A Little Paint and a New Look

We all get the itch to change the look of our homes and to accomplish this we usually go out to buy something new, but you don’t have to. Sometimes a little paint is all you need to make a big difference. To get a new look for our wall, we took an existing metal wall hanging and applied a little bit of inexpensive spray paint. Now it fits in perfectly with the rest of the room’s decor.

The Stockings Were Hung… Build a Simple Wall Hanging for your Christmas Stockings

Everybody knows that the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, but what if you don’t have a chimney? No chimney, no problem! A beautiful way to display your family’s stockings is with a “The stockings were hung…” wall plaque and justbuildstuff.com is going to tell you how to make one.

We used the following materials for this project:

• Board
• Can of red spray paint
• 120 grit sandpaper
• White paint
• Small paintbrush
• Router
• Roman Ogee Router bit
• Hanging Brackets

To start, cut a piece of scrap softwood lumber (pine or fir – most construction lumber is softwood) to 29″ by 5 1/2″ by 3/4″, router the edges with an Roman Ogee router bit and spray paint it red.

To give it a more aged look, rub the edges with some used 120-grit sandpaper saved from previous projects. Also lightly rub the face of the board to take away some of the shine and make it match the edges. See the photos below to see how the board looks at this point.

To create the letters we found a font we liked and printed the phrase in the appropriate size. Keeping in mind where the hooks would eventually be placed, we taped the phrase to the board as shown in the photo below. With the lettering taped to the board, we traced an outline into the board using a dull pencil. Because we used softwood lumber for the project, it indented easily to make an impression of the letters into the board.

Then, with a thin paintbrush and the white paint, we painted the phrase in using the indented letters as a guide.

After the paint dried, it was time to add the hooks for the stockings. We used single hooks screwed in at even spacing.

The final step was to add a hanging bracket to the back, place it on the wall and hang the stockings.

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Now the only thing left is to wait for Santa to come and fill the stockings with Christmas goodies!

Fleece Blankets Too!

The previous posting was about making a fleece pillow with a snowman theme, this posting is just to display a fleece blanket that my sister made for my daughter. It turned out great, and it is a much more sentimental gift when you know how much time and effort went into making it.

Simple Snowman Fleece Tie Pillow!

Looking for a holiday craft to do with your kids? This easy to make snowman pillow is a fun project that doubles as a festive holiday decoration. Plus it will be a great place to rest your head if you start to experience holiday fatigue.

Many of our readers likely have seen or made a fleece blanket with the frayed ends tied together. In this project, justbuildstuff.com is going to use a similar process to make a pillow from fleece with a snowman print.

To build this project we used the following-

• 2/3 yard of fleece
• 1- 14 inch pillow
• scissors
• tape measure

To begin, we took the 2/3 yard piece of fleece (it should measure 24″ by 36″) and cut it into two 24″ squares. These two pieces of fleece will be used to cover a 14” square pillow purchased from a local fabric store. After the two 24” squares of fleece were cut, we snipped a five” square from each of the four corners of the fabric so that the center measured a 14” square (the same as the pillow). This is shown in the photo below.

Then we cut each side into 3/4 ” wide strips as shown in the photo below.

When the edges were cut, we faced the best side of each piece of fleece outward, placed them on top of each other, and begin tying the 3/4″ strips together with square knots. When three sides were tied, it was time to stuff in the pillow as shown below.

After the pillow was inserted, we tied the final side. It was simple, fun, and it looks great.