More is More

I got the idea for this fun simple project from the February 07 issue of Sunset Magazine.  Sunset is a regional magazine about Living in the West.  It has great travel, decorating, gardening and food articles…and apparantly the occassional craft!  If you live in the Western United Sates you NEED this magazine!  As soon as I saw the picture in Sunset I asked my sweet hubby if he would cut me some wood blocks. He ran right over to Home Depot and picked up a piece of 4×4 – which interestingly enough is 3.25″ x 3.25″, but it’s called a 4×4.  I guess that’s not so different from 12×12 paper often actually being 11 7/8″x 11 7/8″, huh?

We fiddled with the heights and came up with 2.5″, 3.25″, and 4.5″.  I proceeded slightly differently than the magazine directed.  They suggested wrapping one piece of paper all the way around the block, but I was afraid it would get funky at the corners.  I opted to start by painting all the edges with 2 colors of brown acrylic paint (you know the little bottles that go on sale at Michael’s 2/$1.00) and then with a touch of aqua acrylic paint. 

 Then I cut pieces of Basic Grey Blush for all 4 sides and the top of each block.  Each one is the same with the stripe on 2 adjacent sides and then the circles on the other sides and the polka dots on top.  (This way the blocks can be displayed a number of different ways – all the same or showing different patterns as in this photo.)  I adhered with Plaid Royal Coat Decoupage Finish.  It is basically the same as Mod Podge but I find MP often has a tacky feel when used as a top coat – even when fully dry.  I don’t get the tackiness with Royal Coat.  After they were compelety dry I used a fine grit sand paper to sand all the edges.  I had intended to apply more RC as a top coat, but liked the look and feel of the bare paper so I stopped at that.  Of course a top coat would make them more durable.

The candles are from Big Lots and come in a 2 pack for $2.  I cut strips of BG Blush 1.75″ and ran them through my Cuttlebug with the Tiny Mosaic A2 folder – hard to see in the photo, but gives a really nice texture.  Then wrapped a smaller piece of the polka dot Blush pattern and finished with some Caribbean grosgrain ribbon from Fabric Barn.

I am so in love with Basic Grey papers right now even though I feel like I have been cheating on my big background stamps.  LOL!  I can’t wait to get the Phoebe, Perhaps, and Stella Ruby lines  today.  I am so excited for my friend Joy and her wonderful business partner Daisy with the opening of their on-line store electic Paperie!  Check it out!  They have some amazing stuff already including lots of Basic Grey, Crate, and Cosmo Cricket and are getting new stuff in almost every week right now.  You definitely have to check out their alterables section.  I got to see the Bare Elements stuff in person at CHA and it ROCKS!

I hope some of you will try this candle block project.  If you do, please let me know so I can see what you’ve done.  I think it could be great for just about any seasonal decoration and definitely easy enough for the kids to do with you as well.  If I planned to burn these candles I would just burn down a bit and scoop out a small hole so that a tealight would fit on top. That way it’s safer and the tealight can be replaced.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.  I’m just getting started and would love for you to leave me a comment!  Happy Monday. 🙂