Christmas Words Blocks Crafting

Last month my brain was set on fire when I surveyed the Basic Grey November 2007 Newsletter. The first page featured these wonderful blocks that spelled out "Noel." I was on a mission - I wanted to create those blocks for myself. My local stores were out of the specific papers so I had to revision the idea and come up with something slightly new. I found these fun papers in a pad. I decided that I had to have it. I then had my father-in-law make me a mound of wooden blocks. They were a blast to make, but they came out different than I had expected. For one thing these babies are HEAVY. They could hold down your tablecloth in the event that a gale force wind swept through your house. And the took MUCH longer to make than I had expected. But, it was still a lot of fun. I used my Cricut machine to cut out the letters using the "Opposites Attract" cartridge. I used the "George and Basic Shapes" cartridge to cut out the various squares. I figured out four colors for each side and made one large square as well as one small square of each of the colors. I then glued all of the large base colors on each of the sides. While those were in the various stages of drying I cut out the letters and ran them through my Xyron machine so that they would be easy to attach. I then glued on the smaller squares. Lastly I embellished each inner square or letter and put them together. One set went to my Secret Santa at work. Another will go to my friend, Natalie. Hopefully I will get them to her sometime before the holiday is over. If you wanted to make some of these but don't have a father-in-law to make them for you check your local craft store for other options. At Michael's I saw a sheet for something similar that was done on Styrofoam blocks.