I am totally stressing with all of the work that needs to get done between now and Christmas … so I thought it might be permissible to have some re-posts from last year’s Christmas crafts!! A lot of you weren’t following me at this time last year, so I hope you have fun seeing these from my blogging past. Please excuse the crappy pictures – I have learned a lot about camera tricks in the past year!!
I just finished my first Christmas craft of the year…hooray! Here it is:
Here’s how I made it:
First- I bought foam blocks at the Dollar Store…There’s 4 in a pack, and I needed 4 packs. I also picked up some remnant fabric at JoAnns that was PERFECT for what I wanted. So exciting…love when that happens! You’ll also need straight pins.
OK, unwrap the styrofoam, and cut your fabric into squares that are big enough to let you wrap the foam squares like little presents. Just make sure the front is smooth, and then instead of taping it (like a present), you can simply push a pin to tack it in place. Continue, until you have all 14 blocks done, like this:
Then, I took some paint and stencils that I got at the thrift store (for a total of 50 cents!) and I stenciled the letters on:
Now, some people like the “stencil” look of the writing, but I went in and filled in the gaps in the letters because it’s not really my style.
Next, I wanted them to all be part of a unit, so I lined them on top of eachother, and began to pin each block to the block next to it, on an angle, like this:
Then I pinned the top blocks to the bottom blocks, and you have this:
I was tempted to leave it like that, but I felt like it needed something a little extra. I didn’t want this to be a big busy piece, but I wanted it to stay simple. I also didn’t want to make it expensive, so I wanted to use things I had in the house. I thought about ribbon (but I didn’t have the right colors), buttons…but I wasn’t sure if I liked that…and then I remembered that I still had a ton of straight pins leftover, so I started making little “snowflakes” out of them by just pushing them into the foam:
So easy, and so simple! I finished up the box of pins, and now it looks like this:
It’s hard to get a picture with the pins looking the right way…it looks a little more “glitzy” in person. For tonight, it will live with our nutcrackers. But I have not finished our holiday decorating by any means, so I am sure it will be moved very shortly!
I love Christmas!! 
COST BREAKDOWN:
Foam: $4.00
Fabric: $1.37
Pins: $1.97
Paint: 25 cents
Stencils: 25 cents
TOTAL COST: $7.84
How darling! Love your idea to make snowflakes out of pins! Very creative!Happy Holidays!~Michelle
How cute! I love the way you used the pins to make the snowflakes.
Your Christmas blocks came out lovely with a very lovely price! Happy holidays!
This is such a great idea! I may try and do this with alternating the blocks between green & red.
Love it! So creative.
I never thought of doing this with foam! I made some for Hanukkah with wood blocks and it was a lot more work to pull out the saw and sand them!
Love this!! Very unique!!
That is too clever! Pins and styrofoam equals…well, I never would have thought of this one!
What a great set of blocks! Love how you made them.~Kimberleewww.TheSpunkyDiva.com
Love it! I might just have to add this to my to-do list. Come link up!http://gigglesglitzandglam.blogspot.com/2010/12/glam-party-5.html
Very cute and creative. Love how you made them and added the snowflakes.
ooooo Great idea! Looks fabulous too!
They look great! Thanks for the tutorial.
Those are super cute! Great idea using the foam so you can keep them together with the pins. Thanks for linking up!
Very creative and cute!
What a lovely idea! The pin snowflakes are a stroke of genius too!Thanks for linking up to A Round Tuit.Hope you have a fabulous weekend!Jill @ Creating my way to Successhttp://jembellish.blogspot.com/
Hope the stress dies down soon, lady!!!