Back to Nature - Cake Stand DIY

I have been making tree-inspired things (did I tell you I love trees?) for a long time.

For one thing, my curtain rods are branches.

I have used twigs to decorate my ceiling lamp for Christmas..

My beloved husband, partner, cheap labour and friend will go on tree adventures with me....hahhahaha! One time I found some tree stumps and he went with me to drag, lug, lift, hoist those crazy-heavy babies from the roadside, into our car.  Looking back, it's hilarious the things I do, but it wasn't funny at the time.

See how happy I was to have found them?

See how happy my husband was, to help me? (sighhhhhhhhhh....my hero...)

Yes, we do this in broad daylight, where we can be seen by the ....shhh...public!  My poor mum, if she had been in the car to see all this, she would've slunk under the seat.

We had to lug them across this drain, ok?

ummm....and this drain.

 

 Yes, and this drain, too....

Then we drove our trophies to a woodwork shop.  But the guy who has machines larger than my simple electric saw, refused to slice them for me!  He said it was too difficult, they would roll about etc.  So disappointing!  Other shops would have been too far for us to drive out to, so I had to abandon the project! :(  These photos above are at least a year or two old, by the way.

Recently I gave it another shot, but this time I got smaller stumps.  I sawed them myself  by hand (so determined was I).  And put together this cake stand.  The stumps are about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. The tin in this first picture is supposed to represent a cake!  I had to quickly photograph these pictures as this cake stand went to a customer. It's funny to say 'customer' because this really started out as a hobby only.

 I love the texture of the bark...

For another shot,  as I am no baker and dislike cooking, I used mashed potatoes to fill the cupcake cups...

This is how each 'tray' looks...

Oh my goodness, I LOVE my cake stand!  What do you think?

Superman Wall Hanger/Rainbow Slats

Some time ago I made this and gave it away as a prize...it's a wooden door'mat' made of scrapwood . You can read about that here...
 

Someone wanted a similar one, but in bright, actual rainbow colours...(her 8 year old son is currently into rainbows :) 

And another one to hang on the wall, with a Superman logo! (and there's that feeling that I'm using an eyeliner on 92 ... 46...  92 ladies...again)

This is before lacquering....

Lacquer, add some S hooks to hang stuff from...

Here it is, placed on a cupboard (I have nowhere to hang it to 'model')....I think it can be used right up to teen years :)

As all of it was made of scrapwood, the size of each rack couldn't be standard.  It ranged from 30inches to 36inches wide (currently I'm making a third one).

Hope someone's daughter will want one with a unicorn!  Imagine how fun it would be hanging stuff from its glittery horn! :)) 

Clearly I am such an amateur.  What should have taken two days to make (including drying time), ended up taking 5 days, for these two racks, because:

1.  I forgot that the thickness of the boards were not the same and used the same-length nails and hammered away.  And then found, horror of horrors, the nails sticking out the back, in a row.  Sigh.  Remove.  Use shorter nails.
2.  The lacquer I used turned the original purple of the rainbow to brown.  Sanded it again, re-painted, re-lacquered.
3.  I started to get a backache around the third day because I was doing all the work on the ground - not a good idea.
4.  The Superman logo did not stand out as much as I wanted it to until I added the plywood backing at the back, outlining the shape of the logo.  Draw outline, cut out of plywood, hammer at the back, mix paint again, paint into the grooves to complete the logo.  In short, more work.
5. I tried mixing all my leftover paint and by doing that, the paint somehow wouldn't spread evenly and I had to paint and re-paint several colours several times.

Somebody shoot me.

But yah.  I love how they turned out anyway.  It looks much better in these pictures, though.  Hahahahahahahahha!

Further notes to self:
1.  When are you ever going to learn to put on gloves so your thumb and finger prints don't disappear altogether from sanding all the itsy bitsy grooves?  Your thumbprint is important!  It's your identity!  Ain't nobody gonna know who you are if you are mysteriously found lying dead in a....

oh.  I guess there's always your DNA.

2.  Re-use the same tee-shirts for messy work since you don't like to wear an apron.  Otherwise you ruin a perfectly good tee.  Sigh.

What do you think? (about the hanger and the doormat, not the tee)

Wedding Photobooth and a Carrot

I loved doing projects for Joni, my eldest daughter's wedding recently. She was toying with some ideas and I happily volunteered to make this.

