Creating Rustic Snowman Art

We have an extraordinary pile of wood in our backyard.  The wood is for our firepit, and the majority of it is from pallets that Adrian has brought home from work.  It makes great firewood, but I have had an itching to make something with it ever since he started bringing it home.  You know I wanted to do something with the mantel to add some height to the snowman collection I put up there.  And so, I got creative.





First, I found some boards that I liked and got a hammer and some nails.

I just eyeballed how wide I wanted it to be and figured out which side of each board I wanted facing out.  For the most part this was the most rustic looking side.  Then, I laid another board diagonally across the other board to secure them all together.







 
It didn't take Colten and I long to figure out that neither one of us could hammer a nail straight into the boards to save our lives.  So 6 bent nails later, I got some screws and the cordless drill. 

I might not be able to nail, but I sure can screw. Heh-heh.

My next revelation was that one board diagonally across 5 others is not going to hold the boards securely.  A bit more brainstorming and I decided that what I needed was a couple of larger branches to frame the front of the boards and at the same time, secure the boards down.

Colten helped me screw through the back of the boards and into the branches on the front.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Time for a cute break*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It's VERY important that you have all the necessary supervisors when taking on a project such as this.

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On a sheet of poster board I traced two plates since I lack the ability to draw a circle.  I've got the crafty part down, but I've never been very artsy.






I cut out the circles and *ta-da* snowman stencil. 

I moved down to the yard and got my white spray paint.  I sprayed a layer of paint and let it dry.  I repeated this 2 more times since the wood was very absorbent.  If you wanted a more solid look, you could use a primer first.  I wanted the wood to show through though.

I also had a can of glitter paint that I sprayed over the entire piece.




I moved the piece to the garage to dry and let the fumes go away since it was too chilly outside for the paint to dry properly.  I let it dry for 2 days and then brought it inside to add the finishing touches.




I bought some buttons and hot glued them to the snowman to add some dimension to him.  Let's hear it for hot pink polka dotted glue guns!

I decided that having him look off to the side would be a nice change from the usual straight on snowman.  Of course Colten asked if the snowman had been in some kind of freak accident and that's why his face was crooked.  *sigh*  Teenagers.






I let the glue set up and very excitedly moved him to the living room.











A bit of rearranging and he found his home in the middle of the mantle.









  
What do you think?

BEFORE:

AFTER:

An added poinsettia also helps add some color and texture.  My Joy sign doesn't feel quite as out of place anymore either.  I still feel like I would like to have a big wreath up there instead of the Joy sign, but for now, it works and I really like it! 

So what kind of decorating have you been doing?  Have you created any rustic Christmas art?