Wednesday, October 23, 2013

What to do with those scraps


I have a lot of scraps.  You know, the cut ends of wood that you end up kicking around the floor.  Mine were piling up and they made me kind of sad.


Heck, I sell under the name, The Reclaimed Life, so I had to give them another purpose.

I took some random discarded pieces of pallet wood to make this lovely doggie:


I used some old weathered scraps to make this fun fishy:


I love this moose and I'm keeping him all to myself:


Kind of seeing a theme here?!?  Well, I do live in New Hampshire where we love our dogs, fish and moose.  And it wouldn't be New Hampshire without a bear or two:


I used much smaller scraps to make these bears.


You can make your own "scrap animal" too.  I stayed with my New England theme, but you can choose any animal, or object, you like.  Stay with a silhouette you would find easy to cut with a jigsaw.

I used my Silhouette Cameo program, but you can just put the outline of your object in photo editing software or a word processing document, enlarge to the size you want, print out the multiple "puzzle" sheets and tape it together.

After you have cut around your template, trace it onto 1/4" plywood wood, then cut out your object with a jigsaw.


Of course, I forgot to take more "during" photos.  But the rest is really easy.  Here's what you need to remember:  after you adhere your wood scraps, you will cut around your template again.  So you want to go past the edges when you glue the scraps to the 1/4" plywood.  Now just lay your small scraps across the wood, going over the edge of your cutout.  I like to vary the color and length.  Adhere the pieces with wood glue as you go along.  When I finished gluing all my pieces, you couldn't even tell it was a bear -- it just looked like a mess of wood.

After the glue dried, I flipped the bear over and put 1/2" staples in the back to make sure the wood scraps weren't going anywhere.  I kept the bear on it's back and cut around the wood template again.  This "shaved" off the ends of the scraps that were overhanging.  And that's it!  Just add a hanger and you're good to go.


I feel pretty good about saving some wood with character and making something new out of what was heading to the burn pile.


The bears will be making their way to Robin's Egg next week.  :)

Do good, save wood.  (**I made myself giggle**)

Have a great day,
Debbie


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23 comments:

  1. These are so stinkin' cool! I have to get my hubby to make them--totally a project he would love!

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  2. This is awesomely creative! Definitely going to have to try this with my wood scraps!

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  3. Very creative! Last year I just used all the scraps for firewood. I like this idea of reusing them. So cute!

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  4. I have quite a few wood scrapes that I can't seem to throw out either, so I am thrilled to see your little scrap animals. Thank you so much for the inspiration.

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  5. Those are gorgeous! You make it sound so easy, I'm tempted to try it. I've got tones of little pieces of wood lying around.

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  6. Clever and creative! To think these creatures are from scraps.

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  7. I think these are awesome! Very creative!
    Susan

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  8. LOVE!! The moose is my favorite! Great idea!

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  9. Great ideas. I love the dog. Looks like my black lab, Barney. I shared your creative ideas on my Once Upon a Firefly FB page.

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  10. Great idea! I have an entire bucket of scrap pieces. Thanks for sharing!

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  11. Fantastic reuse of wood scraps! Love this idea!

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  12. I love this!!!!I featured you this week at Boogieboard Cottage, Take care, Mary

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  13. These are beautiful and I love them all! Pinned :)

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  14. These are gorgeous. Featured today at Silver Pennies Sundays!

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  15. These are great! Love them! I just got my first pallet and I'm ready to get making. :)

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  16. Love this idea. Came over from Upcycled Treasures to pin and follow!
    Corey from TinySidekick.com

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  17. Stunning work! I will have to try this! Thank you for the great post! XOXO, Erica

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  18. love these I would love to feature if that would be ok please let me know,
    lauren

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    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for letting me feature your beautiful
      Project, I posted it and you can see it here.
      http://westfurniturerevival.blogspot.com/2013/11/revival-monday-135.html

      lauren

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