Super Saturday

I am the Relief Society Second counselor at church, which means I am in charge of all the mid-week activities that we plan. Which means I get to do another Super Saturday. I have a great committee leader who is teaching all these great crafts about decopage. She is going to show us how to print a photo on fabric and then decopage it to a piece of glass which ends up giving it a super durable finish and it looks like canvas. It's so cool.

I was inspired by Charyce last year to come up with this craft. She painted wooden figures for her family and I fell in love. I thought they would be cool with a stand, and then I thought they might make a cool family home evening chart. If you haven't heard of FHE, it's one night a week reserved for family time, usually Monday. We rotate responsibilities every week. (At least we WILL, I hope, when my kids are older than 3.) Anyway, I had a great time with Kristen painting our families. Hers turned out so cute,

this is her family and the one below is what she made for her family in CA.


and I loved painting Eirik in Luke Skywalker clothes with a light saber and Joren in my favorite little leather jacket. I gave us an extra space for the "spirit child" we hope will join our family someday.


Then I thought, hmm.. this would make a great Super Saturday craft. Then I thought we better have a simpler option for people who don't love to paint tiny things.



Then I thought we better have another option for people who already have an FHE chart or they don't use one. So this second example emerged. I had a lot of fun making these. I'll make you one if you want. Let's see, how about $15 for a simply painted family, or $30 for details. (you'll have to send me a photo of your family and I'll try to match you.)

The second craft that I am teaching is called Salvaged or Recycled books. My sister Katie made up this idea and hers is so cool that she has received lots of recognition for her salvaged book.

These notebooks are made from paper used or printed on one side and clean on the other side. The cover and back are made from cereal boxes. The whole thing is free and they are so cool for to-do lists or quick notes or for kids... or whatever you can think of. I made a really quick tutorial here.

1. Fold all your used paper with the used side in. Hole punched paper works just fine too as long as you don't mind the extra "character" in your book.

2. Cut your cereal box to fit the cover and the back. I put the fold of the cereal box 3/4" in from the edge to make the front cover open easily. (I used a Diet Coke box for this, but I recommend using a cereal box since the circle impressions did show through.)
3. Decorate your cover and back. I used a glue stick or spray adhesive to adhere magazine clippings, scrapbook paper, photos, wrapping paper or coloring book pages. You could also paint the cover or whatever you want.

4. I put a layer of gloss medium over the top to make it stiffer, more glued and glossy.
5. Get two pieces of Masonite or other stiff material to put around the book, clamp it all together with the open ends of your folded paper on the bound edge. When you open your book you should see only the folded end of the paper. All of the used part is hidden. Mark where you want to drill the holes for your binding. I put the holes 1/2" in from the ends and then 1 1/2 " apart for the other holes. You can clamp directly on the book if you don't mind the clamp marks that they make.

6. Drill your holes with a small drill bit. It should make a large enough hole for your needle to fit through.

7. Thread your needle and "sew" through your holes all the way up one side (leave a long end where you started)
and back down the other creating X's. You can repeat this pattern as many times as you think you need depending on the strength of your string. I used embroidery floss and just went up and down once.

8. Make a tight square not and then start using your new book.

Please let me know if you make one!