A Hat Rack for the Cowpokes!

I am proud to say that the covered wagon is almost done! I am actually writing this how-to while the wheels dry. Hopefully it will be finished tonight. In the meantime, here is a quick and easy way to make a hat rack for the Bible Study Bunkhouse. All you need is some cardboard, paint, and 3m Adhesive Hooks.

How-To

1. First, draw and cut out the shape you want for the backboard of your hat rack.
2. Next, paint the card board the color you want. I wanted mine to look wooden, so I dry brushed the cardboard to look like a wood grain.
3. Then spray paint the hooks the color you want (make sure your spray paint adheres to plastic). 3m also makes a metallic looking hook if want a metallic finish without having to paint.
4. Once everything is dry, follow the directions on the package to adhere the hooks on the cardboard backing.

Now you have a place to hang your cowboy hat and lasso!

The ABC's

After getting back in town, I've slowly started finishing up the last of the decorations, all of which I hope to have up by the end of next week (The World Cup has caused some distractions). In the meantime, I've created some ABC signs for the Missions, Crafts, Music, and Bible Study rooms. I like to have the ABC's of becoming a Christian up in all the classrooms, so each year I make some posters that fit the theme of each room. They can be downloaded below:

ABC Signs

ABC's for Bible Study Bunkhouse

ABC's for Crafts at The Blazing Star Stables

ABC's for Missions at Firefly Caverns

ABC's for Music at Campfire Creek

Please let me know if you notice any mistakes on the signs. They were created under a lack of sleep and the constant buzz of the vuvuzela horns coming from the soccer games; perfect conditions for typos! :)

Quick & Easy Faux Fireplace

I finally finished the faux fireplace for the Bible Study Bunkhouse! It seemed whenever I was about to finish it up, I would run out of hot gluesticks or I would burn myself. Hot glue and I have never really gotten along well. Hot glue problems aside, this is a quick and easy fireplace to make.

How-To

• First, I took a large cardboard moving box, and cut it down to the size I wanted (I split my box in half). If your box is already the size you want, then just tape it together. After that was completed, I cut the smaller square opening for the front of my fireplace.

• Next, I cut out a piece of the leftover cardboard to cover the back of my fireplace. I held off on attaching it because I wanted to paint it first. If you left your box intact and did not cut it to make it smaller, this step isn't necessary.

• I wanted a stone fireplace, so I painted my box various shades of grey. Once that was dry, I painted lines to look like grout between the stones and added some darker shading to the stones. After finishing the front of the fireplace, I painted the piece of cardboard I cut out for the back of the fireplace.

• After everything was dry, I hot glued the cardboard piece on the back of my fireplace.

• I cut out another piece of cardboard, so I could make a mantle for the fireplace. I cut it wide enough to cover the top and long enough to have about two and half inches leftover on each side.

• Then I dry-brushed the cardboard to give it a woodgrain appearance. Once it was dry. I hot glued it onto the top of the fireplace.

• To make a fire for the fireplace. I took a round piece of cardboard and glued it in the center of a sheet of tissue paper. Then, I just continued to glue layers of red, orange, and yellow sheets of tissue paper on top of each other. Once it was dry, I flipped it over (cardboard side facing up) and scrunched the tissue paper up around the cardboard until I got it the way I wanted it. When it is set up in the classroom, I am going to place several electric tea lights inside, on top of cardboard, to make the fire light up and flicker.

• I then took some brown paper bags and twisted them into a log shape and took a brown paint pen (or marker) to draw lines to make them appear like logs. I placed these around the fire.

• Once everything was placed inside, I added the fireplace gate.

• When I set it up in the classroom, I will take grey paper and tape it to the wall behind the fireplace to make a chimney.

• If you want to make the appearance of having soot inside your fireplace, you can take black spray paint a lightly spray it inside your fireplace.

Enjoy your new fireplace for your Bunkhouse!

Faux Window Fun!

So, after a very disappointing 7th game, ending the Penguins post-season, I woke up this morning not in the best of moods. This motivated me to get working on more VBS decorations (that I had been procrastinating a bit on), including the Faux Window for the Bible Study Bunkhouse. What better way to get over Stanley Cup Playoff blues than decorating and show tunes! ;) So let's begin!

How-To

• To begin, I spray-painted two sheets of thick drawing paper a light brown. I used thick paper, because I have to attach it to concrete walls that things do not like to stick to, so the lighter the better. Cardboard and posterboard would also work great!
• While that was drying, I used the free Open Office Publisher knockoff (I'm a poor college student; I use what I can get) to print out a poster of an image from a horse ranch and assembled it (mine was about 3x2 pages).

• I then took clear saran wrap and covered the poster to make it look like glass.

• Once the the spray-painted paper was dry, I cut it into 6 strips (long enough to match the length and width of the poster)
• I split the other sheet of spray-painted paper in half to make shutters for the window. You can also use fabric and put curtains around the window.
• Next, I dry brushed the strips of paper for the window frame and the window shutters with a darker brown to get a woodgrain effect. I used a brown paint pen to draw the lines on the shutters.

Dry Brushing

1. Take a stiff paintbrush (natural hair or one that paint has stiffened due to dry paint).
2. Dip the brush into your paint. Only cover the bottom 1/3 of the brush.
3. Dab your brush in a paper towel or a piece of paper to knock off excess paint.
4. Take a few practice strokes on a scrap piece of paper, before you paint on your window.
5. Take long strokes across your paper until you get the effect that you want.

• Once everything is dry, glue your strips of paper together in a pattern of a window.

• Finally, I attached the window frame to the poster covered in saran wrap, and then attached the shutters to the sides of the window. I used masking tape (mainly because I was out of hot glue).

Now you have a faux window!

Cardboard: Your Friend and Mine

For college students all across America, finals are coming to an end, signaling the start of the moving season. With the moving season comes tons of cardboard boxes. On my last day of classes, I took advantage of this time, and scavenged some boxes to use for decorations. I love using cardboard because it is strong, easy to paint, and cheap (or free!). It is great to use to create space-fillers and decorative elements. Throughout the next couple of weeks I will continue to add cardboard creations to this section.

Space-Fillers

• I browsed through the clip-art and chose some things to sketch out on the cardboard to use to fill up space in various rooms. The cardboard will keep its shape and remain firm, so it is easy to prop up against walls and in corners. If drawing isn't your thing, you can use a projector or an overhead to trace your image onto the cardboard.

Decorative Elements

• Fireplace Gate: I used a piece of cardboard and folded some strong creases to divide it into three sections. I cut out a pattern and spray painted it black and silver. Then I lined it witch a gold paint pen. I think I am going to use it on a faux fireplace in the Bible Study Bunkhouse.