Craft Stick Nativity

'Tis the Season for Crafting! It's been too long since I made a post, but this one, I had to share.

This Monday, I am in charge of the activity for a milti-family FHE. I found this project on Pinterest, but when I went to the page, there were no directions. It's a fairly self-explanitory craft, but I thought I would break down how I did it.

This is the finished product (the first one I did)

Here's what you will need:

• 6 1/2 -7 Jumbo Crafting sticks
• Glue *
• Markers
• 1/2 Gold tinsel pipe cleaner

*I used Tacky glue and it worked very well you could use Hot glue if you want

**I used Crayola washable markers Blue- Mary Orange-Joseph Yellow-Jesus and the angel I taped white paper because I didn't have a white maker.

Step One:  Take 3-4 of the sticks and cut them in half. It's alright if they are not even, I found it good to make everyone a different size. One of these sets will be the sides of the nativity though. One of the halves, cut fairly short and color with a brown marker, this will later be the manger.

Step Two: Take two of the whole sticks and cross them, one on top of the other, close to one end and glue. Leave enough space on the top for the angel to sit. This will also make the roof less pointed to fir the bottom portion. Then take one whole stick and two of the halves you cut and glue them on the ends. When both parts are dry, glue the small sticks to the roof. There you have your building.

Step Three: Color each person as you wish. When you get to the angel, take your 1/2 gold pipe cleaner and hold one end about halfway at the back, then fold the long part around the front and around to the back. Once it meets the short end, twist it around, like a bread bag tie. After that, bring it up so the long extra is pointing straight from the angel's head. just above the head, bend the wire to one side a few centimeters  then bend it the other direction. Depending how much you have left, you can bend it into the halo or cut it off. Add a dab of glue to the back of the head to immobilize the halo.

Step Four: Glue the cut brown piece in half length wise and glue it to the front to make the manger. Then glue each person in. I glued Mary and Joseph in at an angle so they are looking over him.

Once everything is dry, You have a cute little nativity to share!

This was the second one I made. I hope you all enjoy the holidays and spread happiness.

<3 Crafty Orange

Photo Clip Board Craft

So, in January my ward held a service auction. I signed up to give a service, though it took me so long to think of one. I figured there would be a lot of food ones, so I wanted to make mine different. Mom gave me the idea of my service being a Valentines/Mothers Day craft gift.

Mine went off without a hitch. So many guys were bidding on my service. The one who ended up winning told me it was going to be for his mom. So, I asked him several questions, thought and planned. I decided I was going to do a picture clip board. It's a wood plaque with cloths pins to hold the photos. Here is the end product:

Here is what I used:

1- 11"x14"x.68" Oval Pine Plaque

1- bag of 2 1/2" mini spring clothespins (Number of used depends on personal preference)
1- 2oz bottle of Americana Buttermilk acrylic paint
1- 2oz bottle of Americana Sour Apple acrylic paint
1- 8oz bottle of Americana Lamp (Ebony) Black acrylic paint
3 foam paint brushes
3-6 small paper cups
Sand paper
Wood letters
Hot Glue gun

How to do it yourself:

I started off by figuring out how many clips I wanted on the board and clipped them onto the end of 2 paper cups. I then went through and painted each individually, leaving one side blank. That side doesn't particularly matter because it will be glued to the board. Be sure to get everywhere so only the one side is blank. like this:

The next step is to paint the letters. Now, this is where you can really personalize. This one says "Family" because it's for a mother who has a budding family. You can make it say whatever you wish. To make the letters pop out, we used the green on the sides of the letters instead of painting the whole letter cream. Again, this is where you can personalize. Choose colors that fit your purpose. This is how the letters turned out:

I then painted the entire plaque green, except the back, of course. I then painted black over it. We did this so that when we give it the aged look, it will show green and tie it in rather than the wood color. I also decided while painting to leave some of the green exposed on the ornate border. I used regular fine paint brushes to touch up some of the areas on the green border. Be sure to use the same stroke on the top layer so it is consistently going one way. Don't worry about the top layer being perfect, it's ok to let the green show through. After letting it dry, use the sand paper and in one direction, just have at it. rub a a little bit in some places and hard in others to get an uneven wear look. The pictures of these steps:

I then placed all the letters and clips where I wanted them to be. I used a pencil to mark little spots to remind me where each piece went. I then used the hot glue gun and glued each piece to the plaque. The clips I glued them so that the ones on the bottom opened down to clasp the top of a picture. I glued the clips on top so that they opened up to clasp the bottom of photos. I did not put anything on it to hang it up to the wall, but there are many things you can do. The back was flat, so you could purchase wall fasteners or even find a nice, thick piece of ribbon and glue it to the back.

You could make it have someone's name and put all kinds of things on it to decorate it I.E a tiara for a girl or a football or even flowers and stones. On this one, I was tempted to put white rhinestones and/or a green/black/cream flower. It's all up to personal taste.

If you would like me to make one for you, shoot me a message on Facebook (for my friends) or email me at Crafty_Orange@yahoo.com

<3 Crafty Orange

What Others Think of Us

I often find myself at a store, or in my car, thinking about the parson who just passed or is next to me. I sometimes catch myself thinking "Oh, he's cute." or something of the sort. I also begin to wonder, when people look at me, what crosses their mind. What do the think when they see me?

For those who don't know, I love psychology and love larning about peoples minds and thought prosseces. And I know we should not care what others think of us, and quite frankly, I only care about what a few people think of me. Alas, I love digging in people's minds and finding what makes them "tick". It's not a matter of "Oh, he's hot. I wonder if he saw me and thinks I'm atractive," but as the fact that I want t know what first comes to mind.

Then there's the time you look in the mirror and think "my hair looks horrible" or "oh no, another wrinkle". Sometimes I wonder what I look like through someone else's eyes. We are often too critical on ourselfs. I waslistening to the radio about Christmas time and they stated there was a new. Study that said others see us as 20% more atractive than we see ourselfs. This is so, not only because we are our worst critics, but others see our kindness and love for others as attractive as well. If you are not kind, carin and such, you may not be as atractive to a person. Personality actually does affect attraction.

So, do you think personality affects your attraction to someone? Do you ever wonder what people's first impressions are? Do you care what others think of you?

<3 Crafty Orange