Category: frames

Pine Framed Potato Sack

Yesterday I wrote about a burlap potato sack that I framed with barn board.  This is the second sack that I framed, and it is done in a different way.

I cut the sack smaller than the first which eliminated the weight and country.

First sack:                                                                 Second sack:

For this sack I used five pine boards which I stained after lightly distressing.  I used the same stained pine to make a mitred frame and then that sits on top of the pine boards.

This wall décor is smaller at 18 1/2″ wide x 21″ tall:

This gives a slightly different look from the first one.  Here are the two together: 
Everything I make is available for sale in my shop, or online through my blog, website, facebook pages or email:
follow.your.heart@live.ca

Barn Board Framed Potato Sack

I live in O’Leary which is the potato capital of Prince Edward Island.  It is home to the Canadian Potato Museum which has many displays and information about potato farming, a potato restaurant, and also has a giant potato outside.

Last fall at the potato museum, I bought two burlap potato sacks and used them this week to make two different framed pieces.

The first one uses some of the barn board that I used for a couple signs and blogged about here. I cut some boards to about 4″ wide and made a rabbet in the back to hold the mdf board which the burlap is wrapped around. The corners are mitred and the board really has a lot of texture to it as you can see in the close-up photo.

This wall décor is quite large at 23″ wide x 32″ tall.

You can see the second framed sack at my next blog post here

Everything I make is available for sale in my shop, or online through my blog, website, facebook pages or email:

follow.your.heart@live.ca

Chalkboard with Painted Scroll Graphic

I just finished making this yesterday and delivered it to a local store for sale there.

The best thing about being a woodworker is making things to your own sizes, and your own shapes and ideas.  You don’t have to search for something to paint, you make your own article to paint!

I have shown before how I make my chalkboards so will just show a few photos of the process.

This board is made with 1/4″ thick hardboard, which means that the frame has to have slots that are just a touch wider than 1/4″ that the hardboard can fit into. I run my wood (pine, in this case) through the tablesaw blade to get the slot or groove.

There are four pieces, a top and bottom and two sides.  I decided not to go square or rectangular but to add a shape to the board at the top, with room for a graphic, and a bit of curviness on the sides and bottom.  I cut them with a jigsaw.

The ends of the side pieces have a built-in tenon that fits into the grooves in the top and bottom pieces.  The grooves are there for the chalkboard, so the tenon (the piece that goes into the grooves to make the “corners”), is 1/4″ wide to fit into them.  The following photo should show that better than I have just described it:

The piece is glued together and coated with shellac (I use clear shellac mixed at a 4:1 ratio with amber shellac), which gives a nice colour and finish to projects that I am going to distress.

I then “paint” a bit of Vaseline here and there all over the frame and then coat it with two coats of white paint.

Vaseline will stop the paint from covering in those spots.  It also gives a bit of a cracked look.  I wipe the vaseline off, but leave some of the cracked part there.

Then I found a graphic at The Graphics Fairy website and enlarged it to the size I felt would fit on the top portion of the chalkboard.  I transferred the design using carbon paper and then hand painted  the scroll design. I then scrubbed it lightly with some water and some sandpaper to make it look old, and sprayed it with a clear coat sealer.

My chalkboard with painted scroll graphic is 22 1/2″ tall x 13 1/2″ wide and sells for $50.

This is the same shape (except for the curves on the sides and bottom) I used for another chalkboard over a year ago, which looks much different than this one.

Hope you like them both!

Sharing at the following blogs:
My Repurposed Life                                Homespun Happenings
Jennifer Rizzo                                         Shabby Art Boutique
French Country Cottage                          The Graphics Fairy
Beyond the Picket Fence                         Too Much Time on My Hands
Three Mango Seeds                                Cedar Hill Ranch
Knick of Time                                        Elizabeth & Co.

Sandwich Board for the FARM

I have some of my things for sale at a great little store in downtown North Bay, Ontario called The FARM.
FARM stands for Fashion Art Retail Market and has things for sale by creative people, most whom are local.  This includes jewellery, soap, photos, clothing, bags and, of course, my wood signs!

The owner Katie, who sews beautiful garments, asked if I could make her a sandwich board to sit on the sidewalk outside her shop… of course I said YES!

Here it is in use in front of the store (thanks to Liz Lott for the photo)


The sandwich board was to be about 2′ wide x under 4′ tall and needed to have two sides with a chalk board on each side that Katie could write on.  Since she likes my pallet wood signs, she wanted the frame made from pallet wood.

This is how the frame would look, I’ll show it first and then explain the making of it:

At the top, the cross piece will run right across and join the side legs in a half lap joint.
For the half lap, half of the wood is taken from each piece so that they, together make one thickness. To do this I use my table saw and dado blades.  
Dado blades take the place of one saw blade and allow more wood to be taken in one pass of the blade.  I set mine to about 3/4″ wide and then run across the blade a few times to get the width I need off the wood.  The blades are set at a height that will take off half the thickness of the wood.
This is what each piece looks like with the half lap made:
You can see here how the corner comes together when both pieces have half of their thickness removed:
and this is the corner put together:
For the bottom crosspiece, the vertical piece is the same but the leg will have half it’s thickness removed about 2/3rds of the way down the leg and not at the end of the leg:

Here it is put together, showing the back side:

and from the front:

To keep the frame together I use exterior wood glue and strong clamps to hold it for about an hour.

