craftiness

i bit the bullet and finally got back into the groove of being crafty.  it's a title i've always gone by, and one i actually like to be called.  when dax joined our family the craftiness kind of went out the window with the lack of sleep and order around here, but under pressure of his first birthday quickly approaching, i am finally getting back into the swing of things.

on pinterest (God help us all with pinterest - i mean it has great ideas and all but does it make anyone else just feel totally inadequate?  i mean, i am really good at pinning things, but i never actually do them - so what does that say about me?  am i just really building a pin board of things i wish i would actually sit down and do instead of constantly pinning stuff?), i saw a party decor idea for dax's big numero uno party.  on this example they'd taken the number 5 and tissue papered it up old elementary school paper wreath style with twisted tissue paper to make a cute party decor backdrop.  i saw another example on etsy for about $40, and i thought i really needed to construct this myself.  after all, i am crafty - right?

so, i told will i needed to get some foam core board for my big project and we headed to target.  i also had to pick up one more shade of green tissue paper, since i already had two in my closet - but three were needed for the shading effect.  once we had the foam core and tissue, i was all set.  everything else i needed was in the craft closet.  i started by making the shape of the "1".  i really liked the number that was on some stickers i had, so i used that as my model.  then, i free handed the number one on to the foam core board and cut it out with an exacto knife.  once that was cut out i sliced up all of my tissue paper into tiny squares.  (it really makes no difference at all if these are the same shape, so just freely cut away.)  then the fun begins.  this is where you find an old school ink pen - like one you lifted from a hotel or something - and begin to twist each piece of paper around the base of the pen and smash it onto your glue stick covered cut out.  i had to do this over several days with many breaks because my hand got tired of the twisting.  however, it was fairly painless and something you can do while you watch your favorite tv show.

tips:
- don't use shiny tissue paper.  the glue does not hold as well with any glossy type of paper, so if you have a choice - opt for the matte finish.
- buy a good glue stick.  when mine ran out i got a "washable" glue stick from target (it was all they had) and i ended up throwing that pack away and going to the scrapbook store to get a "scotch" brand glue stick.  much better product.

i really like how it turned out and will be using this on our front door for dax's big party coming up in 11 days!  stay tuned for other crafty things going on at this event!