As you recall, I collect scrap wood from this furniture shop that throws them out.  (I always feel like a little squirrel storing nuts for the winter :)  I also made my white privacy screens on rollers this way - you can see them when you click on the grey words.  

These are bed slats.

I knocked them off their frames, sawed some to get more-or-less the same lengths, then nailed them together to make three columns.  I was hoping to get them all in their natural wood colour (see how the last few pieces are a different shade?)..

 
..and waited and waited for the shop to throw some more out.  Then I couldn't wait anymore, and so had to paint them with a very, very diluted grey paint to even out the shade, yet leave it still rustic-looking.  My husband helped me with making the back supports.

  

Then I used masking tape to help me figure out the positioning of the different lines of words (words were chosen by bride and groom).

Joni had given me an A4 size picture of the font etc that she had arranged.  I do not know how to do fonts, word arrangements, or stencilling.  Heck, I don't even know how to put the words into a thumbdrive and have them enlarged at a photocopying shop! (where's everybody when you need them?) So I just winged it - I drew the words on, free-hand, using pieces of blackboard chalk.

Then I painted over the chalk using white gloss paint and a fine brush. (It was like drawing eye-liner on for ten thousand 700 ladies).

And here's where the carrot makes it debut.  I am an amateur DIYer.  I do not have the proper tools or machines or fancy equipment for my projects.  I grab whatEVER works. No kidding. So... see the dots in the picture below?

 Yep, I cut off the tip of a carrot and dipped it in paint.  Worked fine.

On days when the haze situation was bad or it got too hot out at the back of our house, I just hauled that whole column in and painted it in my sitting room.  With the air-conditioning on.  Like a boss.  :)

Here are my models.  The words for this column were taken from their pre-marital course.

The words for this column are part quotation from a writer, and if someone is dying to know, I'll find out from the groom for you as soon as they get back from their honeymoon :)

My husband and I having a little fun.

Our long-time family friend's daughter in a beautiful saree, totally outshining my photobooth :)

 Oh.  And the carrot?  Well, here's a story for you!  A long time ago I was teaching Sunday School to a group of village children in Kuching, East Malaysia.  I was teaching them a vegetable printing (okra, potato) craft.  One of the children had exclaimed, "Eeyer, Cikgu -  membazir...." (Malay for, "Oh no, Teacher, what a waste..."). 

Some things we'd never bat an eye at, like using store-bought vegetables for a simple craft.  Yet for some, they see it as using produce from months of hard work on a farm.  Boy, I never forgot that remark...

I cut off the painted tip of the carrot.  And put the rest of it in a stew..  :)

DIY Ampersand

An ampersand.  It represents so much to me personally, as far as a marriage goes.  It means "AND".  It means no more solo-flying.  It means everything is done with the other person in mind.  Major decisions on family, children, money, future plans, career direction, are discussed with your spouse.

How very close to my heart this symbol is.  How very painful when what it represents is not remembered.  How very painful when one or both decide to 'do their own thing'.

We had a wedding in the family couple of days ago. I was helping with the decorations and wanted an ampersand because I loved the ones I saw on Pinterest.  But they don't sell large ones around these parts.  The ones I've seen are a mere 6 inches high.  So...again...I'd just have to make one then!

I bought a piece of plywood about three-eighths of an inch thick. Then, I drew an ampersand free-hand, about 21 inches high on a piece of paper, then traced it out on the wood. (As you can see, I'd already started sawing the bottom before I remembered I hadn't taken a picture!)

 Since I don't have a lot of tools to my name and usually use whatever I have on hand, I used this borer to make a hole at the top.  This is the same boring (hole-making, not in anyway meaning ho-hum boring) bit I used for the birdhouse I made before.

 Then I used my electric saw to saw around the shape (see kids, I TOLD you I'd rather have a saw as a birthday present than some flowers.  Thank you again and again!).  I had to be careful especially around the narrower parts which could've snapped off - maybe a thicker piece of wood might have been better.

 Then I painted it with a grey base coat and a yellow top coat (grey and yellow being the theme colours of the wedding) and sanded that baby for a rustic look.

 

 

It's not perfect, but I love it!

 

And now for some modelling....by these two who are not perfect, who sometimes take 'solo flights', who sometimes forget to consider the other, who sometimes need a simple reminder.  Like a wooden ampersand.

Funky Cupboard (A Wordless Blog Post!)

<  Lucas Rise  (http://www.sansparapluie.com/bio.html )

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