Fun Home Decor Wood Turkey Tutorial! (Mod-Podge anyone?? :)

 Hello!

Am I the cutest thing or what?

I had fun with my Cricut on Saturday.  I don't have a lot of "Thanksgiving" decor- so I thought I'd make a 3D version of the cutest turkey on the Create-A-Critter Cricut Cartridge.

  He's made of wood!  Fun, right?  And he's covered with sparkly and soft fuzzy Doodlebug goodness!

Here's how I made him:

Using my Gypsy I separated the body and hat image to cut each one individually on different types of paper.

 The "Hide" feature is my favorite part of the Gypsy.  I love being able to cut parts of images if I need to.

The Cricut images were all cut at 11"

For the body I used Doodlebug's Crushed Velvet cardstock (so he has a soft fuzzy body) and Sugar Coated cardstock in Bon Bon (for some sparkly wings).

I used Crushed Velvet cardstock for the hat, too, in Beetle Black.

 I have the Cricut Expression and the rollers will leave small lines in the Crushed Velvet cardstock which can be brushed over with your hands and they disappear, or you can cut the image upside down (flip feature) and flip the cardstock over too so that the rollers roll over the back of the cardstock instead of the front.

 All the cardstock for all the layers is Doodlebug.

Once you have all the layers cut out, place them over one another (don't glue them together), line them up well, and then cut off the bottom of the image so that you have a flat bottom for the wood pieces to stand upright on.

Keep the cute little feet.  You'll cut those out of wood, too, just not attached to the body.

 Lay all your pieces on a sheet of wood (this is a scrap from another project).

I used wood that's 3/4 inch thick.

 Trace all images with a pencil and set paper pieces aside.  Cut out the wood images on a Band-Saw.

 Here's all the finished wood pieces.  I changed the design of the wings at the last minute.  I wanted the wings to stand out instead of the chest of the turkey standing out.  If you notice the brown sparkly body image above, I just cut the wings out of that.

 Now for the fun part!

I love painting and glittering!  Paint the outer edges of your wood pieces, and paint a little on the front just around the edge in case your paper doesn't cover the entire front of the wood piece exactly.

 While your paint is still wet, DUMP glitter all over the paint.  I used Doodlebug's Sugar Coating glitter.  Do this over a Tidy Tray that's been rubbed with an Embossing Buddy (to control static) so that you can save the leftover glitter and put it back into the bottle.  The glitter goes a very long way.  After tapping off the excess and putting the extra back into the bottle you'll be surprised how little glitter is used, but due to the wet paint, the piece gets fully covered.

 Repeat on all pieces that you want glittered.

When the paint has dried, pull out the Mod Podge!

 You'll want to do each item one at a time.

Paint the front of the piece with a layer of Mod Podge.

 Quickly place the cut piece of cardstock from the Cricut machine over the wet Mod Podge and smooth with a credit card or other smoothing tool to get out all air bubbles.  Usually when using Mod Podge you would then paint over the paper as well to seal the paper.  I skipped this step because I wanted the paper to still be glittery or velvety.

 Repeat with all other pieces.

 Also- you'll want to pay attention to all the edges.  Make sure Mod Podge gets under the whole edge so that when dry, the paper doesn't lift and curl.  Don't worry about the mess- Mod Podge dries clear (I used Gloss Luster and it dries clear.  Some Mod Podge products have color or sparkle in them, so get one that dries clear.)

 I then cut a 3/4 inch strip of the Crushed Velvet cardstock using my paper trimmer to wrap around the outer edge of his body so that his head and body would be soft as well.

 Then I hot-glued each layer together, added some googly eyes, and a Making Memories ribbon and buckle for the hat.

I glued his cute feet to the front of him so that he looks like he's sitting.  Cute feet, right? :)

 Gobble gobble!!!

Hope I've inspired you to create something for your home and to try something new!

Supplies used:

Doodlebug Sugar Coated Carstock in Bon Bon, Ladybug and Tangerine (wings, red feathers, beak and the red hangy-down thingy (does that thing have a name?  ha ha! :)

Doodlebug Crushed Velvet Cardstock in Bon Bon and Beetle Black (body and hat)

Doodlebug Spot Glittered Cardstock in Tangerine (feet and back feathers)

Doodlebug Sugar Coating glitter in Bon Bon, Ladybug and Tangerine (for the edges of each layer)

googly eyes

Making Memories ribbon and buckle

-Tiffany