Tag Archive | scrap wood

Scrap wood heart collage

I’m getting closer and closer to having ONE room in this house that is completely and truly done!!!! I can’t wait for that day Pip is really liking her desk hutch, but the project I am writing about today is one of her favorites for her room and it turned out a lot easier than I imagined. And it used up a lot of scrap plywood I had been accumulating–high fives all around! Here is the scrap wood DIY heart collage I put up on one of her walls:

I started this back in the summer and then procrastination hit…sometimes it is the silliest things that throw me off the finish line for a project. Picking out the pictures is what did it this time! I had a niggling of a feeling of wanting to do the picture-picking-out last weekend so I jumped on it, and now the project’s got a check mark next to it on my to-do list.

This used up a surprising amount of scrap 3/4″ and 1/2″ plywood. I wanted both sizes because I thought it would add some visual interest to the picture collage. Most of them are 4 x 6, but a few were smaller because it was what I had left. Read More…

March 22, 2012

in Quick Tips, Uncategorized
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Quick Tip {Sanding Blocks}

Hi all! I hope that it is as beautiful in your neck of the woods as it is here in Ohio! The weather has been absolutely unbelievable. With all this beautifulness (boy, the spell checker is going bonkers with that word) I’m sure you have been throwing around the idea of getting out the power tools and building. And if you are, you will certainly be getting out the sand paper because it is an unavoidable part of the building process.

Have you ever priced the sanding blocks at the stores? I have. And they never end up in my cart at the checkout line because of that. The Hubs and I differ a bit in that area–we are both pretty thrifty, but when it comes to home improvement projects, he doesn’t balk at getting things that might be helpful, whereas I tend to “make do” without them. So that is how I ended up with some ready-made sanding blocks–they came home with him from the store

The ready-made version were great and is it my imagination, or do they seem to last longer without getting clogged up? Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to spend the money when they began to look like this:

This is an incredibly easy quick tip. Just cut a full sheet of sandpaper into fourths.

And crease the edges up at the edge of the ready-made block.

I’m almost embarrassed to post this, it is so easy. Almost. I don’t attach it in any way and it stays in place fine just by gripping the sides.

Don’t have a worn-out sanding block to use and don’t want to buy one? You can still make some really cheap DIY versions. I used this option until I found the ones the Hubs had already bought (I cannot recommend snooping in your husband’s garage stuff highly enough). Use some scrap wood–3/4″ thickness or more. Buy some cheapo craft foam (the kind that they have in the kid’s craft section at Walmart, JoAnn’s, etc.). If you want to be all fancy-schmancy, buy the self-adhesive kind, but I just used some scrap from the craft room. Cut the foam to the size of your scrap wood and use a quarter sheet of the sandpaper wrapped around it. That’s it!

If you can’t get enough of sanding blocks, here are even more options for your consideration:

As far as the kids’ bathroom project non-progress, I am beginning to have hopeful thoughts. I got a little jump of excitement in the belly when I was surfing for inspiration yesterday and it is the first that I’ve gotten that. It is what I have been waiting for, so I hope I can fan that little ember into a roaring fire of motivation. And SOON!!

February 14, 2012

Build some under the sink storage

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This post was originally a guest post for Brittany over at Pretty Handy Girl a little over two weeks ago. I so appreciate that she featured me over there! If you didn’t catch it then, here is the Pink Toe version

***

Based on today’s post, I’m going to predict that 2012 is going to involve some embarrassing photos. Embarrassing to me specifically. But the “after” results are so worth the embarrassment that I’m going to show you some of the messy areas of our my house. That cannot read “our” because no part of My Man is messy. Been with him 18 years and the man hasn’t made a mess yet. Me? I’m the fertility goddess for messes—they breed all around me. So I decided to tackle one mess at a time in 2012 and my latest project is organizing under the sink in the master bath.

I mean look at this (if you are male and uncomfortable looking at feminine products, you can just skip on ahead here…if you can even find it in this mess. This photo could be a page in an I Spy book).

Ack! I swear it looks worse in the picture! You can now understand that when I saw this on Pinterest I got pretty excited.

source: Pregnant…with power tools

Actually I got a LOT excited…dollar store bins! Scrap wood! Cheap and easy DIY—what’s not to love??

So I went off and I built some stuff and now it looks like so:

AAAHHH! I love it so much now!

First thing you need to do is go get yourself some bins. This project cost me $4 because all I had to buy were the bins and I got 2 for $1 at Dollar Tree. You need to know also that bins vary in quality and usability for this project. Look for rigid bins with side edges that are uniform with no obstructions like these: Read More…

February 8, 2012

Scrap lumber project for small animal friends

First I want to apologize for this post being sent prematurely several days ago. I have no idea what happened–I started writing up the post, left the computer for a bit, came back to finish it, and discovered it was published. So sorry about that–and it was blank at the time it was published as well!

I had some time recently and I needed to solve a little problem…the little problem is a Netherland dwarf rabbit named Annie. She recently moved from the basement to the dining-room-we-never-eat-in-that-is-scheduled-to-become-an-office-in-the-near-future. Her cage needed prettied up. A lot.

So today I added a new house. All scraps, so it was totally free!

I actually started out just wanting a box to contain the corn cob litter we use. It started out like this:

I even fancied it up with the small strips of 1/4″ plywood.

I didn’t have a tall enough piece of 3/4″ plywood, so I had to piece some together.

