Monthly Archives: October 2021

Birch Tree Risers and Logs

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We’ve been making birch tree risers. Leonard Butts, Robin Holmes Butts, and Kathy Strothcamp thanks for the contribution from your fallen trees and limbs. Leonard, your big branch we saved from your tree became the risers, and Kathy, your branches and Leonard and Robin’s smaller branches became the birch log bundle.

Danny cut them into the sizes I wanted and made me hold the saw down while he got the right measurements. Personally, I think he could have done that himself, but the couple that works together, stays together, right? 😂 Plus, I could make sure he was doing it correctly if I helped. 🤪

The resulting projects are all natural and beautiful just as they are. Some have peeling bark, some have bark that peeled off. Some bark may still peel, but that’s what birch trees do.

We made several sets of (1/2”, 1” and 1 1/2”) risers and several sets of (1”, 1/2”, and 2”) risers.

We also made a bundle of 10 birch logs. They fit perfectly on the MCM magazine rack we turned into a log holder.

I researched how bundles of logs are tied for carrying so gave Danny that task after I told him how they did it.

The look on Danny’s face in the first pic says, “Hurry up and take the picture, Pierre. These are freaking heavy.” 😂😂 The second one was a little better after I let him rest his arm. 🤪

The name Pierre is brought up every time there is a photo being taken around here. Ed Pierre was our local photographer for many, many years. He was meticulous with his photography and posing positions and it took forever it seemed until he was satisfied it was the perfect shot. And they always were.

A Decoupaged Wood Slice Tucked into a Fall Arrangement

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I was making a couple of coasters with some left over tissue from another project, so I decided to make this to tuck into a fall arrangement I put together. The colors are so rich and vibrant on this tissue paper and I love how it looks in the arrangement!

This is how I did it:

1. I gathered my supplies – off white chalk-style paint, decoupage medium from Dollar Tree, left over tissue paper I made on my ink jet printer, Saran Wrap, a wood slice from Amazon, fine sandpaper, and a hair dryer. Sorry, I forgot to take pics of drying it, just don’t get the hair dryer too close, and I will dry on hot for a bit, then switch to cool a couple of times until dry.

2. I painted the wood slice with one coat of our Missouri Limestone Paint Company chalk- style paint in “Grannie’s Lace”. The purpose of this is to have a light background showing g through the tissue paper and will make the detail of the image stand out. I used a hair dryer to help speed the drying process.

3. I then gave the wood slice a nice even coat of the decoupage medium from Dollar Tree, making sure it was all covered, all the way to the edge.

4. I carefully placed the tissue paper over the wood slice where I wanted it and then pressed it down and smoothed it out all over with a piece of wadded up Saran Wrap. This allows the tissue paper to adhere smoothly with no wrinkles. Again I used a hair dryer to speed up the drying process.

5. I used a piece of fine sandpaper and went in a downward motion all around the edge to remove excess paper. This keeps the tissue paper from tearing. Do not go back and forth.

6. I then gave it an even coat of of the decoupage medium and used the hair dryer to help speed the drying process. Once dry, I gave it a 2nd coat.

7. The Dollar Tree decoupage medium is glossy and I wanted to tone down the glossiness a bit so once the 2nd coat was thoroughly dry, I sprayed a coat of satin Mod Podge sealer over it.

Note: As an FYI, I have heard that glossy decoupage is much more water resistant than matte or satin, so often people will use the glossy for the first coat and after will tone it down with Matt or satin as I did here.

I now have a beautiful embellishment to tuck into my Fall display.

Storing Faux Flowers – Problem Solved! A baby gate!

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Do you struggle with faux flower storage in your craft area? I do!

I’ve tried several things, but nothing was working well. I’ve searched Hoogke and Pinterest. I’ve watched organizational videos and even tried some of them, but nothing worked for me.

Until today. As we were decluttering the basement we came across several baby gates. Since the grands are no longer babies, Danny wanted to know if I wanted to sell them. I’ve really had the flower problem on my mind and all of a sudden, I saw not a baby gate, but a rack with holes that could hang on a wall or door and I could stuff stems through the holes!

We had an over the door hanging rack. I had to leave then so Danny tried it out and it works perfectly with room to spare for more. I can see at a glance what I have (I may reorganize by color 🤪) and it is space saving, too! I even have room for more on this one, plus I have two more gates if I need more room. 🤪

And it looks pretty, too!

