Pallet angel

I recently tried my hand at making a pallet angel.

The task seemed daunting but was actually not that complicated or difficult. I must admit that I had quite a bit of help from my wonderful husband.

I started by looking at a whole lot of outline / stencil type of angel pictures. I was looking for a basic design that i could tweak a bit to make it pallet appropriate.

Once I had general idea of what I wanted, I proceeded to draw my design onto the pallet. The most important part here was that I used a pencil. Getting the design onto the pallet wasn't a first time try. I changed it slightly and adjusted the sizes and proportions as I went. I wrote lightly to make all the erasing easier. When I was happy with the design it was easy to go over it to make it darker and easier to see when cutting it out.

I didn't dismantle the pallet first. Before pulling out my jigsaw I re-looked at the design and imagined cutting it. I then marked the pieces that would be discarded, and the pieces that would make up the different wings. I didn't want to start cutting and at the end sit there trying to reassemble everything like a puzzle.

At this point my wonderful husband stepped in and said that he would cut it out for me. I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and so leaped at the offer.

Aaa....



Once cut out, the main body needed to be dismantled from the rest of the pallet. With the back end of the hammer and a bit of careful wiggling hubby had it dismantled in no time.

I took all the pieces outside and proceeded to give them a good sanding. I made sure to keep the relevant pieces together; left wing, main body and right wing.

I reassembled the pieces on the floor and then turned them around so that the back of the angel was facing me. Because I had designed and cut the design straight from the pallet I spaced them appropriately.  The original pallet had slight gaps between the planks and so when I reassembled it I lined up the cutting edges so that they would be straight and have those same gaps. Looking at the wings I noticed the gaps were not all that necessary and decided to place those pieces next to each other, it also made it more secure that way. 

Then with my husbands help we measured and cut planks to attach to the back of the angel, to keep it all together and make it sturdy. We then glued and nailed the planks to the pallets. I had forgotten to take many pictures during this whole process but here we were busy with the gluing and nailing step.

When everything was attached , secured and dry I turned her over and took a moment to admire our handiwork. We then measured and cut planks to attach to the front as her arms. We then glued and nailed her arms in place. I'm not sure at what point this project became a she but there it is.

When her arms were attached and dry I started to varnish her. She is an outdoor project so I applied outdoor varnish according to the manufacturers instructions. With hindsight it would probably have been easier to varnish before attaching her all together.

When all the coats were painted and dried I asked hubby to help me attach the clamp. He carefully used a hammer and nail to punch two small holes in the clamp and then screwed it into a pallet piece.

I washed and cleaned up an empty coffee jar to use as the vase. The clamp was a little tight/stiff but with a bit of careful elbow grease I securely attached the make shift vase. 

Yay! All done and very impressed.

All she needs now is some flowers and to be displayed. 

Revamped and re-purposed drying rack

 So I dug this thing out of my parents outside room (shed). I think it's supposed to be a drying rack. It looked terrible but I saw potential and carted it off home. Thanks mom.

 After giving it a good scrubbing all that gross black stuff on the iron bits came off. Turns out it wasn't rust as I had originally thought, just grime. It came out nice and white and was actually in very good condition. The wooden sides needed some TLC but I was super excited that with minimal effort this drying rack would be as good as new.

 So I very lightly sanded the wood, and applied some wood filler where needed. Not that much was needed. Yay! This is turning out great. No hidden terrible surprises.

 Once that was dry I started staining it with an African mahogany colored gel stain. I didn't apply it with a cloth as the bottle recommended but used an ordinary smallish paint brush. At first I thought I should tape it off first but noticed that the stain just wipes off the iron bits so ended up not bothering with the tape. I did paint relatively carefully though. Originally I had wanted to get all creative on the wooden bit was so excited to get started that I was half way through staining before I remembered. Oops! It turns out that the plain stain was appealing to me though and so I thought what is wrong with a little boringly traditional every now and again.

Only one coat was needed and when that was dry I applied (again carefully and with an appropriately sized brush) some varnish.

 And that is that. The only "hiccup" was that I was hoping to use it to store some of my magazines but noticed that they didn't exactly fit and looked rather silly housed there. After trying to house some of our DVD's and CD's that also didn't look quite right, I am still looking for a purpose for my new and insanely easily revamped drying rack. I will probably end up using it as a drying rack. I am definitely a washing girl and hate the drying bit. We don't have a dishwasher so our dishes normally just end up air drying. Maybe this will look better than those ugly plastic ones that we currently have.

