Have you seen these lovely rustic wooden stars and wondered, how hard can that be to make? Well let me tell you it’s ridiculous how easy it is to make this wood star.
Did I mention the wood cost is around $2.50? Say what….?!?!
You will need:
- 1×2 Board $2.50
- twine
- scissors
- stain or paint
- rag
- varnish
- paint brush
Cut the 1×2 lumber into 5 pieces 18 inches long. No wasted wood. Awesome!
I used my FAVORITE wood stain Miniwax Jacobean – it has a dark walnut look to it that I just love! You could use paint instead. Dip a rag into the stain and rub it into the wood. Follow the instructions on the tin to leave it for the right amount of time to dry.
After allowing the stain to dry, I put on a coat of polyurethane. This adds a clear coat of protection if you plan to use it outdoors. If you intend to use it indoors like on a mantel you could skip it.
Gather your finished pieces, scissors and twine….
Place one piece on an angle to the left. Lean the second piece on top,angled to the right.
Add the third piece to the bottom right corner angled up.
Next add the forth piece across….
And lastly add the fifth piece of wood. If it doesn’t look exactly the way you meant it to, shift the corners a bit.
Tie twine around each end. You could also use industrial strength glue like E6000 with the twine, or skip the twine and use nails. I like the rustic look of twine.
For extra reinforcement I tied more twine on the middle parts of the star. This extra twine made it very sturdy. Next use the scissors to snip the scraggly bits of twine close to the star.
I adore hydrangeas so I popped a few out of another arrangement and put it in on the star to test it out. Lovely, these are my favourite flowers.
One nice thing about the twine is you can tuck your flowers into it and pull them out if you want to change flowers for the next season.
I picked up a bunch of purple flowers at Michael’s and took 3 flowers from the bunch and a few little wispy bits off to use for this one. This turned out to be the one I stuck on my living room wall.
This is a dollarstore ($4) autumn decoration I just tied on for fall.
This is so easy! The only thing that takes any time is waiting for your paint or stain to dry. The lumber cost is $2.50. The only thing cheaper than that is the wreath I made for my neigbour out of twigs!
Thanks for reading to the end! I hope you’ll pin this on Pinterest or where every you network with friends.
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Make a Wooden Play Tent for the Kids!
Here is a tutorial for a DIY Kids Play Tent! This won’t take much time or money to build. It would be an easy woodworking and sewing project for kids to help with. Why did I wait so long to make this!?!? The kids love it!
My daughters have always loved building tents. It’s fun for kids to steal the cushions and blankets and chairs to build a tent….sometimes even begging to fall asleep in it. I just wish they would put the cushions and blankets back when they are done….but that’s another story.
For the tent frame, you will need:
- 3 – 1/2 inch wide dowel (4 ft long) (approx. $8)
- 2 1x2x8 wood boards (cut in half) (approx. $5)
- power drill
- 1/2 inch drill bit
- tape measure
- pencil
- paint (optional)
For the tent fabric, you will need:
- fabric 45 inches wide x 90 inches long (115 cms wide by 230cms)
- scissors
- ribbon (2 pieces 30-40 inches/75-100cms long)
- thin elastic (4 pieces 5 inches/13cms long)
- safety pins (6)
- needle and thread or sewing machine (optional)
This is literally all you need, 3 x 1/2 inch dowels. They come from the store 4 feet long so there is no cutting here. Also, 2 boards 1×2 cut in half-so you have 4 pieces of 1×2. You can ask them to make this cut at the hardware store if you don’t have a handsaw or mitre saw.
Gather your drill, tape measure and pencil.
Measure and mark 2 inches from one end and 1 inch from the other end.
Drill the hole with a 1/2 inch drill bit. Test to see if your dowel will fit through the hole. You need it to be able to slide in fairly easily. I found it too tight and frustrating to put together when tight fitting so I ran the drill through the hole again in and out, in and out, to make it slightly bigger.
The top is the end that has a hole 2 inches from the top. The bottom has a hole 1 inch from the end.
Slide the first piece of dowel through the top holes of two of the 1×2’s The second piece of dowel can be inserted into the bottom holes.
Add the next piece of 1×2 onto the top dowels to make an A.
Slide the third dowel into the bottom end of the 1×2’s.
That’s it for the tent frame. Now for the tent fabric.…
Slide your fabric over the top of the A frame. Pin a ribbon to the front and back ends.
This ribbon isn’t essential but it does look nice and it will be helpful ties when you are storing the tent away.
Pin a small piece of folded elastic onto all 4 of the bottom corners of the tent fabric.
Hook the elastics over the ends of the bottom dowels.
It looks fine with just pins holding everything in place. You may want to hand or machine sew the ribbon and elastics in place. I did sew those in permanently and also hemmed the bottom of the fabric. It’s looking good enough to give away as a gift!
After this sweet picture was taken we decided the only thing to make it better is to paint it pink.
I already have loads of spray paint….because I love to change the color of things. See my previous posts and you will find I used a lot of spray paint this summer. This project doesn’t take much paint so its a great way to use up leftovers.
After allowing it to dry put it all together. Admire your handy work!
Did I mention that this is super easy to pack up?
Fold the tent fabric in half. Next, place all the wooden tent parts on the end of the fabric.
Roll up the fabric into a tube to hold the wood pieces together.
Lastly, tie the ribbons to keep it compact for storing or travelling. Remember when the babies were tiny and you wanted a place for them to nap that was in the shade at the park or beach? This would have solved the problem!
This was so easy to make. I can’t believe I didn’t do it when my kids were smaller.
Please pin or post this to facebook and share this easy DIY with your friends!
