JBtheExplorer
Native Plant Gardener
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2013
- Messages
- 5,711
- Reaction score
- 11,060
- Location
- Southeastern Wisconsin
- Showcase(s):
- 1
- Hardiness Zone
- 5b
- Country
I got bored recently (it happens a lot this time of year) and decided to make some Christmas ornaments, so I headed into the woods to collect some fallen pine branches.
Last year, I carved all of these and painted them.
While they turned out nice, I didn't feel like spending the time to carve new ones, and the paint has since gone bad, so I came up with another idea this year.
Instead of carving shapes, I simply cut the wood either in slices or halves. Then I sanded the wood, but left the bark as is. I had a sharpie so that's what I used to make the designs. After that I put two coats of polyurethane to help protect the sharpie ink. For the rings that I tie the string onto, I used soldering wire, drilled a hole just big enough to cram it in, and glued it in.
So, I gave one to my dad, one to my mom, and one to my grandma, and kept a few for myself.
I made some more "generic" ones as well like candy canes, santa hats, and stockings. Seven of them I placed at random spots along the trail in the woods where I originally collected the wood from. I'll see if people take them. I put Twitter hashtags on the back that I will be keeping an eye on to see if anyone shares that they took one. If any are remaining, I'll eventually collect them.
This is what I do in winter to keep myself from going crazy.
Last year, I carved all of these and painted them.
While they turned out nice, I didn't feel like spending the time to carve new ones, and the paint has since gone bad, so I came up with another idea this year.
Instead of carving shapes, I simply cut the wood either in slices or halves. Then I sanded the wood, but left the bark as is. I had a sharpie so that's what I used to make the designs. After that I put two coats of polyurethane to help protect the sharpie ink. For the rings that I tie the string onto, I used soldering wire, drilled a hole just big enough to cram it in, and glued it in.
So, I gave one to my dad, one to my mom, and one to my grandma, and kept a few for myself.
I made some more "generic" ones as well like candy canes, santa hats, and stockings. Seven of them I placed at random spots along the trail in the woods where I originally collected the wood from. I'll see if people take them. I put Twitter hashtags on the back that I will be keeping an eye on to see if anyone shares that they took one. If any are remaining, I'll eventually collect them.
This is what I do in winter to keep myself from going crazy.
