

I was going to write about our revenge on the wasps, but forgot my pictures at home so instead I'm going to highlight my husband's creativity (more on the wasps another day).

Jim has always been quite artisitc. His latest outlet is making wooden toys. He has such fond memories of playing with his Little People Playsets with his Sesame Street Little People. He has been making his own characters (and some Sesame Street characters) for his own boys for years now and has recently started selling them on Ebay. Lots of people still have their Little People Playsets (we do) but they don't make the characters to go with them anymore. Now the Little People playsets and characters are different, quite a bit bigger. I told hubby he needs to figure out how to make a playset to go with his characters. He is thinking about it, he might start out with a car they can sit in and go from there.

Here are some pictures of what he has made:

Oscar the Grouch

McDonald Land Characters

Laurel and Hardy, in black and white!

Bob and Larry from Veggie Tales

Kermit and Fozzie Bear

Starwars




As you can see, my boys love Starwars. They play the Starwars Lego game (computer and Wii) all the time and that is the inspiration for these Starwars characters.

Here are a few of my husband's original characters:

Fall Characters

St. Patrick's Day Characters

Snowman

These are the current characters for sale on Ebay right now:

*click on the names to go to the Ebay auction
Zoe Elmo Grover

You can check out all the characters he has made by clicking on the button for Little Wooden Guys on my sidebar or by clicking here. Be sure to look back through the archives to see all the characters including one done to look like our son, cute!