D I Y Hanson Home

My husband is incredibly good with his hands and has that natural knack at fixing and building anything he puts his mind to (or that I ask him to help me with)! Together we love being creative, crafty and as thrifty as possible, why spend $80 on something when I can make it for $10.

 Over the last year we have made some really fun pieces some big and some small to decorate our home. I thought it might be fun to share with you how we did three of my favourites.

First off our pride and joy pieces, Stag & Bear stencils on wood pallets;

>> Carl made our wood bases out of pallet wood; he dismantled the pallets, cut the boards to the size we wanted then attached two more pieces of wood to the back to make a frame and nailed them together.

>> I looked up silhouettes of the stag and bear on the internet. I purposely chose simple designs as we wanted them to be easily identifiable and easy to cut out.

>> I printed the silhouettess out on 11 x 17 paper and cut the stencil out with a steno knife.

>> We picked out our colors cream and green in matte spray paint.

>> We removed the inside stencil so the stag and bear would be in color, then using double sided tape stuck the paper to the wood,

>> First spraying the stencil lightly, that way the paint would not run underneath the paper and then we slowly added more layers til it was dark enough.

>> Waited 24 hours then removed the paper.
>> We used nail polish remover and cue tips to smooth some lines where the paint had run a little.

>> We used heavy duty picture hooks to hang them on the wall.

Easy & decorative. 

Second, our most recent finished piece for our bathroom;

>> Again, Carl made our wood base out of pallet wood the exact same way as above.

>> We bought four mason jars (or if you already have some), four hose clamps and picked out two hanging hooks

>> Next we lined up the jars exactly where we wanted them, nailed the hose clamps to the boards, aligned the jars to the same height and tightened the clamps.

>> Carl then screwed in the two hooks.

>> We wanted to darken the wood a little so instead of spending money on wood stain we stained it with my left over morning coffee grounds (I was happy to help) rubbing it in with steel wool so it would really get into the grain. Then swept it off when it had dried.

>> We tried to use the same picture hooks as our other project but it didn't work as there was no supporting beam where we wanted to place it. So we bought wall anchors and key hole mount brackets and they worked perfectly.

Simple & Functional

Thirdly, a cute romantic picture;

>> I printed out two maps from Google one of the United States and the other of the United Kingdom.
>> I drew half a heart around the cities were my husband and I were born.
>> Cut out the half hearts.
>> Got a sheet of 81/2 x 11 cardstock and printed our wedding date at the bottom.
>> Using regular kids glue aligned the hearts and stuck them down.
>> Next I used a reg gel pen and drew a little heart over Orange County and another over Glasgow.
>> Found a cute frame from TJ Maxx and place it inside.

Geographical & Romantic

We have many more projects up our sleeves with some really fun Christmas ideas, so maybe I will do a DIY part two post in a few months. 

Go and be creative.