Big Picture Classes: Bless Your Home!

Courtney Walsh, Teacher for Big Picture Classes

If there’s anyone who knows something about moving around, it’s me. In two years, my family moved three times—twice across the country—and we landed up pretty much right where we started. In all that moving, one thing became clear. No matter what house (or what state) we were living in, there were blessings all around us, and I decided that even when things were difficult, I was going to focus on those blessings.

One of the simplest ways I know is to put my blessings on display—to fill our home with visual reminders of the many, many good things in our lives. And the best way I know to do that is to crack open the scrapbooking supplies and start creating.

And it doesn’t have to be difficult. This is my button magnet, highlighting one of my favorite blessings of all—my husband:

Button Magnet by Courtney Walsh

Most of us paper crafters have a fairly good supply of buttons in our stash. I’m guilty of hoarding them (it’s almost as bad as my letter sticker obsession) and they make the perfect textural object for creating something that needs lots of color. And what refrigerator couldn’t benefit from some color?

Creating magnets is easy and is a great project to do with the kids.

What you need:

• Thin Chipboard (I got a stack from a local printer for free but the backs of paper pads work nicely!)
• Cardstock
• Buttons
• Glue Dots and Foam Squares
• Printer & Paper
• Craft Magnets

Step One: Choose and print a photo to the size you want.

Step Two: Decide how large of a magnet you want and cut a piece of thin chipboard to size. Mine is about 4”x5”. Layer the front with a solid cardstock.

Step Three: Adhere your photo and then begin laying out the buttons, touching each other. Once you have them in place, use Glue Dots to adhere them onto the background. Be sure to layer them right over the edges of your photo.

Steps one, two, and three

Step Four: Layer buttons on top of other buttons with Glue Dots and use Foam Adhesive to pop some of them up to add dimension.

Step Five: Print a journaling strip with your chosen blessing/sentiment and adhere it onto the buttons in the lower right-hand corner.

Steps 4 and 5

Step Six: Use Glue Dots to adhere magnets to the back of the chipboard.

Step 6

Step Seven: Stick it up and admire!

Blessing your home is an easy way to add peace, focus and faith to your life. Join me at Big Picture for tons of mixed media, paper crafting, art journaling and artsy ways to get your blessings out in front of you.

For more ideas on Scrapbooking Your Faith, visit my blog at www.courtneywalsh.typepad.com

Happy Friday!
-Courtney