Who Let the Dogs Out?

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 vertically and on others I went horizontal.  Clamps were used to hold the wood together for drying.  (Rubber bands and stacks of books work in a pinch)  Allow ample drying time for the blue to cure.

At this point, the fun begins.  Trace the pattern on your wood with a carpenters pencil or a sharpie and then use a jigsaw to cut around your pattern markings.  After cutting, you will want to sand the edges of the object.  

You could just hand the cut object but I opted to adhere to a birch panel board and add some square dowels to make a framing edge.  I used wood glue and a nail gun to apply the square dowels as framing around my finished project