Rustic Juniper Log Mantels

I was making a couple juniper log mantels for a while and finally finished them up not too long ago. I made one for my sister and one for another family she knows. They both wanted the raw, natural edge of the juniper log, which I think looks really unique and eye catching.

With all my log furniture, I go out and cut the trees down and come home to mill them myself (yes, I have my own sawmill and even made it myself. That’s a whole other post!). Saves a ton of money, considering mantels like these sell for $1000 to $2000.

The logs for these mantels actually came from Oregon where we’re originally from and I brought them out to Montana where we live now. I’m not going to go into detail on how I made them, but I did make Kiley help me cut them. I finished them a few coats of polyurethane over the course of about a week, for drying time in between coats. 

Hopefully I’ll get some pictures from them once they get their mantels installed. They came and got them not too long ago but hopefully it will be soon! Until then, these are the picture I have:

 

 

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Calendar for the kids

Another long project that has taken me way to long to get started and finish. But it is finally done and I love it! This is totally inspired by my sister’s calendar. In fact, I called her a few times making sure I was doing it right :) Here is a really fun, cool & entertaining calendar for little kids.

This is a magnetic calendar, so the backdrop is metal. I used pieces that Grant cut off an old air duct he had laying around, so that was free for me! He also put together a frame for it and routered the inside so that the metal sheets and the backing could sit in flush with the frame.

Rather than have air duct sheet metal as the background, I opted to paint it grey. Which for one, makes it look a little sleeker and less metal-like, but for two, I couldn’t for the life of me keep it from getting scratched. I had to respray it a few times. The last time I sprayed it, I drew the lines on it and after I was done I immediately dropped it on the garage floor and scratched it up all over again. OH. WELL!

Grant added some awesome rivets which I think look sweet, but he did it mostly for architectural reasons (holding the sheet metal on to the backing). It’s a fun addition!

Then came the days, dates, months, and all the other fun things that happen throughout the year! My sister gave me a lot of ideas, and then of course I customized it to include annual, monthly and other random things that happen around here. If you want some of the ones I did (minus the pictures of us on mother’s day, father’s day and our anniversary) you can get it HERE.

On the backs of each is a little strip of magnet tape.

Little G man helped me put the numbers up (which is a GREAT way for him to learn his numbers, still working on those!) and then we added the special days: ei – April Fools Day, Home Depot kids workshop, General Conference, Earth Day, Race (running my first marathon!!!) etc.

We hung it up high enough that neither boy can reach it, but not so high that little G man can’t reach it with a chair (since it is a calendar for him!).

Now all I need is the cool bendy, sticky wax thing (Wikki Wax) that my sister uses to circle the day it is!

***Template for calendar days, dates, and month letters—> HERE.

 

Enlarged Family Silhouette cut-out

This project, unfortunately, took me FOREVER, but it was well worth the wait. The idea came to me about two months ago and I finally finished it. Don’t you hate how life gets so stinkin’ busy. Normally I only stick with projects that take me an hour or two, not a month or two. But, I’m in love with this family silhouette. I love having unique and personalized home décor, and this obviously fits in that category.

I started out with a family picture that would work as a silhouette. Luckily you can’t see the faces or what is really going on in the actual silhouette cut-out. In the silhouette, it looks like little B man (on the right) is being cute and just looking up at me. In reality that little stinker is trying to get away and right after the picture threw a big ol’ fit.

I edited the picture in Power Point (I don’t have anything fancier) and removed the background.

In the beginning I didn’t know how I was going to get this little picture into a 3’ x 3’ size. I thought about cutting it with the Silhouette out of cardstock (in many pieces to get it big enough), but that just sounded painful. Luckily my friend has a projector that is perfect for projects like this. (Thanks Jennifer!!) So in the end, I didn’t really need to remove the background, but it did make tracing it easier.

It only took about 30 minutes to trace it onto the MDF 3’ x 3’ board. So easy! I may need to add a projector like this to my collection.

Then came the fun part! I cut our family out with a jigsaw. Before this project I had actually never used a jigsaw. Growing up I worked in the shop a lot with my dad, who was a carpenter for most of his life. Grant and I now have as many, or possibly more, tools as he did and I just love it! Here is another tool I can check off my list of experiences.

There was only one casualty in the process. Little B man’s arm broke at the shoulder. Thank goodness for glue! Next time I make a huge family silhouette cut-out I may need to use a different type of board. This MDF is pretty rigid and I was very nervous the whole time that it was going to break more than it did.

I painted it with a couple coats of black Rustoleum spray paint and one coat of clear matte finish. It ended up being just under 3’ tall and wide.

Now it sits on top of our cupboards in the kitchen. I still have more decorating to do up there, but this is the main piece I’ve been waiting for! Talk about personalized home décor! I love it :)

 

*sorry about all the splotches on the pictures. That’s frustrating!

 

 

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DIY graphic t-shirts

After I made the boys these ‘hello’ shirts, I decided it was too fun (and easy) so I made some more t-shirts for them. I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it, the Silhouette machine is amazing and so worth the money. You can do pretty much anything with it. I definitely used it to make these shirts, here’s how:

First I found some free images off the internet that I liked, saved them to my computer and imported them into the Silhouette Studio.

Then, after the image I wanted to use was saved in the design library, I inserted it on my page and traced it so that the Silhouette could cut the outline of it. To trace, I clicked on the “trace window” icon (top right) and then adjusted the settings until the helicopter was mostly/all yellow then hit “trace outer edge”. (You only really need to make the picture all yellow if you are using the “trace” method. When you are using the “trace outer edge” method, like I did, you only really need the yellow to be seen all the way around the picture so it can trace the outline…if that makes sense). 

Then I adjusted the picture to the size I wanted and then cut. I cut my pictures/icons/words/whatever out of vinyl so I could just stick in on the shirt and not worry about it moving when I painted. I’ve never tried it, but you could cut freezer paper and have the same effect (vinyl is just easier, so I went with that). After I cut them, I peeled away the areas I wanted to be painted on the shirts and stuck them on (using transfer paper of course).

Then I painted. I used fabric paint from Joann. I had to do a couple coats, especially with the helicopter shirt because it isn’t a contrasting or bold color, just a different shade of the shirt color.

And the finished products -

These dudes look great. Little G man’s shirts are still a little big (got them on a good sale that I couldn’t pass up, of course), but he still loves wearing them. And little B man is wearing his nickname shirt that I think is hilarious…inside joke I guess.

**This would be a really great idea for themed birthday parties. Next year, if little G man actually decides on a party theme (he went from fish to trucks to horses to pirates and everything in between for his party this year) I could easily make him and his little friends party favor shirts. Michaels and Joanns usually have their Jerzeys t-shirts on a pretty good sale and in youth sizes. I’m totally going to do it!

Project tools/details:

• Silhouette machine (gotta have a Silhouette!!)
• free clipart graphics (or hand drawn) from the internet
• GreenStar intermediate vinyl from USCutter.com (and transfer tape)
• fabric paint (and brushes) – I used Tulip brand from Joann’s
• blank shirts (go for the clearance shirts!)