Pallet Heart Art

I convinced my husband to pick up a pallet for me, but it had been sitting in our driveway waiting for some inspiration for quite a while now. Finally I decided to make some Valentines art with it, but now I like it so much, it’s going to stay up year round.

There is some discussion on the safety of using pallets (see here).  I had my husband cut the pallet so I would have enough wood to make four boards each 12” x 12”.  I then soaked them in hot water with bleach (to kill any bugs) and used an old toothbrush to clean them off.  I left them to dry and then we used wood glue and clamps to glue three boards together to achieve the desired size.  I needed to stain the cut ends so I made some steel wool and vinegar stain, but it was very strong so I needed to dilute it a lot.  

I made a heart shape template from paper and used that as my guide for the first piece.  I nailed nails (appropriately enough) in a heart shape. 

That looked boring so I then used kitchen string and wrapped it back and forth across the heart until I was happy with the pattern and tied it off.

For the second heart I used some raffia I had and soaked it in water for a few minutes, I then shaped it into two hearts and weighted them down and left them overnight to dry.  I simply used hot glue to attach it top and bottom.

 

The third heart I shaped some thin copper wire around the nails on the first board and twisted wire to secure them leaving a couple of long ends at both points.  I drilled two small holes in the boards and put the ends of the wire through and covered them with hot glue to secure and to stop them from scratching the wall.  I was very disappointed with this one as it didn’t stand out very well.  I decided to put white glue on the board and covered it with some sand we had.  This improved it, but it does look better in person than in the pictures.

For the last board I laid out shells on the template and then slid them off onto the boards, adjusting as necessary.  Using hot glue, I attached them to the board.

To hang them I drilled pilot holes (I actually made a template with paper to show where to put the holes and to speed up the process) and put in ¾” screws and tied string to them to create something to hang on the wall hooks.

I am so pleased with these and they look great in our master ensuite.  Total Cost:  $0.00

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Fluster Muster

 

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Power of Paint

I was so exicted to open an email this week from Maryann at Power of Paint and find out that my Union Jack trunk was selected as one of her features!  She has so many super projects from such fantastic bloggers that I'm honoured to be chosen.  If you haven't been to her blog yet, do stop by for a visit, you will be amazed at what you see.  Off to do my little happy dance now...

 

 

Read more about My Take On The Union Jack Craze 

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Have a Drink On Us

You might have seen the stool my youngest son made and finished titled Bird On A Stool (okay so it wasn’t the most original name I came up with).  Now my eldest son who is soon to be 16 finally completed his stool that he also made about three years ago (we’re not actually very good at finishing projects in a timely fashion as you can see).

Matt was not about to spend a lot of time sanding or prepping the stool so homemade chalk paint seemed like the obvious answer.  He came up with the design and painted two coats of red paint, sanding lightly in between. 

Next, he took the logo we had photocopied and covered the back with chalk.  He secured it to the stool and traced the outline of the logo so that it left a chalk outline on the stool when he removed the paper.  Then he filled in the outline with white paint and touched up the red.  To make the stool more durable we used two coats of polyacrylic in satin finish.

I hope you agree it looks good enough to drink!! 

 

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 What about you, do you try to get your kids involved in your projects?

 

 

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PB Inspired Christmas Ornaments

I messed up.  Yup, I was so excited to participate in my first Knock Off link party that I didn't read the instructions properly (another newbie mistake).  I went online and found something that I wanted to use for inspirtation, bought a few supplies and rounded up the rest from our house.  I went full steam ahead and finished it and then went to post.  As I wrote the name of the link party, I realized that it was Holiday Knock Off Decor Party and I hadn't made anything holiday decor-ish.  Back to square one and only a few days left....

I came up with these two Pottery Barn ornaments that are about $17 each for inspiration.

 

Off to the dollar store and down to my basement I went for supplies (in a family of boys you would think I could find some old toys, but no, nothing).

I bought two plastic cars, drilled a very small hole in the middle of each and screwed in one of the eye things you put on the back of pictures to attach the wire to hang them with. I then gave them each two coats of spray paint and left them to dry. next I threaded the ribbon through the eye hooks. I used my finger and white glue, covering a one to two square inch area and then putting glitter on and repeating the process and left them to dry.

I found a spare piece of square wood dowling stuff (this is not the term to use if you go to buy this in the lumber store unless you want them to laugh at you). I cut some small pieces off and painted them to look like gifts and hot glued them on the back and this is what I came up with...even my kids and husband were impressed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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