Antler Jewelry

Alls a person needs is a decent size antler, chop is into small sections, use a dremel to hollow out the center, and change your bits as you go to smooth it out and take the rough edges off.

These are a few of the pieces I have made using Whitetail antlers.

I have made tons of rings, but also have made a few necklaces and beads.

A few of my finished products.  It is a messy, dusty, and very stinky project but its very easy and you will amaze yourself with what you can come up with.

Here you can see pieces of antler in different stages of the dremeling process.

                                                                         ßeçk¥

Husband and Wife deer skulls.

For this project we found two skulls while out shed hunting.  One was a doe and one was a buck skull that had already naturally shed its antlers, but still neat.  I soaked them in clean water and peroxide for a few hours to clean them up.  They were old and had been dead for a long time, they were already dried out.

To mount the heads I had some scrap wood in my barn so I stained it a drove a 2 inch screw through the backside, so the skull can hang on the protruding part of the screw.  The back of the skull of the deer has a deep hole where the brain would've been so the screw slides into it perfectly.

This is the buck one  up close.  I added some small metal decorative corners to the wood

Here is the finished product with a small latch on the back to be hung on the wall. They are neat conversation pieces, and they were found while out shed hunting with our children.

Tongue and Groove Project

Finished Project, I love that my wax warmer illuminates the deer at night.

I started with tongue and Groove boards

I got all my paint for free from a few weekends of free quartz of painted being given away at Ace Hardware.  I just rubbed the paint on with a paper towel.  

After I painted each slat, I put them together, and sanded all the edges and some of the front.  Then I found a stencil I liked and used my projection machine to blow up the image an the boards.  You can barely see that I traced a deer onto it in this photo.

This is me painting the deer in black.

This is the finished product.  Price:  Free.  Slats were givin to me for free, the colored paint was free from the hardware.  Win win for me!

Thanks,
ßeçk¥

Shotgun Shell Mirror!

I made this large mirror into a shotgun shell framed mirror.  I found this mirror on the side of the road with someone's trash.  It was covered in soot like it had been smoke damaged in a fire.  I washed it clean, it has no smell, I put a fresh coat of varnish on it to seal it, and decided to hang on to it for a project.....well, the project has arose!

The mirror I used.

I only used shells with the gold bottoms, I hot glued them gold end to the inside,

This is the finished product hanging on the wall.  Turned out awesome!


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Shotgun Shell Wreath

I saw this wreath on pinterest so I thought I would take a "shot" at it and make one myself rather then pay the $99.00 dollars that they are asking for theirs.  

First I hot glued about two hundred shells together by gluing two inch string from the inside of one empty shell to the other empty shell.  Make about two hundred sets like this.

I bought a wreath frame from Michaels (around $3.00), I looped each shell through the middle and dangled a set over the inside and again over the outside of the frame.

You can see the frame has four frame wires.  I hot glued the strings into place so when I lifted it to hang it everything didn't slide downward.

This is the backside of it.  I also tied a ton of little tweed type bows around the inside and outside to hide any green frame from showing, but to also give it a bit more of a rustic look.

I hung it on a wall for display.  You can see from gluing the shells in place all the shells stay in place all the way around pretty evenly and you can see the tweed string a bit throughout the inside and outside.  I finished it with a Burlap bow.  I really like it.  I suppose you could wind some lights into it if you want, I kept it pretty simple.

Thank You for checking it out.
ßeçk¥

Baby room shelving and storage

I found this book shelf flipped upside down in a ditch, so I hauled it home.  First thing I did was cut the feet off.  The wood on the feet seemed weak and split, and since this was going into a baby room I needed it to be more sturdy.  I went to Home Depot and bought fat chunky square feet to attach to the bottom.  I lightly sanded the entire thing and started painting with a satin color.  I took the thin backing off before I started the project.  The backing I painted a very shiny silver color along with the feet.  I also used Valspar antiquing glaze and finished it with a coat of clear coat.

I put two coats of paint on this project.

I put all my projects on these plastic stilts to keep everything up off the floor.  You could use blocks or anything, its really helpful.

Using the Valspar I was able to give it an older look.

The finished product turned out great.  It now sits in my sweet nephews bedroom filled with baby supplies!

Bench

 My In-Laws gave me this bench that they had sitting in their garage for a couple years.  So I decided to fix it up and make it more useful.  So I used a satin paint and valspars antiquing glaze, finishing it with a clear coat Varnish.  The varnish was very old so it gives it a yellowish older tint.

        
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Hunting season was a success!

After preparing our property for the hunting season, I had success on opening morning of the antler less season.  I shot a nice size doe.

My son Drew shot his first deer, also a doe during regular firearm season.  This  deer was harvested in Northern Michigan on family property.

I also shot a seven point in Northern michigan on the family property during regular firearm season.

Me and my Doe, Sept 2012

This is a photo of me standing by my buck and my sons doe.

  

A big thanks to my husband for cleaning all these deer for us.  Thanks babe.

Wine rack I made from pallets.

I made this wine rack from a pallet.  Just had to add a pallet board to the bottom.  Then i stained it a red mahogony and clear coated it.  I also added d-hooks on the back for hanging.

Straight from the trash

Im going to start doing something a little different.  Now that i have a nice camera on my phone, im not going to do the traditional before and after pics.  Im gonna do the beginning to end pics.  Im gonna take pictures of items i get, even if its off the side of the road and in the trash.

Pallet Swing

                                  Pallet Tree Swing!                          

Used the center section of a pallet.

I started this swing with the center two boards from a pallet.  Attached to the center boards is a brace.  It comes like that.

I sanded it a bit, stained it, and polyurethaned it.

I drilled holes in the bottom of the brace to tie off the rope.

This is the swing hanging in the big tree in my back yard.

This is my daughter enjoying her new swing.  She is ten, you can see the seat is a good size for adult buns too!

                                                                   Thanks,  ßeçk¥

Hang a log from your ceiling.

This is a project my mom did.  She found this large white log washed up on the beach of northern michigan.  She brought it home, and had her husband hang it with white rope from the ceiling.

She drilled a small hole every few inches all the way through the log from bottom to top, she strung fishing line through the holes.  She used a fishing sinker (the round kind that you string the line through and pinch closed) to keep the string at the top of the log and ran the line down through the holes she drilled.  Now she has long strands of fishing line hanging down.  She proceeded to drill tiny tiny holes in seashells she had gotten from a vacation, and tied them randomly through out the hanging string.  

It turned out very nice.  It goes beautifully with the rest of her beach themed bedroom.

this is a pic of the other side of her room.  (I made the pallet shelf over her bed. there is also a how to do on this in this blog)


Thanks,
ßeçk¥