I have been chomping at the hypothetical bit for fall, and even though it is still pretty warm, the second September rolled around, my mind warped into autumn mode.
Though if I'm being honest, I did have some stuff out at the end of August. I just couldn't wait. My husband came home one day, looked around, and asked, verbatim, "Why is there pumpkin shit all over the house? It's still August." Ahhh, marriage.
Though sweaters and soups may still be a ways away (though I may make my family eat soup soon, just because), decorating is not! I have continued plans for decorating this season, but I did want to quickly share a project that I am super proud of.
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| I'm sorry for the bad flash, it's night time and our apartment has horrible picture lighting! |
Because it is so wonderful, and I love the way it turned out with all my fall stuff in it, I feel like everyone should know how to do this.
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| I'm loving the blinged sunflower! |
I won't bother with a picture tutorial because the tutorial on Today's Fabulous Finds does a great job explaining everything, and her pictures are really detailed.
I thought this project would be a quick afternoon craft, and I would impress my husband with my wood working skills. I was wrong. In theory, this is a VERY easy project, but as I don't have any sort of electric saw, I have no idea how to work a handsaw (let alone a dull and rusty one dug out from my in law's barn), and I have no upper body strength to speak of, that made even cutting the paint sticks a laughable endeavor. No lie, my husband and his best friend ended up cutting my paint sticks at midnight when my husband got home from his swing shift. Ahhh, marriage.
The next day he cut the rest of the wood for me and I took it from there, lessons well learned.
The putting together was the easy part, though time consuming because of the wood glue. Let it totally dry before you try to stencil. I made the stencil by printing my words from Microsoft Word onto cardstock. The font I used was "stencil". I cut out the letters with an exacto knife, and voila! Free stencil for those of us poor souls who don't have a Cricut.
I will tell you that the plank of wood I bought was a standard pine board for less than $2. That board allowed me to make 2 crates, with enough left over for a third. As I was not the one sawing said board with a rusty hand saw, I didn't want to venture a request for more cuts.
The slats on this crate are FREE 5 gallon paint sticks. Make sure you ask the people at the paint desk at Home Depot or Lowes before you jack a handful, though. They didn't make me pay for them, but it's still nice to double check. I had the stain on hand from another one of my projects, as well as the jute rope. The stencil I made, and the spray paint for that I had. I also had the decorative nails (instead of the staples in the original). They were only $1.50 originally for the box, anyway. So add all that up, the total cost for each crate was less than $1. FABULOUS.
I made a second one that I put in my bathroom downstairs, but I'll show that one off when I show you the house all decorated!
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