decorating,  DIY

Scrapmaster Project #4: Dove

Last year, Handy Husband decided to rip all of our random scrap wood into 1 inch wide strips.

Out of that, we made rolling milk cratesarrow art and a growth chart.

There was still a little bit of wood left, but the lengths were all pretty varied. I wasn’t sure what to do with it all, so the wood sat in our garage waiting for inspiration. In the meantime, my kids decided the wood made for excellent swords.

I’m sure nothing can go wrong with that game.

One day, inspiration finally struck and mommy took away all of the kids’ fun (and quite possibly saved an eye or two).

A wooden dove would be perfect over our mantel for Christmas.
dove5
It took me several days of glueing and clamping small sections together until I had over 50 of the strips secured together.

After that, I did the best I could at drawing the outline of a dove on the board. I figured the hard part was done, but Handy Husband informed me that the jig saw we should be using to cut out the dove had broken the weekend before. GAH!!!

dove4
More reasonable people might just trek down to Home Depot to replace the saw, but all reason flies out the door when you’ve already set up the sawhorses to get this project over with! Plus, I avoid Home Depot on a Saturday afternoon like the plague – way too many people.

So, in true “us” fashion, we improvised by using the Sawzall. It’s not really meant for projects that require, uh, finesse, but it more or less got the job done. My drawing wasn’t really that perfect anyway!

dove3
A couple of the small sections did break apart during the cutting process, but I was able to glue those back together. This was becoming a labor of love, folks.

I gave the roughest of the rough edges of the dove’s outline a quick sanding, but I didn’t sand the front of the dove at all. She’s sporting a fair amount of rustic and imperfect goodness.

To achieve the weathered look, I stained her with one coat of walnut stain and let that dry. Then I dry brushed over the stain with one coat of white latex paint. I used a sticker from the back of one of those preschool activity books to keep the eyeball dark. The sticker said, “way to go!”

It seemed appropriate for the situation.

I know I say this every time we do a project, but this might be my favorite one yet! Since we already had the materials on hand for this project, I love it even more.

dove1

What the dove represents is particularly poignant this time of year, isn’t is? If I can’t have peace on earth, I’ll definitely take a peaceful home. I wish you and yours peace and happiness this holiday season too. 

 

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