An Ear of Harvest Corn Made With Wooden Beads

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Today’s early morning project: I created an “Ear of Harvest Corn with Wooden Beads”

I only had enough beads for one ear. I had wire here, but if I do any more I would get copper jewelry wire. I believe the beads came from Dollar General and the raffia is from the hula skirt from Dollar Tree.

This was a fun and quick project and would look great mixed in with your other fall decor. I love the Fall natural look.

There was no need for me to make a tutorial on this, because the tutorial I used from Hammons Nest was excellent and easy to follow.

If you’d like to try this, here’s the Hammons Nest tutorial: https://fb.watch/8thInCI9jQ/

Creating Wooden Acorns

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I did a mini tutorial on this earlier, but since I’m making 36 wooden acorns for my cousin’s Thanksgiving table, I thought I’d take more photos as I worked and explain in more detail.

I first gathered all my supplies. The wooden eggs came from Amazon. My cousin had these sent, but I think they are the same brand as ones I purchased earlier. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01CJ7KWW2?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title#

I also bought jute from Amazon. I may get another as I’m not sure this will be enough. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07K857VGB?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title#

The drop cloth I already had and the sticks to make stems came from my yard.

I cut the drop cloth into 36 5” squares. It seems to go faster when you precut the drop cloth.

I had a section of an egg carton I used. I laid the drop cloth piece at an angle and placed the egg in the center. That seemed to work well as I applied glue and pressed and smoothed the cloth on all 4 edges.

I then trimmed away the excess fabric.

Next, I tucked in and glued the sides.

I then trimmed and glued down the drop cloth.

Next, I started gluing and wrapping the jute all around.

When I got to the top, I used the stem I cut with my hand miter cutter. I also purchased it from Amazon. I glued the stem to the top, letting it set up. Then I finished wrapping and gluing until I finished where I started out. I cut the rope and glued it down.

My acorn was complete.

I now have 12/36 acorns completed.

A friend, when I posted these, said she loved the natural canvas acorns but was surprised I hadn’t painted them with our paint. Well, since I was working on acorns anyway, here is one of the natural wood eggs I have paint stained with our Missouri Limestone Paint Company “Sour Green Apples” and sealed with spray lacquer. Very cute. So ok…..I will be making some more of these in other Fall colors. Thanks for the suggestion, Debbie Carter!

My cousin loved the painted ones, too, so I made 18 drop cloth and 18 painted ones. 🙂

A Print from a Shower Curtain Becomes a Christmas Decoration

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Today’s project: I just had to do this. I found this awesome Christmas shower curtain at my sister-in-law’s yard sale yesterday.

I knew I wanted to use the images for decoupage. It is 100% polyester, so I wasn’t sure what would be the best way to do it. I posed the question to a decoupage fb group I belong to. A couple people suggested making printed copies of the images! Brilliant! I hadn’t even thought about doing that… and now I can use the shower curtain, too! Just look at all the different images on it!

I copied the image I wanted on my ink jet printer by laying the shower curtain on the tray in the area that showed that image. Then, the question of how to cut it out.

That brought to mind an old German cutting technique called Scherenschnitte, which means “scissor cuts” in German, and is the art of paper cutting design. I had done some of this many years ago. At one time I even had special scissors. I do have a pair of very sharp, small pointed scissors, so I cut around the edges my design with a kind of modified Scherenscnitte technique. It worked fine. These are the scissors I used.

I remembered to spray both sides of my printed image with Mod Podge spray to keep it from bleeding. When it was dry, I used Elmer’s Bonding spray on the back and bonded it to a piece of painters drop cloth the size of the back of the 8×10 frame I found in my stash to use. I made sure I pressed down carefully on all the cut edges to make sure they bonded well.

I then used a spray adhesive called Pixie spray on the back of the drop cloth and pressed it to the backing of the frame so it would lay flat.

I opted not to use the glass as I really wanted the texture of the drop cloth to show….and the texture of the paper. You really can’t even tell the image is a piece of printer paper.

I tried to take a couple of pics to show the texture. I am thrilled with how this project turned out and it took less than two hours to complete.

The frame is just perfect for this vintage looking image, don’t you think? It looks like it has been around hundreds of years.

Then a friend challenged me to make something from one of the trucks. So, I used this one and added a couple more embellishments.

Here are a few more ways I’ve used the printouts: