Woodwork Projects Remembered!

I was trying to clean up some of my old photo files today when I ran across some woodworking projects I'd done several years ago. I hadn't remembered doing all of these until I started going through them. I've since gotten rid of my radial saw but I still have my router, saber saw, miter saw, and jigsaw. This has given me a renewed desire to get back into the shed to make sawdust again!

Unfortunately, I didn't take photos of the process of creating these items, but I hope you can see what was done and perhaps it will help generate some ideas of your own! Please share your projects with me!

Planter Box: A gift for my Mother-in-law!

I had to piece together 4 wood slats to create the base for this planter box. The tiles I found at Home Depot, I believe. This was really fun and very rewarding as it turned out so nice. It was approximately 12"w x 30"l  x 12"d (pretty good sized).

Monogrammed magnets for the metallic note-bar

When my daughters moved into their first apartment (wow, a very long time ago), I made them a bulletin board/white board for the front door.They could slip bills and other mail between the folds of the fabric, and leave notes for each other. And, of course the keys were always handy this way.

Side view and front on...very convenient 

I always like to keep my paper plates handy--we use those more than our every-day dinnerware--so I created a holder that matched the kitchen theme and attached it to the cupboard. Quite a hit!

The sides are attached to the front with a series of dowels. I do wish I'd made this a little larger, though. It will only hold 8-3/4" plates.

For breakfast in bed

The breakfast tray turned out to be a gift for a bride and groom. I made the tray from pine and used the side handles as a guide for the napkin rings. I embroidered the linen napkins with the new couples monogram and did an Italian hemstitch on the napkins as well. I finished everything with a natural stain so it would go with any decor, although now days this isn't really a desirable stain color.

The Growth Chart is an easy gift to make and takes very few supplies. It's approximately 18"w x 60"h (I'm working from memory, here) and it's just a sheet of 1/2" - 3/4" pine. I used my router to bevel the edges and then I painted it and personalized it. I believe you can even purchase these already cut and beveled at Home Depot or Michael's if you don't want to cut the wood. I used acrylic paints (my paints of choice) and measured off numbers so it could hang about 1-1/2 feet off the floor. I added screw holes and, there you have it!

Frosty

These Christmas Card Holders were fun and simple. I came up with 3 designs (Santa is not shown) and just sketched them out. They're about 18" long. You can't see it in the photos but there is a semi-circle shaped piece of wood perpendicular to the length to create a base that will not fall over. Once I painted the designs, I added heavy wire (I actually think this is solder) and looped it so cards would stay in the loops. Not too many people send Christmas Cards any more, but at the time, these were very useful. 

Rudolph

Another project was cookie jar covers. You can purchase these traditional glass cookie jars at OSH or Michael's (well at least you used to be able to. They came in two sizes). I took off the metal screw-on cover it came with and cut out a 3/4" thick wood circle that fit perfectly into the opening. Then I used my jigsaw to carve out different shapes for decoration and made sure they extended beyond the mouth of the jar. I screwed the circle base into the bottom of the new shape and the cover fit right over the mouth of the cookie jar, keeping the cookies fresh and clean.

I even did a year's worth set of covers for my sister-in-law. That way she could change out the top of the cookie jar for each month of the year and her kids could have fun deciding what they would put on it for the month. Again, I used acrylic paint. Hint: if you're not good at free-hand art, blow up graphics from the Internet, or use a color book for your designs!

Layered bear form my teddy-bear-collecting sister

An apple for the kitchen

A year's worth!