The Joke...
The joke here in our household is check twice before you put something out to the side of the road... it just might end up back inside!
This part of NY is great! Sure we pay crazy-high taxes, but you can put ANYthing out to the side of the road and the trash collectors will pick it up. That is if someone hasn't grabbed it first!
I don't mission out to find things. The great finds I've picked up have always been things I've spotted as I'm out and about. I curse if my car is full of stuff and I find something, but usually I stop if I spot something good. I'll have to post about some of my fabulous finds.
Anyway. We had this kids picnic table. Our cute neighbors gave it to us years ago. The kids used it as a table, then it wore out a bit more, then we started using it as a stepstool to the trampoline...
It has gotten pretty unstable and we put it to the side of the road... As I saw it sitting there I thought surely there was something I could do with it... so I brought it back in!
M came home from work and said to me... 'Did you see someone took our table?' I jumped up because I had brought it in from the curb! 'What? I brought that in.'
Exactly! I trash collected from my own pile! That disappointed my husband. I assured him I had something in mind!
I've been wanting to make a new headboard for G's room, using slats of old wood, this wasn't long enough though. What now? I could put them all together and make a sign of some sort.
I've been inspired by these images, and was thinking something along these lines. Just needed to determine if I wanted it seasonal or not... I ended up going with not.
I started by taking my kiddie table apart. I kept and reused the screws.
Next I cut some 1x to the correct size (well actually husband did the cutting for me). I needed to be long enough to cross all of the boards.
I flipped the boards over and screwed the boards together from the back.
Next I sketched, just a little. I thought about where I wanted this to be, landscape or portrait?
I went with landscape which sort of challenged me. I'm more of a portrait person.
I knew that I wanted to do some sort of masking. I started with tape and quickly realized my tree wouldn't be a taped tree! Bagged that! I wanted to be a little more specific with my placement than I felt I could do with the tape. Hmmm, thinking cap on, what could I do?
Mod Podge to the rescue, of course! I would paint it on and it would seal the natural wood that I wanted to maintain. I could paint over it and wipe the paint from where the glue was. Nice! So, I just started painting!
See it's already working! Now you see it, now you don't! I had to keep moving around so I could tell where I'd painted. I'd recommend getting a nice good layer of the glue on there.
And there we have it... tree! Looking at it now I could've just painted a tree on there. It looks cool this way. Of course you couldn't just do a Mod Podge tree unless you're going for a secret tree which you can only see from certain spots!
Ohhh you know what would be cool is rustic with sparkle! That would've been good. Left the rustic background and painted a silver sparkle tree on there! Dang! I guess that will have to be from the next picnic table I pull!
After the glue is dry you can continue. I watered down my paint a bit. I began painting over everything then wiping off where the glue was. It's easier to just try to paint around it, then just do minor cleanups, plus it does turn a little from the paint and if you don't paint over it there is more contrast...
I'm pleased! I'm not sure this will be the final resting place for this little piece of art, but it's here for now. I may hang it over the TV. We'll see. Really everything will change in the next few days... Christmas decor is headed our way! Yea!
