Wood Connection: Fall Centerpiece Decor

Hey! It Jamie from Savvy Sisters. I can't believe summer is over and Autumn is here! It is so crazy how cold it is getting now too. I'm so excited for the leaves to change, for football, and for fun Fall activities to come! But I'm also excited to start decorating for Fall time! I made this Autumn Centerpiece for my table. It was easy and took about 2 hours or less for me to make!

Materials:

- Framed plank sign

- journaling square block + finial

- small flat wooden leaves and acorns

- wooden acorns

- paint (fall colors)

- ribbon

- paper

- 2 berry sprigs 

- brushes

- stain (provincial)

- sandpaper

- wood glue

- candles or pumpkins and ghourds. 

First I sanded and stained the plank board. I used the provincial color that Wood Co sells. I wiped off the stain and then set aside to dry.

Next, I painted the leaves different Fall colors. I used forest green, goldenrod and medocino red. Once they dried, I sanded the edges and stained each one. For the flat acorns, I painted them different fall colors, let them dry and then cut out and glued cute paper on them. Then I tied ribbon around them! For the other acorns, I dipped them in the can of stain and then wiped them off. Those were easy!

After those were done, I painted my block forest green. Then I sanded the edges and stained it. I picked out some cute paper and glued that on. I picked one for each side! Then I stained the finial and tied a ribbon around it!

After everything was done drying, I put it all in the plank sign! Then added some candles and put it on this cute coffee table! I'll probably put some pumpkins and gourds in there when the grocery stores get them in.

Happy Fall Y'all!

Wood Co: Bathroom Ocean Decor

Hey! I hope that everyone's summer has gone well! Today I wanted to share this decor idea that I had for my kid's bathroom. Before this, I just had their towel rack hanging up and thought it would be fun to add something else. Wood Co has recently come out with these super cute shadow boxes and overlays. They have a mermaid overlay and a seahorse one, so I thought it would be cute to do an ocean theme in the kids bathroom. I came up with the word Splash, but you can use any word you want – bath, flush, sparkle, clean, brush. Here's what you do!

Materials you need:

- Mermaid in Plank

- Seahorse in Plank

- Framed Plank

- Small letters to go in plank

- Scrapbook paper

- Paint- White, Quaker Grey, North Sea, Metallic Silver

- Glitter

- Wood Glue

- Sandpaper

- Stain

- Paint brushes

- Matte spray

Seahorse Plank: First I traced the seahorse on scrapbook paper. Then I painted the edges of the seahorse white. While that dried, I cut out the paper and then glued it onto the seahorse. Then I sanded the edges. Next I painted the plank box quaker grey. After a couple coats of that, I applied stain onto it and quickly wiped it off afterward so it wouldn't get too dark. I sprayed the seahorse with a matte coat spray. Then I glued the seahorse to the plank. Seahorse, Done! If you need more detailed instructions with how to glue paper onto wood, check out the tutorial here. And here's a stain tutorial.

Next up, the mermaid plank. First I sanded then painted the mermaid metallic silver. That needs 2-3 coats. While that dried, I sanded then painted the plank box white. This also needs a few coats. After the metallic mermaid dried, I taped off the top half of her body, so that she'd just have a glitter tail. I painted the tail again and then applied the silver glitter, Make sure to check out this tutorial for glitter– it is so helpful! After the glitter, I sprayed the mermaid with the matte spray to keep the glitter in tact. Then I glued the mermaid to the plank. Mermaid done!

Lastly, the Splash letters. I sanded then painted the letters white. Again, 2 coats. Once these dried I sanded the edges. Then I painted the plank North Sea blue (2 coats). Once everything was dried, I glued the letters on. 

Then I had my husband hang everything up! There you have it! 

Wood Connection: Spring Crafts

Wood Co sent us these cute flowers and birds in the mail for being guest bloggers. They are the sweetest! Mindy and I decided we wanted to share the love and pay it forward. We stained, painted and glued paper on them to be super cute and then we gave them to the sisters we visit teach. We printed out cute printables and attached them to our creation. I can say the ladies I teach absolutely loved them! They could also make a great mother's day gift! 

Here's what you do:

OPTION ONE: FLOWERS

Flower Materials:

- Flower Trio

- Scrapbook Paper

- Wood Stain

- Wood glue

- Paint brushes

- Scissors

- Pencil

- Green embellishment stick ons

- sand paper

What to do:

1. Trace the flowers and leaves onto paper.

2. Sand everything

3. Stain the sides of the flowers and leaves and sticks. (Don't stain the middles of flowers unless you want to)

4. Cut out the paper

5. After the stain is dry, glue the paper on. See the tutorial tab if you want more instruction how to do this. Also make sure your hands are clean so you don't leave any stain fingerprints on the paper. I learned my lesson!

5. Either paint or apply paper on the middles. Glue onto flowers.

6. Put them together, add the cute green dots and you're done! So easy!

OPTION TWO: BIRDS

Bird Materials:

- Bird Trio

- Scrapbook Paper

- Paint (I used seafoam and white)

- Wood Stain

- Wood glue

- Paint brushes

- Scissors

- Pencil

- Blue embellishment stick ons

- sand paper

What I did:

1. 