UPDATE: It has actually been a few weeks since I typed this post. I have been using the drying rack as a drying rack and it works very well, better than the plastic one. Also I still love looking at it while washing the dishes. The only thing is that it is relatively small and so I have not chucked the plastic one yet.

Repurposed: From toilet brush holder to pot plant holder

 Grab an old toilet brush holder. 

The plastic bit that this lovely wooden box holds is long broken and discarded and the brush long gone. For ages I have kept the box bit because I knew I could do something with it. I always thought that it would make a great pot plant holder, especially for those ugly plastic ones. I decided to do a bit of spring cleaning and thought that it was definitely time to put this box to use. 

I sanded it down. To get rid of the shiny finish that was on there so that I could paint it.

I filled the grooves with some wood filler.

While that was drying I scouted around my craft room for some pics that I could modge podge onto the box. I found four pictures in this little book...

I plan to put it onto our stoep (patio) and think it will match quite nicely with this door stop that I recently painted...

http://laurasdiycrafts.blogspot.co.za/search/label/Door%20Stop

... and also the furniture that I am currently transforming.

http://laurasdiycrafts.blogspot.co.za/2015/09/wrought-iron-chair-revamped.html

Once the wood-filler was dry and the pictures selected, I painted the box white.

Following the bottle instructions I modge podged the pictures onto the box and finished it off with some varnish.

 

I am still undecided if I should also paint the top of the plastic plant holder bit. Once there is some greenery in, the plastic may not look so noticeable. I think I'll get a small succulent or something to put in it and then decide if it needs some paint. 

Wrought iron chair revamped

 Grab a wrought iron chair... Sand it down, then hose it down and let it dry.

 Apply some primer and let it dry. I applied a general all purpose primer but I know you get primer specific to metal. Our local hardware store didn't have any though.

 Paint it with some spray paint. Give it a few coats, letting it dry in between coats. My husband was drawn to the pastel yellow colour in the shop and so that is what I used.

 I don't think I sanded it down properly, or perhaps I should have paid more attention to the flaking paint.

 I might just redo the arm rest part. Or perhaps I will leave it like that for a while and see how it holds up. If it stays looking good for a couple of weeks and the flaws don't annoy me terribly then I will leave it as is. If not then I'll redo it when I do the rest of the set.

Reusing old jars

Wash the jar and let it dry. I can't remember what this one held but I think it was some or other spice or sauce.

 Paint the lid in chalkboard paint. Give it a few coats and let it dry.

 Spray the back of a stencil with contact adhesive or use stencil glue. Wait the recommended time according to the manufacturers directions.

Place the stencil on the jar. I taped the top and bottom down because my stencil was a little big for the jar.

 Follow the bottle directions on the etching cream to apply the product to the jar. Wait the recommended time. Mine said to wait 2 minutes but a previous product I had worked with said to wait 30 minutes so I decided rather safe than sorry and waited about 20 minutes. PS: Don't forget to wear rubber gloves and protective clothing.

 Wash the cream off (not forgetting your protective gear). Remove the stencil and tape. Give the jar a good wash with warm soapy water or running it through the dishwasher.

 Once it's washed and dried then find a nice use for your "new" pretty jar.

DIY hanging photo frame

Find 2 pieces of off cut wood.

                      Sand down the blocks paying special attention to the chipped sides and corners.

 Measure and mark off where to put the eyelets.

Screw in the eyelets. It may be useful to use a small drill-bit to drill small pilot holes to help you screw them in.

On the board chosen to be the bottom piece, the one with only two eyelets, measure and screw in mirror corners. Again, it might be helpful to first drill small pilot holes.

 

 Choose, size and print out a quote or saying of your choice

 Tape one side of the paper to the back of the top board (the one without the mirror corners). Slide in a piece of carbon paper and tape the other side down. Trace over the quote with a pen or a pencil.

 Remove the paper and piece of carbon paper.

 Go over the quote with a paint marker and wait for it to dry.

Spray a layer or two of clear lacquer over the quoted board and wait for it to dry.

Attach key ring rings to the eyelets to attach the two boards.

Attach a piece of wire or rope to the eyelets on the top so that you can hang your photo frame.

Insert a photo into the mirror corners and hang up your quick, easy and personalized hanging photo frame.