In planning for a team meeting, I knew one of the topics that I wanted to get the team talking about was happiness at work. We spend so many hours working that we should spend them happy and I'm always trying to get others on this bandwagon.
I do realize that everyone chooses their own mood, but a smile can be contagious. And I like working around other happy people so if there is anything I can do to contribute, I will do it!
My inspiration for this specific happiness project came from two sources. I've been following the ideas of The Chief Happiness Office, Alexander Kjerulf for quite some time. In this video, Alexander shares a story about a few brand new nurses who, in the excitement of learning their new job, learn that everyone around them is miserable. They choose to do something about it! They start a silly little tradition where they give a toy elephant to someone to thank them for something they've done or just for being awesome.
Did you happen to catch the Makeover episode of Glee last week? If so, you must have seen the rhino brooch that Kurt wore to his interview. This was my second piece of inspiration.
Here are the steps:
1. Gather supplies -
2. Determine how many pins you're going to make and set aside that many wood cutouts.
3. Cut your paper bag open and lay it out to protect your surface from spray paint. I did most of this project in the garage, but I put paper down anyway because my husband like his garage floor to be clean. :)
4. Lay your round pieces out on the paper.
5. Shake up your spray paint and paint away. Be sure to coat the edges. I used metallic, oil rubbed bronze.
6. Put a fan on these or let them air dry for a while.
7. In the meantime, gather the plastic animals.
8. Put on your protective glasses.
9. Use the Dremel Tool to cut the animals in half. You may want to use a pair of pliers to hold the animal while you're sawing.
10. File off the edges if they don't come out perfectly smooth.
11. Add a dot of glue to the back of the animal. I used Aleene's Original "Tacky"Glue and the instructions suggest to let the glue dry a little bit before affixing your pieces together. I did this and it seemed to work very well.
12. Once you attach all of your animal heads to the painted wood pieces, allow them to dry until they seem good and attached before moving to the next step.
13. Attach broach pins to the back of the wood piece. The kind I bought were peel and stick but if you get the plain metal kind, I would just use the Aleene's again.
14. Wa La! All that's left is gifting this to someone and then stepping back to watch them smile.
Did you happen to catch the Makeover episode of Glee last week? If so, you must have seen the rhino brooch that Kurt wore to his interview. This was my second piece of inspiration.
Here are the steps:
1. Gather supplies -
- Plastic animals
- Round wood cutouts
- Brooch pins
- Spray Paint
- Paper bag or piece of plastic
- Dremel Tool saw attachment or hand saw
- Dremel file attachment or sand paper
- Protective glasses
- Glue
2. Determine how many pins you're going to make and set aside that many wood cutouts.
3. Cut your paper bag open and lay it out to protect your surface from spray paint. I did most of this project in the garage, but I put paper down anyway because my husband like his garage floor to be clean. :)
4. Lay your round pieces out on the paper.
5. Shake up your spray paint and paint away. Be sure to coat the edges. I used metallic, oil rubbed bronze.
6. Put a fan on these or let them air dry for a while.
7. In the meantime, gather the plastic animals.
8. Put on your protective glasses.
9. Use the Dremel Tool to cut the animals in half. You may want to use a pair of pliers to hold the animal while you're sawing.
10. File off the edges if they don't come out perfectly smooth.
11. Add a dot of glue to the back of the animal. I used Aleene's Original "Tacky"Glue and the instructions suggest to let the glue dry a little bit before affixing your pieces together. I did this and it seemed to work very well.
12. Once you attach all of your animal heads to the painted wood pieces, allow them to dry until they seem good and attached before moving to the next step.
13. Attach broach pins to the back of the wood piece. The kind I bought were peel and stick but if you get the plain metal kind, I would just use the Aleene's again.
14. Wa La! All that's left is gifting this to someone and then stepping back to watch them smile.
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