Decorated door hangers...

Hello :) It's Jo here again, with some decorated door hangers for you to try out! These make great gifts for children, and can be personalised or themed, whatever takes your fancy. I bought my 'blanks' from Hobbycraft, but I've also found them here, here, and here. This is how the wooden blanks look 'naked': In addition to the blanks, I used two sheets of patterned paper, one for each hanger - you don't need anything like as much as a whole sheet of 12x12, and this is an ideal project for using up scraps or offcuts from other projects. I also used ribbon, buttons, felt flowers and ink. Having made my paper selection, I traced around the outside of the blank with a pencil, onto the patterned side of the paper. I then carefully cut just inside the traced line, all the way around, so that the cut paper shape was just a little smaller than the blank. This just ensures that the edges are neat and that there isn't any overhang. It doesn't matter if a little bit of the wood is showing around the edges as these are going to be inked. I used a very slightly watered down PVA glue mix, and applied glue to both the blank and the patterned paper before very carefully sticking the paper to the blank. The glue isn't very forgiving, so it is important to line up the paper before finally sticking it down, and then smoothing it out to get rid of any air bubbles. Having stuck the paper onto the wooden blank, I let it dry for around five minutes, and then brushed over the top of the paper with the PVA solution to seal it. When this has completely dried, you are ready to ink around the edges of the hanger; this gives a nice finish, and will hide any joins between the paper and the wood. If the ink is a little wet, make sure it is completely dry before adding your embellishments. I've used ribbon, flowers and buttons, but in terms of what you put on your door hanger, the sky's the limit! Here's one of my completed hangers: For this one, I used Ki Memories paper, American Crafts felt flowers, and Blonde Moments ribbon and buttons. And here's the other one: And here I've used Cherry Arte paper, with flowers, ribbon and buttons as before. These are really quick to make, and as well as making great gifts, they are a fun project for kids to do on a rainy afternoon. Happy crafting! xxx