Whatcha Doing?

  Making The Most of What You Have Lumber prices have been on the upswing and rather than pay the exorbitant cost of new boards for projects, I have been making the most of what I have in my scrap bucket.  I have previous posts on how I have used left over wood pieces to make state and canine mosaics, but my new favorite is using left over wood pieces to form leaves.   Outline clip art for leaves is plentiful or you can freehand sketch a simple leaf.  Below are a few examples of my finished products.  Enjoy !

Using Up Those Scraps There are times when you need to use up the wood scraps that have accumulated in the “too good to trash”  tub in your work area.  The past few weeks have been one of those times.  After sorting the wood  (by size/width/length/color) and taking a quick assessment, I sketched out a few possibilities for projects.  With an abundance of scrap square dowels and odds and ends from framing projects it was time to get started.   Materials:   Square dowels Birch panel and bead board paneling pieces Minwax Puritan Pine, dark walnut, special walnut and American oak and gray stains from Minwax White Folk Art paint to white wash the panels Gorilla Wood Glue Brad nailer Printed clip art outlines of dogs, leaves and  states ( I used Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Texas along with a few dog breeds) Process:  I began by attaching the wood strips together with Gorilla wood glue in a size that would cover the outline pattern.  On some of the projects I lined the wood grain up vertica