Face Cutouts 2017

I’ll begin by saying I don’t know what these things are called, so I call them “Face Cut Outs.” We see them all over the place. Our favorites are at the Pumpkin Patch.

This year, I made some of my own! It was an easy project that I got started with in July.

Every December, my neighborhood hosts a Luminary Stroll. This is our third year doing it, and I spear-headed the event. We use plastic luminaries instead of white paper bags and it has a light string to use instead of candles. It’s really awesome. Especially when you get all your neighbors to do it and connect to each other (not really, but it looks like they do). I am so proud of my street! This is the first year we have had no blank houses… 7 houses in a row! And it actually continues with four more if you hang a left where the luminaries on our street end. The effect is really pretty.

At the Luminary Stroll, we gather at the clubhouse to mingle and then head out to view the Christmas Light Displays together. Each year the event gets larger and we add more things. Most ideas come a week before the event, but we can’t execute. So we save the idea for the following year. One of those ideas was for the face cut outs.

I got the ball rolling in July by trying to come up with a design. I needed a design that was sturdy but didn’t have a large “footprint” so that they could easily be stored. I searched around on Pinterest.

I ended up with a simple stand.

But before I got to that part, I practiced cutting out the hole for the face. I made sure I picked out thin wood so that I could easily cut the hole out.

I traced an oval for the face shape and then drilled holes along the line.

I then took my reciprocating saw to “Connect” the dots.

I then sanded the edges… VERY IMPORTANT! You don’t want people to get splinters in their necks.

My circles weren’t perfect. The battery was getting low, causing me trouble with accuracy, but I finished!

I then attached the boards to the stands.

I now had a base to paint. With how the wood was cut and how tall and wide I calculated my measurements, I ended up making four face cut outs. I had two volunteers that said they would help me paint. One lady took two and she made gorgeous snowpeople! I had no idea how talented she was. The level of detail is amazing!

Another lady whipped up a Nutcracker in less than a day. I dropped it off at her house early afternoon, and she text me a picture that night of the final product!

Because a nutcracker is known for their mustaches, we couldn’t leave that part out, yet, the face was cut out. So, my volunteer made a template and I used some leftover wood and my scroll saw and cut out a mustached to place over the hole. The only downside, is people can’t rest their chin on the cutout, but it gives them a mustache and it’s cute!

I decided to be artistic and painted one myself. I do not considered myself an artist in the true sense of the word, but I was proud of myself with this one. I paired my cutout to go with the Nutcracker. I made Clara!

I can draw pointe shoes like nobody’s business, since I drew them all growing up and had it perfected, but ask me to draw body parts, and I flunk!

I started with one color at a time. This made me feel like I knew what I was doing.

I was pretty proud of the finished product.

I colored the hair brown, because I thought that was an easier color to create than blonde, but it got lost on my navy background. I then tried to up my game and add dimension. This is where things got dicey. I was not good and very critical. I realize now, that adding dimension needs to be done while all paint is wet. I tried and tried to add detail. That dress has seven coats of white on it, as I would try to show creases, but didn’t like it, so I painted over it. I finally gave up and put subtle lines in there, but you can’t see them, they are so subtle.

I did try and add detail to the hair so that you could see it better and see that is was ringlets. 

I only painted over the brown 3 times before I liked it. 

The event was this past Sunday and the kids loved the cutouts. They were a huge it!

Now to store the cutouts are the clubhouse and not my garage!!!

Giant Ornaments

Every season, it is my responsibility to have a new arrangement for the urns at the clubhouse in our neighborhood.

The first year, I had Blue Colorado Spruce and I loved it! But the developer was not fond of it, so I didn't repeat it.

The second year, I put a live wreath from Costco as the base and a poinsettia. I didn't take pictures. The poinsettia's are nice, but they really don't like the cold. I brought them in constantly. They only lasted a few weeks.

This year, I had the idea to do something that was not a plant. Pansies are too small to be seen from far away, but are the only thing hardy in extreme cold.

I bought the Costco wreath again to be at the rim of the urn, but then I decided to have a large ornament! I looked up many tutorials on Pinterest, but went with my own with what I could easily find.

I bought large bouncy balls from Walmart over the summer. It was hard keeping those away from Pfitzer.

I spray painted them many times trying to figure out what was right. I first primed them.

I used my Home Depot 5-gallon buckets as a stand while painting and drying.


The next part was the silver spray. I found one that had the perfect shine to it, but it left the ball sticky. It wasn't drying properly. Pfitzer got his hands on it and has left many silver handprints around the house. Memories!

I then scrubbed the balls to get the stickyness off and found a different spray that dried better without being sticky. But it was a dull silver look. That was okay. I could use a clear gloss spray over it to give it a shine.

When it came time to install the topper, I messed up. I used hot glue and it burned a hole in the ball! I even tried it again but let the glue cool off some before putting the topper on, and it still popped a hole. The task now was to find new bouncy balls... in October. There were none in the stores.

I then went online. I bought a hopper ball.  You remember the ones with handles? It was the only way I could find a huge ball.

I then repeated the process of priming and painting. But this time, I at least knew what paint to use to avoid sticky fingers!

Then the shiny top coat.

The topper is just a disposable deep pie pan, and the wire is coated and pokes through holes I made.

I then glued the topper to the ball. I made sure not to cover the hole to the ball, in case I need to put more air in it next year.

 Getting the hopper ball with a handle turned out perfect. I used the handle to run duct tape through it to hold the ball down. The ends of the duct tape attached to the urn.

The ornaments turned out great! I am very pleased with them.

You can even see them from afar!

This was a fun project to do. And I am hoping it will be reusable every year. Luckily, it came with a pump and can be re-inflated. I'll keep you updated!

Winter Urns

The ice-breaker for Sunday School two weeks back, had us reflect on what our front porch would say about us. (This is because we were learning about the Mezuzah). I was not there for the ice-breaker, so Mr. JCrew used me for his answer. He said that if someone were to guess who we were by our front porch only, they would guess we were gardeners. It's true, I love plants and I love to be out in the yard. And while we are temporarily living with my mom, I've stocked her porches with plants.

The neighborhood we live in has a garden committee, and I participate. It is so much fun! We were given the task to come up with a Winter urn for the clubhouse. The urns would stay at the clubhouse and be rotated with seasonal flowers.

First we had to select a design. We had four designs to choose from.

We ended up choosing the one that was very Christmas-y (#3). Since we did not have urns, we had to procure some. The developer chose those, and I kept them at Mom's house. They weren't Mom's style and she couldn't wait to see them go.

I used spare rock from the construction site to fill the bottom, after I drilled a drainage hole.

The lip of the urn would have trailing pansies that will spill over the edge. Gold, red and purple are the colors of winter (I was told).

Now, for the centerpiece, we picked a Colorado Blue Spruce. It's pretty and smells awesome! And for the greenery, we cut some branches from juniper, holly and magnolia on the berm at the entrance of our neighborhood.

We spray-painted some of the magnolia pods silver for some flare, and we had some fake red berries to add.

When the greenery withers away, we will remove them and the pansies will be there to take the lead. We also planted some crocus bulbs in between the pansies that should come up in January.

It was a lot of fun to put them together and meet new friends. And the coloring/style may not have been my mom's, it is perfect at the clubhouse!

When it comes time to make the Spring arrangement, we'll remove the spruces and plant them in one of our vacant common areas. And someone had a great idea of using dogwoods for the centerpiece of our Spring arrangements. Then we'll plant those in a common area when we are through with them as well.