Glass blocks

Review by Lyndee:

I had stumbled across an ad for glass blocks on craigslist and my mind went wild on ways we could use these.  I had seen many beautiful pins on Pinterest that I knew I had to try them.  Alas, decorating these things were not as easy as I would’ve hoped it to be.  I don’t think they came out bad but in my head they were going to be much cooler than they turned out.  Possibly blamed on my lack of crafty skills or the fact that these blocks were much larger than I had anticipated. 

First I tried two for my Grandma’s.  My original plan was to do a large U and a large H.  But these blocks are so ginormous that it just didn’t seem like enough.  I used the cricut to spell out “underbakke” and “hageman”.  After consulting with Mitchell and Michael, because who better to ask than 7 and 11 year old boys, we decided it looked better spelled out than just using an initial.   

I tried to stencil the word family on the Underbakke one since my stickers weren't working.  Sharpie doesn’t work real well on glass when you have a skinny stencil so I had to try and free hand it.  For the Hageman one I used the cricut to spell out family so that I didn’t have to try and draw again.

Again, these blocks are about 4 inches thick so I went and bought the thickest ribbon I could find.  In my head I would do one smooth wrap around and then glue it down.  This doesn’t work because the middle of the block is not smooth glass.  

The ribbon would not stay on with spray adhesive, hot glue or tacky glue.  Bummer.  So I wrapped ribbon and tied it in a big awkward bow.  They are my Grandma’s, they have to pretend to like it, regardless.  That’s the rule with homemade stuff from grandkids.  I may add a few more special touches to this before the holidays but I fear going too far in usual Lyndee style and making it too busy.  So right now I’m just looking at them every day to see if a great idea jumps out at me or not. 

For my mom’s block I went and found a smaller, more finished size at good will.  I used a sticker that said Always.  Then I used rub off stickers and spelled out Underbake down the side.  I added two small flower petal thingy-ma-bobbers that I had in a scrapbook kit.  I tied black and a sheer/lacy ribbon around this one.  If I try these blocks again, I think I might paint the mid-section of the blocks rather than trying to use ribbon.  This one turned out much better.  Once we put the Christmas lights behind it I think it will be neat.  We tried using a flashlight to show you that fun disco ball effect but it was way too bright.  

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