Advent Calendar Gone Wild

 

Victorian House Advent Calendar

 

The wife has always liked advent calendars of all kinds for quite sometime.  So last year I decided to make one for her. This was two years in the making on and off.  The final product turned out really well.  Each of the windows is covered by a shutter which attaches with magnets and when removed on the correct day reveals a picture from our christmas past. 

All of the snow along the pathway is made from sawdust, white paint, and wood glue mixed together then hand formed into piles to resemble snow and allowed to dry for several days. 

All of the siding is cut in individual slats from woodgrain pvc blinds and attached with adhesive. In fact there are no fasteners used in the project other than glue and magnets. 

Another view of the house. 

The roofs were really time consuming. They are made from modeling clay rolled flat, cut into individual pieces, and baked. Then they are attached with adhesive. 

       The porches are aome of my favorite features.  The are cut in individual planks and attached. It gives a great effect. 

A few little details the garland on the rail and the angels one the posts. No i did not make the angels. 

       My absolute favorite feature is the stone walkway.  Simple aquarium gravel mixed with glue then pressed into place and allowd to day. It looks awesome. 

So this waa a great project and I encourage you to build one yourself and just have a good time. If you have any questions let me know. 

DIY Pinewood Derby Trophies

Every year I make trophies for the packs pinewood derby.  These are great fun to make since I don't follow any plans I just change the style each year.  These are very inexpensive to produce, but they do require some time and care.  All of the wood came from the scrap pile.  You will see at the end that I simply use metalic spray paint for the large trophies to get the gold, silver, and bronze look.  For the other trophies I use hammered spray paint simply because I like the way it looks.

Trophies are in progress.  First, Second, and third place.  Getting primed for painting.

The trophies are still not assembled here, I just put them in this position to double check the look.  I keep the tops and bottoms apart for painting.  To attach the car to the top I drill a hole through the car into the stem and then use a countersink bit on the car.  I apply glue, screw the parts together and then apply wood putty, let dry and sand.  The finished top is seemless and ready to prime and paint the appropriate color.

For the bottoms I assemble them with glue and once dry I paint with a high gloss black. 

Most scouty, most creative, and sibling trophies are nearly there as well. 

After the paint has dried I assemble the top to the bottom.  I glue the stem to the base and allow to dry.  Once the glue is dry I drill a hole through the bottom to the stem, and use a screw to provide additional strength.  There is no need to fill the screws countersink with putty since I will cover it with felt later.  Trophies are painted and ready for lettering.

 Used a Cricut machine and self adhering vinyl to do the lettering.  Then they were coated with poly to give everything a bit of protection and to keep the letters in place forever.  The bottoms are felted to make sure they don't scratch any surfaces.  Fully complete now.

I highly encourage other packs to make trophies for the kids, the styles are endless and I can tell you the kids have been so excited by these versus the cheap plastic ones that you can buy.  Total cost for these was 4 cans of spray paint.  Fortunately as most woodworkers will attest, there is no shortage of scrap wood in the pile.

Music Box

I made two music boxes this year for the Kids.  For the boy it plays Au Clair De La Lune and Somewhere Over the Rainbow for the girl.  These are solid oak with a lift off top that is routed so that it fits down inside the box a bit.  The box is all glued with no nails.  Sorry this one was not scrap, I wanted oak and did not have enough laying around the shop, so I had to buy a little bit of lumber here.

Whole box closed.

Opened Box Angle 1

Opened box angle 2

Glue Gun Station

Another scrap wood project.  This is a station for storing a glue gun.  My wife wanted one of these so I got started working.  I took a very basic design and of course made modification.  The small 3/4" x 2" block is designed with dowels so that it can be moved.  This allows this station to handle both large and small glue guns.  The two upright dowels are cord caddies, and the 8 bores are in place to allow for the storage of both fat and narrow glue sticks.  This was a 30 minute project minus the finish time.

Lap Loom

So my wife put on her pintrest board a lap loom.  I decided how hard could ths be too make and I was correct this was incredibly simple.  Once again this is a scrap wood project.  Just a little time and love and another great gift was created.

The most difficult portion of this project was two fold.  Making the shuttles to pass the thread/yarn through, and ensuring the dowels were completely smooth so they would not snag the material being worked on.  The long pieces that look like sword(sorry can't remember what they are called) were sanded to their shape on a bench top belt sander, so this was eyed up and they turned out nice.  

Bathtub Desk

This is a great piece. I built this completely from scrap lumber I had in my shop. To give it some pop I used three different types of wood for some real nice contrast.  I used cedar, oak, and pine. The key was in the finish. I applied ten coats od lacquer to make sure it would be well protected from the water it will be subject too.


Here is the full view of the finished project.  As you can see a very simple design.  The only fasteners used in this project is the hinge that for the book easel.

Here you can see the book easel in the upright position.  It is setup to have four possible adjustment positions based upon the height of the person using this.  There is a bar with dowels that will insert into holes to change the position.

A very simple coaster is made from a tile, with a non slip back applied to keep it from sliding around.

I added a solid oak block to act as a stopper to keep the entire desk from sliding into the tub.  This is fixed in place with glue and dowels for extra strength.

There are full length pine runners that are in place to sit on the tub and to provide stability to the desk.

I enjoyed making this project and it was quite simple to complete.  The size could be adjusted for any tub and desired width of the desk.  Great way to use scrap lumber to create a nice gift.