Ollibird Blocks

 

From this Pin: Olliblocks

 

I had seen this pin but didn't pin it. Then a friend recommended this for our pinterest craft night and it was so fun and cute, however when I went back to find the pin I couldn't find it. But it is a cute craft and super duper easy. I was very impressed with ollibird.com the PDF for three sets of blocks: boy, girl, and animal was $12. I was a little concerned that each person would need to purchase their own set to use but I read all the fine print and they actually encouraged sharing the PDF for a craft night or activity, with as many people as you want, as long as you didn't use it for commercial use or profit. They also gave excellent instructions and links to places to buy blocks and label paper. I didn't have time to order blocks for our pinterest club night, so I got a few 2x2x8 pieces of wood from Home depot for $1.49 each. I pulled out my husbands chop saw, took about 10 minutes to figure out how to get the safety latch off, and got to sawing. I discovered that the 2x2s were actually 1.5x1.5, which was fine because the PDF comes with labels for the 2x2 blocks and the 1.5x1.5 blocks, and it meant that one piece of wood made 60 1.5 inch blocks. I didn't worry about sanding the blocks too much because the sticker covered them, I just rubbed the edges of the blocks on the cement a few times to smooth out the splinters. The website recommended printing the copies at a professional printer so that the ink wouldn't bleed when mod podged so I went to Office Max. I bought my full sheet white label paper there as well. The label paper was about 50 cents a sheet and the color copies were 49 cents each. We had 12 people coming to craft night so we all chipped in $1 for the PDF and then $1 for each sheet of guys and then $1 for blocks and supplies so for $5 each person got a set of 9 darling blocks.  It was a little more time consuming to cut all the squares and trim them to fit the blocks just right but it was so worth it in the end!

 

Look how cute all these little outfits are!! I love them!

 

I ended up giving my set as a birthday gift the following day and my son keeps asking when he is going to get his blocks! I think I will be making them for birthday and Christmas gifts for nieces and nephews as well as baby gifts for a few friends!

On a difficulty scale of 1-10 I give them a 3 mostly because it was time consuming and I had to use a big saw! But we had a big group of girls all on different levels of craftiness and everyone seemed happy with the end result!

 

 

Halloween Door

I got the ideas for my Halloween door from these pins: Spider Magnets and Boo Wreath

 

I love the spidey door magnets, but I could only find a few big spiders around my house and I keep forgetting to get little ones at the store but soon enough I will have some baby spiders on my door as well! I just used little magnets I had laying around and tacky glue. My magnets are a little too powerful so for the next round I am going to buy some different magnets that won't tear off the spider because they are too attached to the door. For my wreath I just used an old black bed sheet that I had bought at one point for a back drop or something. I also used a hay type wreath I found on clearance and I didn't paint it or even take it out of the plastic. I turned on a show, and started cutting strips of fabric. Then I tied and I tied and I tied until it was all covered in raggedy messy fabric. Then I modge podged the paper to the letters and attached them and added some google eyes because it looked like a monster. My husband didn't want me to re-paint the door orange just for the season, and I was okay with that.

 

 

The spiders had a deeper well in the body so I filled it with hot glue before using tacky glue for the magnet. It is holding up okay.

On a scale of 1-10 these were a 10, so easy it was scary. The wreath too, just time consuming but so easy anyone can do it!

 

Pinterest Night

 

Two months ago a friend and I decided to started a Pinterest Club. One night a month we have a girls night to do a pinterest craft and try out some pinterest recipes. It's a little crazy, but its been way fun! This month we got our craft from this pin, Pumpkin Book, and the recipes from these pins: Owl Smores, Coconut Banana Bread, and Pumpkin Crescents.

 

Pinterest night is great. The host pics a craft, prices it out and gets all the supplies. A few of us signed up to bring a treat and then everyone just shows up to snack and craft. We had 16 girls there for this project so it got a little crazy but it was a blast. The host had cut out several stencil shapes for the pumpkins, some were shorter and more round, others were taller and straighter. We also had several book sizes. I think you would want at least 400 pages in your paper back book. Some girls had 800 -1000 pages. Some girls used scissors to cut the pages others used razor blades which gave it a bit more of a shabby look. After the entire book was cut we softened the binding by separating the pages maybe 10-20 at a time and bending them back at the binding. Then we used either copper, orange or brownish paint and just painted the edges of the book, some soaked theirs more than others so that the painted seeped further into the book. Then we took some branches and hot glued the binding around the branch and topped it with a bow. Easy and very inexpensive!

And the treats were delicious. I made the coconut banana bread and had I not been distracted and over cooked it, I think it would have been my new favorite. Even over baked it was still moist and delicious. The pumpkin crescents were super easy. The recipe said to cut the crescents in half before filling them and rolling them so that you would have 32 in the end. I had a hard time not making a giant mess so I made 16 rolls and then after they had baked I cut them in half and by cutting them it pressed the middle closed so the insides didn't goo out. Also I added 5-6 big chocolate chips to each roll and I am glad I did. They are not very sweet so the chocolate was a nice touch.
Both recipes were super easy, and on a yummy scale of 1-10 I give them an 8. The books were much easier than I thought, on a tricky scale of 1-10 I would give them a 3.5 and on a messy scale they get an 8. Cutting up books is messy!! And pinterest night  on a fun scale of 1-10 always gets a 10! If you have friends who like to eat and talk and craft I highly recommend starting a pinterest club!