Super Saturday

Hello, it's been awhile since my last post. 

Since I went back to college I haven't had as much time to woodwork or refinish furniture lately. The love is there, but the timing is off for me to do more projects. I did recently do a Super Saturday for the ladies at my church. Super Saturday is a day where we meet at the church and several of us who make crafts teach the ladies and help them make a take home project at cost. 

These are the three projects I did. The pillow, the trees and the tags.  I am going to show you how I made the trees. I started out with long strips (4ft long by 8" tall) of inexpensive backing board and I glued several strips of small trim to it until it covered the 8" of height. 

I then decided what angles to cut the wood trees. 

After lining it up I matched the angle on my miter saw. In cutting them all from a long strip, it saved time and energy from just cutting out one piece of trim out at a time. 

I ended up repeating the glue and cut process until I had enough for all the orders. 

Some of the wood trim didn't want to stay down. This is where having a lot of clamps came in handy. 

I was playing around with the trim after I was done. It would make a neat ceiling medallion if it was all done in the same pattern and lined up and caulked just right. 

I would say the Super Saturday was a success. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the ladies finishing the trees. I was jumping in and helping those who needed help. 

With the tags, some kept them the natural wood color and some painted theirs white. 

The tags and the trees were definitely the most popular of the three crafts that I did. 

Again, I am sorry I didn't take more pictures of the ladies painting and staining their trees. I was up to my elbows in paint and dark wax.  To do the base of the tree, I used a square wood dowel and an old wooden spool. The spools were donated by my mother-in-law. (thanks Shirley!)

The square dowel was clamped and glued to the back of the tree.  I used the blue end dowel at Home Depot and I drilled a hole bigger in the spool with a 3/8" drill bit.  To fit a square dowel into a round hole, I used my belt sander to round the corners off of the dowel to make it round. I then added glue and used a rubber mallet to hammer it in tight. 

I used Behr white paint for the tree and then I used Annie Sloan dark wax to go over it for the example trees. Annie Sloan wax is very expensive so I made my own dark wax to bring for the Super Saturday projects. It looked and worked identical and was less than 1/4 of the price. Again, sorry for the lack of photography! I got busy working and I didn't remember. I only snapped a few of the ladies with their tags. It was a successful day and it was fun to show & help the ladies how to do a new skill.

Have a great day!  Love Lori

Ladder blanket racks

These are the finished products, 3 blanket or towel racks for my friend. 

Last time I showed you a pile of lumber I had brought home. These are 2x4's and 2x6's.  I have gone back to school so I am sorry about the long time between building and blogging.

After cutting the boards, I drilled pocket screw holes in the middle boards and gave everything a good sanding. 

Here they are assembled. The ladder rungs are tilted to try and dissuade the kids from climbing. 

After the first coat of stain, they started looking pretty good. 

I don't know why gloves always split on me when staining, they just never hold up. 

Most projects leave my hands looking like a crime scene. Lol 

I got the building plans from Shanty 2 Chic. I like how they give you step by step instructions.  They have a ton of fun projects! I tried to post the link but I couldn't get it to come over. If you google shanty 2 chic blanket ladder rack, it will take you right to it. 

Here they are done after the second coat of stain and two coats of clear poly.  I enjoyed making them, building projects is my favorite. I would do it full-time if I had a better back. 

Have a great day! 

Love, Lori

Mouse Pad

I wanted to show you how I spruced up this mousepad.  First it came home looking like this. 

My 6 year old had won it in her school's carnival. I need a mousepad since I am taking night school, but one that looks like a prescription pad is definitely not my style.  So I gathered some scrap materials from around the house and tried them out. 

I was going to use the turquoise circles but the white part of the material was too thin and you could see the writing underneath. 

I used the spray adhesive very liberally on the mousepad. Then I laid the material out over the sticky mousepad and I pressed and stretched out all the bubbles and wrinkles. After I used my rotary cutter on my Silhouette Cameo cutting board to trim the fabric.  I went back with my sharp fabric scissors to make sure all the strings were cut. 

It cost me nothing since I got the mousepad for free and I had all the other materials here at home. I think this is an easy way to update an old mousepad or just make it match your own unique style. The total makeover time was less than five minutes.

Have a great day! 

Love, Lori

Rolling along

The VW Bus dresser is coming along nicely now. I got the windows, wipers and the headlights on! 

It just has a few more steps and a clear coat before I can call it done. 

I put a VW symbol on top just for fun as well. This little baby has come a long way! 

I couldn't find the hood ornament I wanted, so I cut one out of wood and patched and painted it to look like an authentic one. I was happy to get some use out of my Ryobi bandsaw I purchased early this spring. 

After I glued and wood filled the cuts, it painted up nicely. 

Here it is before the windows and the detail striping. I had just clamped the headlights to estimate the location they would be mounted on. 

I sponged on the top logo and then I went back and did the edge in metallic silver as well. 

Here it is before the lights. 

And here it is again after.  I am going to finish with a few more details but this piece doesn't have an owner quite yet. If you are interested it will be $199 for pickup here in Utah.  Please contact me if it's something you would like in your home.