Category: Learning Projects (Page 2 of 2)

On Tuesday night I finished up the end of my Mother’s Day crafts and boy did it not go as I thought it would. Everything started fine, I am someone that measures about 10 times and cuts a few more times, what can you do! The cutting went as fine as it could with still using my jig saw as I have not picked up my mitre saw yet, but when it came to using my new brad nailer, which I truly love and it saves me a big headache not having to use the hammer, I ended up not being as close to the frame as I should have and this resulted in 3 nails going through the wood and coming out into the frame. At this point I tried to correct what I had done by trying to wiggle it out, as I had to do that finishing another frame before and it worked, this time not so much. I ended up destroying the inside of the frame and then accidentally pulling the entire back off, note to self, I might need to use longer nails also! This resulted in me standing there in frustration on not knowing how to fix it but knowing I could fix it and then giving myself a pep talk that I am a newbie, practice makes perfect and I can’t learn from my mistakes if I don’t make any!

Thankfully I had another frame cut out that was a little smaller than I wanted but it would work just the same! Learning from my mistakes, I used a piece of wood as a guide for where I needed to put my nailer when nailing the back on and continued working, making sure to check I did not go through the wood, thankfully I did not! I decided to call it a night as I had to go feed my family in the field as they were busy seeding and I had a feeling I might just make another mistake if I didn’t stop. 

Although you cannot tell from the pictures, each of these frames have mistakes that as a beginner were easy to make. My mother-in-laws sign I put a nail through, I didn’t cut the backing small enough on my sisters, and my moms sign I did not have long enough nails for. But they all appreciated the fact I took the time to make them something and practice makes perfect.

I have some scrap backing that I want to play around with so hopefully, with learning from my mistakes I can continue on with not going through the wood and destroying my hard work in seconds!

Here is to learning and progressing! 

I’ve always been the DIY type of person. If I see something in the store there’s a 99% chance that I know I can make it myself instead of spending the money, regardless if it ends up costing more or not in the end, which sometimes it does! I realized shortly after I started wanting to create that I did this to keep my mind from racing. I find myself not being able to sleep much when I am stressed or anxious and when I do crafts, this calms me even just for a few hours which than helps me for the most part, sleep better also. So, when we got told in class, we had to pick something to create and learn more about, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. During the last few months of being at home for school and not being able to work my part-time job due to covid, I bought myself a Cricut Explore Air 2 Machine. A cricut is a type of machine that hooks up to your laptop, phone or iPad through Bluetooth and with a software program you can create many designs which you can than put on shirts, wood, cups, etc. I’ve wanted one of these for many years but it was never the right time as they are not what I would call “an impulse purchase.” Well, the day I bought it was definitely more impulse than thought even though I had thought about it for a least a month before but I knew it would benefit me and keep my mind at ease when I couldn’t rest it. 

My plan is to continue learning from what I’m doing right now with making wood frames and using my Cricut to decorate them with positive quotes, family names and whatever else I can think of. I just recently bought a brad nailer and a used mitre saw so these two tools will help my progress along faster than the jig saw and hammer I was recently using, here’s to hopefully not hurting my ears as much as before! When I first decided to start making wood frames, I did not realize how much thought and the process that it takes. For some it might be easy but for me it took a lot of google and Pinterest to realize how to do the right measurements and the proper ways to do the height and width. I am currently in the process of finishing up some Mother’s Day gifts for my mom, sister and mother-in-law so I cannot wait for those to be finished. 

Here’s to learning how to use new tools and hoping my neighbours don’t mind the noise!