mosaic crosses

This Mother's Day, Avery and I made mosaic crosses as gifts for her grandmommies. I've never done mosaic crafting before, so this was a little bit of an experiment in craftiness for me.

We found these wooden crosses at Hobby Lobby in the VBS section. I decided that they were just screaming for something cute in the middle.

And they were.

The first step was to paint the crosses with acrylic white paint.

Avery got all decked out in her super fancy art smock and got to work.

As the paint was drying (because I'm crazy impatient when it comes to crafting), we mixed the grout and water. There were no instructions on the box about the water to grout ratio, so I just winged it (wung it? wang it? - no not wang it. definitely not. yikes.)

Looking back, I could have probably googled the answer. But - like I said - I'm an impatient crafter.

Seriously impatient.

I pretty much always just "go for it" and fix my mistakes later.

I do a lot of fixing.

A lot.

So - after Avery and I mixed the grout, I spooned the mixture into the intentation in the cross.

After that, I just kinda let Avery work her magic.

She loved that part.

When the grout was a little more dry - but not completely dry - I wiped the excess away with a damp paper towel. The grout box said to use a damp sponge, but I'm cheap. There's no way I'm buying a sponge just for grouting.

Plus, that would have required forethought.

And planning.

And yet another trip to the store.

Which would require me to dress two children.

And coax them to the car using bribery and veiled threats.

Then strap them into their carseats after chasing Charlie down the driveway and wrestling Avery into her seat.

Then I'd have to actually drive to the store.

Where I would have to find a cart.

And listen to Avery whine about how SHE wanted to ride in the baby section of the cart.

Then I'd have to try to convince her that all the cool big kids like to ride in the basket section of the cart.

Maybe I'd get lucky and she'd buy it.

And we would get to business.

For about 2 minutes.

Then she'd have to go to the bathroom.

Even though she went before we left the house.

And our house is just 2 minutes away from the craft store.

So I'd have to abandon my cart by the bathroom door, remove Charlie from the seat, and try to keep him from reaching into the toilet while hoisting Avery to the potty seat.

After which, we'd all have to wash hands.

But the paper towels would be empty.

Cause that's how it works.

I'd get everybody situated in the cart again and head over to the tile section.

Things would be going well. Untill we saw the stickers.

Then Avery would whine about how she needed Jasmine stickers.

I'd try convince her that she doesn't really need them, she just wants them. PLUS, we're only there to get a (stinkin') sponge anyway.

That wouldn't work. Because she's three. And everything is a reaaaallly big deal.

But we'd keep on truckin' anyway.

We'd finally make our way to the craft sponge section only to discover that the one I needed was sold out.

Cause that's the way that Michael's works.

Then we'd go home.

And I'd use a damp paper towel to finish the project.

So, yeah...the paper towel worked just fine.

After the grout was dry, I noticed that it had cracked a little in a few places.

I had to re-touch the cracks with extra grout - but that seemed to do the trick nicely.

Who knows why the grout cracked. I probably did something wrong. I told you I should have googled the answer.

Oh well.

Once the grout was dry, I added a bit of grout sealer that I bought in the mosaic tile section at Michael's - just to keep it from cracking in the future.

I think they turned out cute.

So cute, in fact, that my Preschool class made them for their mother's day gifts too.

Don't you just love all those colors?