Happy Day!

 Today is the only day this week without a lacrosse game so I decided that even with all of the other things on my list, today would be a crafting day. Most of the other stuff involves cleaning and I am always ready to push that stuff farther down the list! Lol

I knew I was going to try my hand at the cross and I knew I really wasn't sure where I was going to go with it so I wanted to give myself plenty of time to play around before making any final decisions.

And, as soon as I decided that, I was at the miter saw cutting another piece of the fence slat-didn't give myself any time for that decision. And, since I had some leftover pieces of paint stir sticks, the "putting together" part was easy. I always use wood glue and then some thin nails. Of course, this being a fence slat and not a piece of finishing wood, the sides aren't totally even nor are the thicknesses of the pieces. I was pretty sure I was using scrapbook paper over the wood so I didn't care as much as I would have if I had just been painting or staining it. The paper would cover a multitude of sins. Sorry about the sun and shadows but it was too pretty to move.

Then I painted the edges of the wood with a lavender chalk paint and got the paper on. There was a bit if a bulge where I slightly overlapped the paper but I knew I could cover it with the embellishments so I really wasn't all that bothered by it.

I gave the edges of the hymn a rough tear and then used my distressing ink to grunge up the edges and over all of the page.

Next I started playing around with spacing and decided I wanted to add a crown of thorns so I pulled out the "Tumbling Tower" blocks from the $Tree to use as risers so the crown could go behind the cross and some rusty wire to actually make the crown.

I used the ModPodge bottle as my shape for the crown.

Then I glued the cross pieces together, added some hot glue to the crown and got it in place and then glued on the "risers" and got the cross and the hymn onto the background.

I made a small bow from some coffee stained muslin and gauze and then took a small piece of the muslin and stamped on my word so that I could have a tag. My initial thought was to just use the muslin but I decided that it needed a pop of lavender up on the cross so I backed it with a small scrap of cardstock. I had all sorts of flowers out and played around with a lot of different configurations but this is where I landed after also adding some reindeer moss.

At this point I grabbed some lunch so I could be away from it for a bit to see how I felt when I came back...and, when I did, I decided that I like it just as it is-maybe a bit more distressing but that will be easy enough to do at any time.

Of course, then came the question of "where will I put it?". This piece is pretty big and the largest shelves I have are in the family room so that would make the most sense-except for the fact that that room is done in oranges and greens and there is really no place for the lavender. And so, I walked around and around as I so often do until out of default, I landed here. And, I think I like it. I am going to add a stand to the bunny who has been here and it will go up on top of the corner cupboard in the living room and the rabbit that was there will go on the bottom shelf of the couch table-musical "homes" for all. Lol

So, unless I see something else coming down the pike for Easter that will probably do it for this year. That being said, I really never anticipated doing this one so we shall see but I think I will be moving on to spring-which I can do once I clean up from this project. When I'm not sure what I really want to do with a craft, it seems as if EVERY craft supply I own comes out and cleaning up takes a pretty long time-hence the reason I like to have a totally clear day before I start a project like this.

We had a fantastic boys' lacrosse game last night. We won handily against a hometown rivel so those victories are all the sweeter! The girls' played a scrimmage game against a girls' team from England who are here visiting. They all sat together during the boys' game and seemed to make fast friends! There was so much giggling and hugging going on and, of course, now grand daughter #5 wants to spend her summer in London. Lol No pictures to share yet because they're still on my daughter's phone.

Off to start the clean up process but I'll be back to finish our tour. Stay safe and stay tuned.