southern fried gal

What do you get when you combine craftiness and a corny sense of humor? In my experience you get to use your talent to serve your child’s teacher. 

It is no secret I am not gifted in the working with children department. I can’t imagine myself as a homeroom mom. I don’t have the patience for tutoring students. With my work schedule I’m not reliable to staple papers or make copies. But I have found a way to serve BBC’s teacher using the talents I’ve been given. She asked for volunteers to decorate her door and I jumped all over it. 

For the holidays using the Fishing Bobber Wreath for inspiration, I built on the fishing theme with a mini garland filled with wide red ribbon, glittered wooden fish, more fishing bobbers and whimsical fishing hooks. 

Here’s where the corny sense of humor comes in handy. To tie the fishing theme in with the holidays I used the phrase, Catch the Holiday Spirit! To be just a little more tongue-in-cheek, the hint at camouflage letters blended into the wooden door, so to make them pop, I created a background with red duct/duck tape! The door was a big hit and I wanted to continue the crafty and corny momentum.

I decided for January the door needed a snowman. Not original, but I did it a bit differently. As you can see from the previous picture, the door has a large window that can’t be blocked. I was planning to make the entire snowman from MDF wreath forms (found these at Michael’s craft store) to get the shape of the snowman without covering the window. At the last minute I decided the head needed to be a solid circle for the standard snowman features.

If I were using this wreath on my outside door, I would have patched the holes in the wreath form, spray painted white and then glittered. Since this is inside, I cheated a bit by using self-adhesive, glittered craft foam. I simply traced the forms on the back of the foam, cut out and stuck to the wreath forms. Easy, peasy!

Next using more self-adhesive foam I cut out the eyes, mouth and nose. I did rough, freehand cutting since none of the real materials are perfectly formed. The scarf is nothing more than a sheet of felt cut into 3 even-width strips, snipped on the ends to create fringe and then hot-glued here and there.

Then I hot glued faux sticks to the mid section to create arms. I could have used real sticks but I imagined the kiddos breaking them for fun. 

To assemble the three pieces, I planned to wire the pieces together so they would have spaces between each section. I didn’t like the way that looked, so I turned back to my friend, the hot glue gun. 

Here he is fully assembled and hanging – UPSIDE DOWN – from a black and white gingham ribbon. That’s where the corny comes into play. I chose to flip him upside down so I could have a little fun with the message…FLIP FOR READING. OK, so the upside-down snowman confused some of the kids but hopefully they will grow to love him and more importantly reading!

I’m excited to use what I have to serve others even if it’s in an unconventional way. I think his teacher appreciates having one less thing on her to-do list, the kids seem to enjoy it AND the school gets volunteer credits for my effort. Best of all, BBC thinks I’m the best door-decorating mom ever!

Have you found a unique way to use your talents to serve others?

~Southern Fried Gal

1 Peter 4:10a “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others…”