Trash Talk Thursday: Artful Twigs

Awhile back I ran across a rustic lodge lake plaque made from sticks on Pinterest, and have had it on my to-do-it-myself list ever since. (Thanks to pinterest.com, my to-do list is now long enough to last the rest of my life and then some!) 
This past weekend while I had the pleasure of babysitting my grand-dogter, Noodle ~ we walked along Lake Tarpon in search of suitable twig sticks for writing out the word 'Lake' on an old wooden plaque (found at a thrift shop for 50 cents.)

I sprayed my found tree-twigs with a pest control product before bringing them inside ( because it's  Florida ~ home of tropical bugs galore) and used snippers to cut the ends off twigs as needed. Once I had the word layed out as I liked it, I sprayed the twigs with clear acrylic sealer to bring out the wood hues (and further protect the indoors from that which lives outdoors) and used wood glue to attach the twigs to my plaque, allowing drying time overnight before hanging. © copyright 2013 redshedvintage.com 

  

 

Trash Talk Thursday: Hearth Stand from a Chew Stick

Rescued from the roadside, this discarded old coat & hat rack had become a chew toy for a presumably large dog. With the help of some wood filler, I recycled another man’s trash into a sturdy hearth stand for displaying vintage fireplace tools.

 After scraping the loose paint, I used a putty knife to fill the deep chew holes with wood filler, scraping the excess & creating a smooth finish with the flat end of the tool. When the putty was fully dried, I sanded the surface with an electric finishing sander followed by one coat of red semi-gloss interior paint.