The Creative Collection

JOY Plaques

2010-01-27T15:35:00.000-08:00

Love these! I can't wait to make some of my own. And the possibilities are endless to make this unique to your own style! Check out Shanty2Chic for the tutorial. Their blog is full of great ideas!

Decorative Wall Art

2010-01-27T15:29:00.000-08:00

Isn't this stunning? It's gorgeous and totally affordable. Check out the tutorial to make your own at All Things Thrifty.

Clip Art Rails

2010-01-27T15:25:00.000-08:00

Show off your kiddos art with these cool clip art rails! Knock off Wood has all the details.

Love this blog and all of her fabulous tutorials!

File Folder Organizer

2009-09-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

So ca-uuuute! I want to make one right now! Click here for a tutorial on how to make a file folder organizer. I found this tutorial via Covered in Crafts.

I Spy Book

2009-09-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've all seen the "I spy bags". Here's a cute alternative. The tutorial can be found at The Brassy Apple.

Altered Notebook Purse

2009-09-22T12:29:00.000-07:00

Cute and easy little project! For easy instructions and more pictures check it out at Sisters Stuff. These would be great little gifts!

Wallet-size photo album

2009-07-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

Yikes! I don't remember where I found this fun, easy little project. But I copied the tutorial so here it is in the creator's own words:

It’s a wallet sized photo album of favorite photos from the past year. I’ll tuck this little gem into my purse, and then, when I’m out and about and see people I haven’t seen in a while (who ask to see photos of my kids) I’ll have a sampling of great photos at the ready. Or when I travel, I'll have little smiling faces along with me for the trip. This project would also make a great stocking stuffer for Grandmas and Grandpas. I just selected 18 prints, put in two 8 ½" by 11" sheets of photo paper, selected wallet sized photos, and viola! two sheets of wallet sized photos printed in just minutes.

Then, I pulled out my handy-dandy laminator, trimmed the photos, ran them through the lamintor, punched holes on the side using a regular hole punch, and secured the stack with a binder ring. Add a bit of ribbon and a tag from Making Memories, and she’s all done. Super simple.

Washer Necklaces

2009-07-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

Washer necklaces are all the rage right now. And there are so many ways to make them. Here are just a few examples of what you can do and how to do it. Check them out!

FuN Washer Necklaces

More Washer Necklaces

More Washers

Stamped Washer Necklaces

Washer Necklaces

Family Planner and Calendar Journaling

2009-07-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

I just discovered Kristine Mckay Designs. She has some awesome ideas and has created projects with free downloads. Check out her site and projects!

This is a one of her projects that I am working on now for my family and I love it! It's a great idea and all you have to do is put the pages together in a book. You can click on the picture below and get the pages and directions to make this book.

Start the year off right with this “make it your-self” customized planner. Plan and journal at the same time. Capture all of your memories on the go.

Family Yahtzee

2009-07-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

I found this great tutorial on The Thrifty Chick who sadly, passed away just recently. She had so many cute craft ideas and tutorials. I copied this post directly from her blog, not knowing if her site will remain active with her gone.

Here's the tutorial in Stacey's own words:

Supply List:

5- wooden blocks/cubes, (These can be in any size you prefer. When I first made this game 3 years ago I used 3 x 3 paper cubes. It was fun that they were so big, but awkward to store the game) The cubes I used for this tutorial are 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" wooden cubes. I just purchased a 10 foot piece of 2 x 2 wood for $2.50 at Lowes and cut the amount of cubes I needed. (I don't know why wood is measured this way, they say the wood is 2 x 2 but the actual size is 1 1/2 x 1 1/2??) I did find these wooden cubes for a farely decent price on oriental trading If you want to buy some ready made.
Acrylic paint for the actual color of cubes you want (mine are painted in white)
1- 12 x 12 sheet of scrapbook paper in whatever pattern you choose
Mod Podge
3 sponge brushes
A container to store your finished dice/cubes in ( I just bought a small chipboard box with a lid from Michaels Craft store)
6 different pictures cut in squares

The first thing you'll want to do, regardless of where you get your wood is lightly sand all the edges so they are smooth, and then paint each entire cube with 2 layers of whatever color paint you choose. (Oh and I didn't have my box in this picture, but if you are going to store your game in a chipboard box you'll want to paint it also with 2 layers of paint at the same time)

You'll want to let them dry at least 45min to an hour, or until you know for sure they are totally dry. In the meantime you'll want to cut your patterned paper into the right size pieces to place as a background on each side of the cube. You will have 6 sides to each cube, and 5 cubes. So you will need 30 small squares of paper. How big you want them, is based upon how big your cubes are. (I cut my patterned paper into 1 1/4" x 1 1/4" pieces, so there was a quarter inch wooden boarder around each piece of paper.)

Next you'll want to spread 1 layer of mod podge onto one side of the wooden block and place a square of patterned paper over it. Making sure you rub all over on the paper pushing out any bubbles underneath it and sealing down the edges and corners. There was no rhyme or reason to what angle my patterned paper faced, it's just whatever floats your boat!! Once you have placed the paper on, you'll then want to paint a second layer of mod podge over the patterned paper, completely sealing it on. This is where the waiting begins. You'll want to do the mod podged pattern paper on all sides of the cubes. But you'll want to wait at least 5 - 10 minutes to let each side dry before placing it face down to do another side.

If you want to add a matching patterned paper game title to your box like I did, this is when you'll do the same process as the cubes. By painting one mod podge layer, then sticking your patterned paper over it, and then painting a final mod podge layer over your patterned paper.

All of the patterned paper mod podged to the cubes and now drying...

While waiting for my cubes to dry, I spent about 25 minutes picking out what pictures I wanted to use on the cubes and printing them. You will need 6 different pictures, and then each picture duplicated 5 times. I just used my Photoshop to line up my pictures and print them all on 1 page. (My pictures were 1 inch x 1 inch squared. You can cut your pics out any size you wish for your cubes. I wanted mine to be about 1/2" less than my wood size)

While editing and cropping my photos down to size, I used my round paintbrush in photoshop to add a white dot to the corner of each pic. I then assigned a number to each pic, representing the number the pic would be on the dice(cube).

Once all the mod podged dice were totally dry...

I then added my pictures to the blocks the same way I added the patterned paper. With a layer of mod podge, then the pic smoothed down, and a sealing layer of mod podge over the pic.

Again, you'll want to let the mod podge dry for about 5-10 minutes between layers and pics. After it's all mod podged you'll want to leave it drying on a cooling rack over night. And that's it! By the next day it should be totally dry and ready to play with!!

I printed up my own game cards to store with my game. These are totally identical to the actual games cards that come with the game of yahtzee, just in a cuter font to go with my home-made game. (To download actual Yahtzee scorecards, you can click HERE)

A close-up pic of the final storage box the game goes into..

A close-up pic of the final dice/cubes...

Obviously you don't even have to make this a family yahtzee game. You can personalize it with any theme!! It would make a great gift to a family member who loves games!! Whatever you decide to do, hopefully you will have as many fun hours enjoying your game as we have!!

I love this idea and hope to make one for my family soon.