Giveaway: Crafty Wood Cutouts + Review and Tutorial

A few months ago I mentioned that I was trying to get back in touch with my “crafty side.” Then just a week or so ago, I posted my first official “Craft Blogger Post.”  It was fun and I remembered that once upon a time, I actually use to be pretty good at crafts.  So, when Crafty Wood Cutouts asked me if I wanted to try out one of their projects, I said yes.

Oh, I am so glad I did!  Grafty Wood Cutouts is located in Orem Utah.  When I entered their store I was so excited about all of the super fun projects they have.

Just check out all of this Halloween fun: 

I thought about getting a Halloween project.  But frankly, I didn’t trust myself to get it done on time.  Plus, I like decor that can last for a little while longer…so I decided to check out their fall items.  They didn’t have their cute Thanksgiving stuff out, but they did have a few fall/autumn items.

I forgot to take a picture of these super cute owls, so I grabbed this picture off their website.  Aren’t they the cutest EVER!

 

Did I mention that I had brought my two CRAZY girls with me.  Ahhh!!  What was a thinking?  Well, you know what is one of the BEST parts about Crafty Wood Cutouts?  They have a Kids Corner!  Yep, that’s right.  There is a little area right in store that has a movie and pictures for your little kiddos to color.  It kept mine busy long enough to really look around.  It was so amazing and I really appreciated the folks over at Crafty Wood Cutouts for thinking of us moms.

 

I loved this Fall sign.  I was *this close* to choosing it, when I noticed the pumpkin behind it.  I fell in love!  I seriously love this pumpkin.  Plus, I have the perfect spot in my house for it!!  YES!  I had found my project.

 

Isn’t it cute!  Plus, I can put it up early and it can stay up until after Thanksgiving!  Bonus!

 

These are the items that I picked out for this project.  You can’t see all the cute paper, but their is one sheet of sparkly orange paper, one sheet of embossed (and fuzzy) orange paper, and one sheet of the brown sparkly paper.

 

This project is pretty simple.  I just kind of figured it out as I went along.  And since I’m not a big crafter, it just shows how easy their projects really are.

First I painted all of the wood.  You don’t need to paint all of the sides, since one side will be covered with paper.  I just made sure to paint the back side, the edges, and parts of the front.  I didn’t need to fully paint the smaller pumpkin piece because it will be glued down.  I did, but I didn’t need to.

I then took some sandpaper and roughed up all of the edges.  This didn’t end up showing much except on the leaves.

Note:  Do not paint the green above the orange pumpkin, like I am doing in the picture….because…when you drop the green leaf it will get on your orange pumpkin.  Just saying…  Thankfully it is the back.  🙂

 

These are the colors I used.  You could choose any color combination you like.

 

Next, grab your Mod Podge.  Yep, I got mine at Hobby Lobby (with a coupon of course).

You will then trace that pumpkin on the backside of the paper.  I went ahead and did them both at the same time.

 And then just Mod Podge them on.  It is super easy if you haven’t ever done it before.  You just put a layer of Mod Podge on the wood and then press your paper on the top.  You can then go over the entire thing with the Mod Podge again.  Since this paper was SO THICK, I didn’t feel like I needed to go over the entire paper.  I just went over the edges to make sure all of the edges stayed down.  I don’t know if this is correct, but it seemed to work well and it didn’t mess up my sparkly paper.

To get the antiqued look on my smaller pumpkin I put some brown paint on my brush and then wiped most of it off.  I then just lightly brushed it randomly over the pumpkin until I got the look that I liked.

 

To put the brown paper on the top of the larger part of the pumpkin was a little more tricky.  Because the paper is so think it wouldn’t lay flat on top of the orange.  Plus, I think the glitter paper had something to do with it.  So, I cut out the brown paper like I wanted and then I used my hubbies really sharp tool (an exacto knife would work) to cut the orange paper and then I pulled it off the wood.  It left some of the backing of the paper behind, but that wasn’t a problem.

Once again, there might be a better way to do this, but this is what I figured out.

Then came the really tricky part.  Attaching the smaller pumpkin piece to the large pumpkin.  I don’t know how they did it at Crafty Wood Cutouts.  I probably should have asked.  But I had to try quite a few different methods before I found one that worked.

First I tried to hot glue it on.  BUST!  The glue won’t stick to the glittery paper.  AT ALL!

 

So, I know this looks drastic, but I decided the glittery paper was a problem, and It had to go!  So I cut a section out with my hubbies super sharp tool again and pulled the paper off.  See!  Doesn’t it look scary!

At this point I decided to go ahead and put the wire and the leaves on as well.  That part was really easy, and I loved that I could customize exactly how long I wanted the wire hanger so it will hang in my space perfectly.

After trying a number of different ways to get the pumpkins to stick together (hot glue didn’t work even after I took off the glittery paper).  I went with wood glue and that worked great!

Here is my finished project.

I can’t wait to decide what to do next.  Maybe this super cute Pray Always,

 

Or this Family!

 

Want one of your own? You can pick one up at 631 N. 1200 W in Orem, UT, or buy them online here. Feeling Lucky? Crafty Wood Cutout is giving one of you lucky readers an unfinished Pumpkin craft of your own to decorate!   Just enter the giveaway below.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway