Christmas Craft projects

We have three granddaughters, one 5, and two 8. They all are girlie, princessey types who love Barbies and Cinderella.

One 8 year old has only a full size mattress and springs laying on the floor for her bed. So we bought a bed frame from Salvation Army. We are going to make a head board with 2, 2x4s hooked together for legs and then cut down to maybe 2" square and up to the top of the headboard, maybe 4' 6" high. These will be painted white and maybe have some sort of finial on the top. Then between the two legs is a piece of plywood about 54" by 18" or 24". We will drill holes in the plywood in a symetrical manner, pad the front with sponge and/or quilt batting, and cover that with white vinyl and hook it around the back with the staple gun. Then with an upholstery needle, pull heavy thread through the hole from the back and through the front and sew through the shank of a either covered button or gold button and pull it down tightly enough to cause a tufting effect. Then we'll run gold elastic cord on the diagonal from one button to another for a little decoration. That will be the headboard.

Then for all three little girls, we are making crown out of 1" x 12" boards. Ellie's will be larger because we're attaching hers to the headboard. The crowns will have holes everywhere a gem might be. We'll cover the wood with lace and spray paint it all gold. Then we'll attach a plastic gem to the front over each hole. I'm going to get some gold cord of some sort and run that along the edge and around the gems to kind of finish off the edges and decorate it. Then somewhere, maybe low on the crown or hanging from the crown will be the word PRINCESS and then their name. On the back of it we will router grooves and lay a string of white LED Christmas lights and each gem will have a light behind it. There will be extra lights here and there around the edges but just glowing out from under. Kind of a night light thing I guess. We'll also put an off/on switch in the cord too so it doesn't have to be plugged and unplugged all the time. Whatcha think??

Then our kids who are married (3) are going to get a house number doodad. We'll make a shallow tray kind of thing and use mosaic tiles and number tiles for them to put by the mailbox or on the front of the house.

What a great idea! I'm sure your granddaughters will be thrilled. As for me, I'm very impressed! You're a lot braver than I am to tackle a job like that!

I love DIY stuff and am not very experienced with anything of that sort. But DH is a Master Plumber and has done construction for, what, 44 years or so. So has been exposed to a lot of stuff. He of course has all the necessary tools and we work together on projects since we are both retired. He does most of the cutting when using a table saw, chop/miter saw or Skill saw, because I'm kinda scared of them, but I have used all of them enough to tackle them if he's not home. He won't do the painting, gem gluing, or upholstery but probably will help. He'll do the routering. Mostly I do the designing and think up the stuff and we work together to complete it. HE is a good man.

WE have a home, and two duplexes which need work from time to time so we have saved bunches of money over the years doing all our own work. He doesn't do furnace/AC work, sewer/septic work, well digging etc, complicated wiring, (but he does wire), or in depth automotive. We do all the rest I guess. As I said, He is a good man. Not only can he do it, he does it and cleans up after himself (without me nagging or even asking). LOL

Sounds wonmderful, Esther. You are so creative and clever. You should have been an engineer. Seriously!

You've seem the PVC Queen crown that I have for an avatar. Dale on The Pond Forum made that for me.

I have no idea. He is very good with computer, photography and photoshopping. He took pictures of my dog, cat and granddaughter, removed the backgrounds and applied them to something that looks like canvass, and made marks on them so they looked a bit painted. We framed them and hung the ones of the pets in the dining room and gave the one of the little girl to her daddy. When/if you get a chance, go look at his photographs. I think he has a link on his posts. Or just ask him and he'll be glad to share with you.
Lydia and Branka are quite the photographers too.

The headboard idea sounds super, I'm sure any little princess would love it.

Button tufting is not quite as simple as poking a pin through and pulling, particularly with vinyl. Because once you have the hole there you can't just move it like you can with fabric. You have to plan out a grid pattern with the holes wider than the finished piece. How much wider will vary according to how thick the padding is. Particularly with deep tufting. You have to lay out "grid lines" and mark where you want the holes on the backside of the vinyl then flip and fold to have them come out where they belong. It can be Hard work...Bruce Button tufted the seats in his Tbucket and it turned out great but he did quite a bit of reading and research before he started.

All that said, I'm sure you can do it. I also did a mini search and came up with this link on how to do DIY Mock Tufting that looks a bit simpler than the deep tufting Bruce did.

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY_Mock_Tufting/

Yah, I have it all figured out where I want the buttons to be and will drill holes in the wood to go through. Mother and I have done some upholstery and I don't like doing it but this is just a little project. I have all her needles and tools. There will be 8 buttons going across and 3 down and the rows will all line up instead of being mismatched like the buttons on my couch. Thanks for the link.

Here's what I've come up with for the crown design. It is 18" X 9" and the red circles and lines will be where there will be 20 white LED lights underneath. Where the circles are will be different colored transparent gems. Am hoping the lights will shine through and out from under at night. Maybe they'll use it for a kind of night light. I'm covering it with lace so the surface looks filigreed and then painting it gold.

Here is DH working on the headboard.

You know, I have the bestest ideas. I just don't seem to have the know how to bring them to fruition, sometimes. Poor Pete bought an 8' length of 12" wide, 1 by. HE cut out the three crowns. I showed him where to drill the holes. From what I hear, they keep splitting at the top when he drills where the gems go and of course he can't stand it if it isn't perfect. I keep telling him that there will be lace coating the surface before I paint it so if we have to glue something together or fill something with wood putty, it's OK. So now he tells me that he has cut out more and more crowns to try to get 3 that are perfect and used up the whole board. LOL. I dread going down to the workshop because I bet I could retrieve the ones he's disappointed with and make them work. After all, this is for little girls who won't care if it is a little chipped here or there. I have painted all the clear gems I bought with bright colored transparent glass paint. I stuck some in the holes of one of the crowns and stuck the LED lights behind them and then turned out the room lights. I think if we can figure out how to do this, it will be cool.

Esther wrote: he can't stand it if it isn't perfect..

Bruce would use it as an excuse to buy a new drill or set of drill bits. He'd say the one he was using wasn't sharp enough strong enough or something. He doesn't know I'm on to his tricks though. :[IMG]/confused

No, we now have 5-6 crowns and I think I can use the 3 best ones. I'll make it work somehow.

LoL @ Lari.

Here's where we are on the one that cracked the least.

Glued on the lace to cover any cracks or whatever and make the front look less like a board. Spray painted the gold and painted the letters pink. What a mess on the kitchen table. We have to eat our meals in the dining room.

One down, one painted and a third ready to go.



Here is the board that Pete used to cut out the crowns. He ruined two by drilling into the edges to get the holes where the gems would be glued and the lights put behind them. Then he decided to buy a new router bit and you can see what looks like an ant farm. That is on the back where the Christmas lights will be tucked.


Daytime and at night with lights plugged in. Trouble is, there's something wrong with the plug and the lights won't stay on unless you hold the plug just so. GRR!!! So will replace the plug and put a switch on the wire too.

Wow, Esther, you and Pete make a really great team! This is coming together so nicely! :[IMG]http://i2

Gret work, that really came out good.

Esther wrote:Then he decided to buy a new router bit and you can see what looks like an ant farm.

I think it's a man thing
Looks great finished! They're gonna love them.

How beautiful. Your grandaughters will have wonderful memories all of their lives of their special headboards and of their wonderful grandma and grandpa who made them with so much love. That is something that they will never forget.

By putting the grooves on the back side, it solved the problem of where to put the lights and wires. I am now able to tuck them all in the grooves and glue them down and it lays flat. Sure hope they never have to change a lightbulb.