But then I got the idea of putting a roof on, and it took off from there. Read More…

January 28, 2012

How to build a closet organizer {post 3} Building drawers

I love drawers. I do not love drawer glides. Drawer glides are going to be the death of me. It’s going to have to be a write in on my death certificate. Cause of death: drawer glides. But those come later…first we need to build some drawers.

I used to build drawers like I did in Pip’s storage bed. I don’t think I will put them together like that again. In this version I assembled the sides and then nailed on the bottom, whereas for the storage beds the bottom was inset. The only cost I had for these was the 1×2 drawer faces, glides, and the knobs–all the rest was scrap plywood from other builds!! Love. That.

So to build the drawers the easy way, first you cut the boards so that the sides are the width you want the drawer to be. Then the front and back pieces are the length you want the drawer to be minus your (plywood width x 2). So I want a drawer that is 14 width x 15.5 length. My sides would be 14″ and my front and back with 3/4″ plywood would be 14 also (15.5-1.5= 14).

To assemble this quickly, I modified an idea I saw on Pregnant With Power Tools. She uses scrap wood to make a jig for holding your wood square while you assemble. I had the idea to use some of these Rockler assembly squares screwed down to my workbench instead. Use Pregnant with Power Tool’s idea if you don’t have the Rockler squares. If I didn’t have the Rockler version, I would definitely build the scrap wood jig (being sure it is absolutely square) and save it after for future projects. Very handy!

Hi again!

My 8 weeks away was a whirlwind—I can’t believe how fast it went! Obviously I didn’t get any projects, even small ones, blogged during that time. But I did finish two VERY small DIY organization projects that I’ll share now. I wasn’t going to because the pictures aren’t impressive. How do some bloggers get those fantastic pictures of the smallest things? However, the other day I opened the cabinet where one of the projects is located and felt a small spurt of giddiness because it solved a long standing problem. So here’s hoping this may help you out as well.

Hair stuff. Past DIY organizer was a picnic basket I painted with shoe box dividers. The hair clips were on small strips of cardboard, clipped in place. I already took them out in the photo. They were stuck in the spaces in the sides:

You couldn’t see them all at once and although it was somewhat organized, it was still a pain. My daughter never put them back on their strip and I didn’t like to either.

Now:

Crates

A little while ago I saw these crates on a blog post by Kit at DIY Diva and I loved them. She made hers from pallets. I did not for a few reasons.

1. I’d have to find some pallets
2. I’d have to take apart said pallets.
3. Pallets scare me. I’m pretty sure that most of them are saturated in all sorts of things to keep the wood from rotting, none of which I want inside or to breathe while I’m cutting, sanding,etc. Read the comments in the DIY Diva post for safety measures you can take.

So I went to Lowes to the furring strip department and searched for really-beat-up-but-straight-as-I-could-find boards. Really beat up? Easy. Straight as I could find? Not so much. I could find furring strips for the 1x3s and 1x4s, but the 1x2s were impossible, so I used Top Choice for those.

6—1x3x8 furring strips

3—1x4x8 furring strips

1—1x2x8 and 1—1x2x6 Top Choice boards (they only had a few at 8’—there was enough wood for 3 with these figures)

For a grand total of $21.24. Much, much, much cheaper than the large baskets I was eyeballing at Target 2 weeks ago. I could have spent $50-$60 dollars on 3 baskets! Sheesh. Here’s my version:

For the ends cut: Read More…

December 2, 2010

in Decorating, Uncategorized
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Scrap wood nativity scene

Every year my mom reenacts the Christmas story with my kids as they set up her nativity scene to decorate the house. It is a tradition that they started many years ago when there was only one Little Pink Toe. Well this Little Pink Toe and his grandmother decided that some of the important characters needed names, so the shepherd in their story became Matt the Shepherd. If I remember correctly, one of the wise men became Gerald. Who knows? Maybe they got them right.

I made this nativity scene at our house many, many years ago and I love the simplicity and rustic feel of it. It’s not my idea, I got it out of a book, but you can knock off your own version of it:

It fits right in on our mantle in front of the brick fireplace. I think that Joseph, the carpenter, would approve, since it is made of scrap 2×4. I don’t have sketches for the characters, but they are simple line drawings.

When I measured the lengths of the 2x4s, they are not exact which helps with the country feel of the entire set. So these measurements are approximate:

Joseph 8 1/2″

Mary 6 3/4″

Baby Jesus 4 3/4″

Wise men 8 1/4″

Sheep 3 3/4″ and 4 1/2 “

These boards are not even sanded. Cut the 2x4s and mark your characters in pencil. I used a wood burning tool to define the lines, but I think a brown or black Sharpie would be fine. Or paint them with a fine paintbrush. I then color washed the entire pieces with watered down brown acrylic paint (the small container kind that you can buy at a craft store or in the craft section at Walmart). You could use stain, but I would use a water based stain if using acrylics over it (would it accept the acrylics over oil-based? I’m not sure, I try to stick to water based products so not much experience there).

I used watered-down acrylic paints to fill in the characters with color. I suppose you could seal it with something, but I didn’t. I do wrap each one in a plastic bag to store them, so that they don’t chip if they hit each other in the box. They’ve held up great for around 14 years.

The stars are from Crafts 2000 and were an addition to the set that I added 2 or 3 years ago. I just took a scrap of 1/2″ wood and screwed 3 small holes which I used to hold the star posts.