Friday, March 29, 2013

DIY Pallet Wood Planter Box

Several months ago a friend gave me a pallet. 
My husband rolled his eyes while I hauled it out of the truck. 
And it's been sitting under our deck ever since. Until now!
I was inspired by Laura at Make it Lovely to make this Planter Box. You can see her tutorial here
And I'll let you in on how I made my adorable planter box. 
My turned out quite small because I ended up using 
the pieces of wood off my pallet in between the nails.
And they turned out to be a little smaller than I had planned. 
If you don't have a pallet, you can get some wood cut or use what you have.
So I started out with this worn out old pallet...
 Grabbed my saw (You can use any kind of saw. 
I got this for my birthday a couple years ago and it's great for working with pallets!)
 I sawed off all the wood on both sides of the nails.
I knew I didn't need all of it for this project, but as long as I was cutting...
 And I ended up with a pretty good amount too! 
Most of it will have to be cut again because the edges are even, 
but getting it off the pallet is half the battle.
 Here's the stack I ended up with. Can you imagine what I could create with this... Stay tuned!
 I pulled out the circular saw and a pencil 
and cut each end of three pieces of wood so everything lined up evenly.
 For the planter box you'll need three pieces of wood the same size and two end pieces the same size. As you can see in the picture above.
 Here's an idea of how I planned to put the whole thing together.
 I bought a couple packages of L brackets from 
Lowes/Home Depot and used the drill to put the planter box together.
Here's a view after I put all the L brackets on.
And the underside (iphone pics). You'll notice I did not put a screw in one of the L bracket holes because it would end up being in the middle of the joint and that wouldn't help at all!
 After a light painting and some sanding my planter box is ready for some spring!
How adorable is that?!
 My plan all along was for this to be a little rustic. So no worries that the joints don't meet up exactly. 
Happy Spring! And more importantly, Happy Easter. He has Risen!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Simples Moss covered Balls

Spring is here (at least it is in my neck of the woods!) 
I needed a couple additions to my spring mantle. 
And I just love moss and moss covered balls. 
What I didn't like was the price!
So of course I decided to make my own!
I started out with these supplies:
  • wiffle balls (found this pack at Target)
  • glue gun and lots of extra glue sticks
  • a sheet of moss (found mine at Hobby Lobby)
  • green thread to match the moss
 I cut a huge square out from the moss sheet, about 1/4 of it.
 I started putting hot glue on a small part of the plastic wiffle ball and wrapped the moss around it. 
I continued adding glue and wrapping the moss around the ball until I had covered the whole thing. 
It's a good idea to keep a scissors handy, 
you will need to cut off some of the moss as you wrap it around the ball.
 You may end up with some "holes" but that it easy to fix. By using some scraps, 
I added hot glue where the ball can be seen or where you can see a seam. 
It's easy to press the moss into each other making it naturally mold together.
 When I was finished covering the whole ball with the moss, 
I wrapped some green thread around the whole thing. 
Tucking the beginning part of the thread and the end of the thread under a small piece of scrap moss.
 My new simple moss covered balls are a great addition to the tin containers on my mantle.
All three of these moss balls took me less than 30 minutes, total.
 I created this Easter Subway art a couple years ago,
there are a couple different colors to choose from and I'd love to share it with you...
Head on over to my post here to download my Easter Subway art.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Simple Moss Wreath

I love this sweet and simple moss wreath with a little birds nest, eggs and pussy willow branches.
My new Easter sign has me walking around the house singing 
and reminding me of the old hymn and  "Because He Lives, I can face tomorrow..."
 For my Moss Wreath I used the following supplies: hot glue gun, small grapevine wreath, green Spanish Moss, burlap ribbon (or you could cut burlap into long strips), small birds nest and some eggs.
There really isn't much instruction on how to do this... and I really don't think you could mess it up!
 
I put hot glue all over the front of the grapevine wreath and then added my moss.
 I made a bow and looped a long part of the burlap ribbon around the top of the wreath 
and hung it high. 
I hot glued the birds nest and a couple eggs and then added some pussy willow twigs 
and a couple green flowers (all supplies found at Hobby Lobby).
"God sent his son. They called him Jesus. He came to love. 
Heal and forgive. He lived and died. 
To buy my pardon. An empty graveIs there to prove. My Savior lives"
"Because he lives. I can face tomorrow. Because he lives. All fear is gone.
Because I know. He holds the future. And life is worth the living. Just because he lives"
 Check out this video clip from the most recent Passion Conference in Atlanta and
David Crowder signing "Because He Lives" 
And you can download David's version at the itunes store.

Simple Spring Wreath

If you've got 7 minutes and a couple bucks, you too can make this Simple Spring Wreath! You'll just need a couple supplies fr...