Wood Connection: Spring and Summer Interchangeable Door Hang

Hey everyone! Who's excited that it is so warm outside and that there are blossoms everywhere?! Yay! I remembered that I had my bunny doorhang still up from Easter, so I needed to change that asap. I couldn't decide what flower I liked from Wood Co, so I got both. The first one I made more Springy and the second looks more Summery. I'll probably put that one up in June.

Anyways, here is what you do!

Note- this is just for the interchangeable part, to make the gold and white slat sign, check out this post.

Spring and Summer Doorhang Materials:

- Flower overlay

- Paper (Spring: pink and green, Summer: purple and orange)

- White Paint

- Sandpaper

- Paint Brush

- Wood Glue

-Scissors

- Pencil

First, trace your flower and middle on the paper that you like. Then sand the edges of the wood and paint white. While that is drying, cut out the paper.

Apply the paper with wood glue. Smooth out the glue using a brush. Make sure it goes to the edges and make sure you don't apply too much so you don't have bubbles.

Once the glue dries, sand the edges. Then apply the middle to the flower with the wood glue. After that dries, put the velcro on the back and put on your door hang!

Wood Connection: Holiday Interchangeable Frame Chalkboard

Happy early Easter! I can't believe it comes so soon this year. When I was trying to think of what to do for this project, I kept thinking I wanted something simple and not too bright so it would blend in with my other living room decor. I came up with this chalkboard plaque with a frame overlay. And guess what?! I made these frames INTERCHANGEABLE. I'm probably the queen of interchangeable things. I like to use decor all year long! So this is what I did:

Materials you need:

- rectangle plaque (11x15.5)

- 4 overlay frames (you can buy more or less if you want to)

- chalkboard paint

- paint for each frame (I used terra cotta, blue danube, white, and tompte red)

- paint brushes

- screws and screwdriver

- sandpaper

- easel

For the Easter Banner:

- 3 bunnies

- 3 carrots

- paint (I used white and terra cotta)

- twine

- hot glue

First sand all the wood. 

Next paint the plaque with the chalkboard paint. The directions are on the bottle. I painted 3 coats on the plaque letting each layer dry for an hour. Then you have to wait 24 hours before drawing on it.

After that I painted my 4 frames. The first one I painted blue. This one matches my living room decor, it also could be used for Easter or Spring. To add a different element to it, I white washed it. To do this you mix a little bit of blue and white paint together. Then you get a bristle brush, dip it in the paint mixture, and then you wipe off almost all the paint. With only a small amount of paint on the brush, swiftly paint strokes on the frame. You get the cool white washed effect. Repeat until it's the way you like it.

I painted the other frames red (for Valentines Day, Christmas, and 4th of July holidays), orange (Halloween and Thanksgiving), and white (General, Valentines, Winter, Summer, etc). I didn't white wash these ones, but I think it would look cool if you did!

Next, I worked on my Easter banner. I painted the bunnies white and the carrots orange. Then I sanded those after they dried. Then I wrapped twine around them and glued the twine on the back with hot glue. I plan on doing this for each holiday as they come. Wood Co always has these mini holiday overlays.

Before doing this next step, decided if you want to hang this on the wall or place it on a easel and if you want it horizontal or vertical.

If placing it on an easel: I had my husband screw in these screws on the back of each frame on the bottom. We found some screws that were sturdy enough to rest the plaque on top. Be careful that the screws don't come through the front! Then place the frame on the easel and the chalkboard behind it resting on the screws.

If hanging on the wall, I would find some shorter nails or screws first and then screw them into the top of each frame. Hang the plaque on the wall first, and then rest the overlay frame on the top.

Here is how they turned out! Have fun coming up with your own chalkboard designs. You'll get good at chalkboard art if you want to change it for every holiday or season!

Wood Connection: Valentines Heart Plaque

Hey there! It's Jamie from Savvy Sisters. I'm pulling out my valentine decor already and was really wanting something to go on this stand that I have. And I found this adorable plaque from the wood connection! I added some scrapbook paper and burlap flowers and wah-la! This is how I did it:

Materials:

- Large Natalie Plaque

- Heart Overlay

- 2 pieces of Scrapbook paper

- Paint- White and Tompte Red (I have a few extra pictured that I didn't end up using)

- Burlap (I didn't end up using the polka dot material or the ribbon that is pictured) I got from Hobby Lobby

- Sand paper

- Foam Brushes and small paint brush 

- Hot glue

- Wood glue

- Scissors

- Pencil

The Plaque: 

First I traced out the scrapbook paper. Since the 12x12 paper wasn't large enough, I decided to cut off an inch from the top and bottom and use it just for the middle of the plaque. After tracing the curved edges, I cut it out. Next, I sanded and painted the top of the plaque white. After that dried, I painted the edges with Tompte Red. To get the small edges, I used a smaller detail paint brush. After all the paint dried, I applied the scrapbook paper with wood glue. See this tutorial for how to apply paper to wood. 

The Heart:

First I sanded and painted the heart overlay tompte red. While that dried, I started on my burlap rosettes. Go to this tutorial to see how to make those. They are very easy and all you need is wood glue. Don't burn yourself! After making a bunch of those of all different sizes, I hot glued them to the overlay. I squished them super close together so you wouldn't see the overlay. After that I used wood glue to glue on the heart to the plaque. There you have it!

Happy Valentines Day!