I use hardboard for the chalk board portion and paint it two coats of chalk board paint.  I painted the logo of the FARM on the top, right on the black paint.

The hardboard was cut 3/4″ wider and taller than the space between the frame, so to get the chalk board to fit behind the frame, I routed out about 3/8″ wide and the depth of the hardboard. The board then sits in this opening:
                               

This frame will be dry-brushed with white paint.  The raw wood is quite light and I stain it darker with my steel wool in vinegar stain so that where the white paint doesn’t cover, you see a medium colour of wood.

Raw Wood

Stained Wood

The white paint is dry-brushed over the whole frame. 

 Of course, there are TWO frames, so that they can sit back to back and make the sandwich board:
The chalkboard is tacked on the back into the groove previously made:
I put two hinges at the top of the sandwich board joining the two frames:
Katie, the store owner said she “loved it” so…
another satisfied customer!
Sharing at the following blogs:
Beyond the Picket Fence                          Brambleberry Cottage
House of Hepworths                                 No Minimalist Here
aka design                                               Shabby Art Boutique
My Repurposed Life                                 Jennifer Rizzo
Funky Junk Interiors                                 Too Much Time On My Hands
Under The Table and Dreaming                 BeColorful
Between Naps on the Porch                      Coastal Charm
Cowgirl Up                                               Elizabeth & Co.

Framed Blackboards Finished

Yesterday I showed how I made the frames (see tutorial here) for my blackboards and today I’ll show how I finished them.
The first one I decided to stain with my rusty mixture.  I put a piece of steel wool in a jar and then  pour vinegar over it and let it sit at least overnight, sometimes longer.  Then I use it with an old brush, as a stain,which gives an orangey/brown colour to the wood.

This is just the base coat for this blackboard, as I am going to paint it white and distress it so that some of the stain colour shows through.

Once that is dried I use vaseline here and there on the frame. Wherever the vaseline is, the top coat will not stick.

Here’s a close up of the vaseline dabbed on:

Then I topcoat with white craft paint:

Once that is dried, I wipe off the vaseline with a paper towel.  You get a peeling look as if the paint was old and chipped off:

Here’s the finished product:

This blackboard is 10″ x 10″ and 3/4″ thick, the chalk area is 5 1/2″ x 5 1/2″:

A second board I made doesn’t have the white topcoat, but has a hand painted top piece.
It is 8 1/4″ wide x 9 1/4″ tall and the chalk area is 6 1/4″ x 6 1/4″:

Framed Blackboards

I find it hard to throw out any pieces of wood in my workshop.  Even small pieces can be used for something, but every so often I do sort through and decide what should be thrown in the woodstove and what I can use up.
I found these pieces of grooved pine that were short end cuts from other projects:

I also had some 1/4″ thick hardboard that was already painted with blackboard paint and fit perfectly into the grooves:

These pieces will fit at 90 degrees to each other for the frame for one blackboard:

(I’ve previously shown how I make the grooves and tenons in this post:     Pallet Blackboard Tutorial )

I put a tenon in the end of the horizontal piece that fits into the groove of the vertical piece:

When fit together they make a nice solid corner and allow the piece of hardboard to fit into the groove.  This way it cannot come out because the blackboard is inside the frame, not nailed to the back of it:

I use glue and clamps and no nails nor screws:

Once it has been sitting for an hour, it’s ready to be sanded smooth on all faces and edges.

I decided to make one of the blackboards into a bracket shape that I am seeing a lot of around the internet.  I made a template on cardboard and then traced it onto the glued-together frame:

I cut it out with my jigssaw:

**TIP – when using a jigsaw, cut on the wrong side where possible.  The way the blade cuts on a jigsaw gives a cleaner cut on the side facing down**

I’ll show my finished blackboards in the next post.

Posting at the following great blogs:
My Repurposed Life
aka design

Whiteboard Frames for Vicky’s Bakery

As I’ve said before, I’ve been appearing at the local Farmer’s Market.  (Perhaps “appearing” isn’t the correct word… it makes it sound like I’m performing there.)

Anyway, a great baker there named Vicky needed some new signs for her display.

I used pine and made a frame similar to the blackboard frames I made here. Each frame piece has a groove cut into the inner edges that fits the whiteboard.  You can buy whiteboard at most DIY type building stores.

She needed the signs to stand, so I put a cross piece on the back with a small hinge to another “leg” piece.

This probably shows it better:

A small chain keeps the leg from going out too far. I painted “Vicky’s Bakery” and a small drawing of a rolling pin, canister, pastry and pie:

I made two signs, one is used for bread (this is Vicky’s mom sitting behind it and delicious bread in front)

The second sign is the same width but longer (this is Vicky and her brother with her boxes of pies for sale)

When she sells out of a particular type of pie or bread, she wipes that one off her list. Vicky often sells out or leaves the market with very few products left.

Any weight gain I get over the next few weeks will be blamed on Vicky, her pies are delicious,  last week I brought home an apple AND a blueberry… YUMMY!

Appearing at the following great blogs: