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Wood or Nature Crafting

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Natural Wood Statement Necklace. In case you missed my guest post over at The CSI Project a couple of weeks ago during Accessories Week, here it is again! We'll be making a Natural Wood Statement Necklace! To make this necklace you will only need a handful of supplies: Small branches of varying diametersDremel or some other tool to cut the woodBacking for your necklaceClear spray paintAdhesiveChain I received this bad boy for Christmas! I've been itching to use it. My first real power tool to be added to my craft supply. Too much fun! I started out by gathering a few different branches from around the yard. I used a cutting tool on my Dremel to cut the branches into disks of varying thickness.

Unfortunately I didn't have quite the right cutting attachment (it wasn't meant to cut wood) so it left all of my disks with burn marks. You can see in the bottom right photo above the huge difference sanding the disks made! The varying heights of the disks give a great 3-dimensional effect when layed out! Make your own wooden buttons. Make your own wooden buttons One really great idea that I came across was to make wooden buttons... I used my mitre saw [cut-off saw] to trim the branches to manageable lengths and then clamped them securely before cutting the individual buttons. If you don't have a mitre saw, you can use a Dremel MultiTool and a cutting blade to do this - just be sure to clamp the branch securely to a workbench. If you don't own a mitre or cut-off saw, you can also use a Dremel MultiTool and cutting disk for wood.

Be sure to clamp the piece securely to your workbench before cutting, and wear safety glasses. What's nice is that the buttons come out in all different shapes, but mostly the same size. You can use small or large branches to create buttons of any shape or size. You will need branches that are of a fairly hard timber species, and if you're not sure, cut a few to size and then start drilling 2.5mm holes in them. If they break easily then you know you can't use this wood for making buttons. [via] Silver Leaf Vanity Chair. I finally finished up a chair makeover I’ve been meaning to get to for awhile.

I found this one at a thrift store last year and I bought it specifically for the vanity in my bathroom. I loved the curve of the legs and the size was perfect, but the fabric? No thank you. It was dingy and stinky so the entire chair definitely needed to be reupholstered. For this piece, I had some fun adding a glamorous feel with a silver leaf finish on the legs, plus I replaced the foam and fabric with a modern geometric. Here’s what it looked like last week. And now. I went back and forth deciding whether to add some tufting with fabric covered buttons, but decided with the glitzy silver leaf and the swirling detail on this Annie Selke Pearls Slate fabric, to skip the tufting this time. I find the best way to understand how to reupholster a chair is to analyze the original upholstery job.

Stripping an old upholstered piece is time consuming and an icky job. It took me an hour to get it down to this frame. Let’s Build It: Kara’s Amazing DIY Ottoman. Let’s Build It: Kara’s Amazing DIY Ottoman You guys may remember Kara from Kara Paslay Designs thanks to the amazing house crashing tour that she took us on a while back. And when she sent over some photographs of a stunning ottoman that she DIYed, we begged her to treat us to an exclusive little YHL tutorial. And- oh happy day! - she was game. Hello YHL readers! Step 1- Cut a piece of wood (or MDF) to the coffee table size of your choice, unless of course you are using your current coffee table to save some moolah. Step 2- Cover your top with extra-loft batting, securing it underneath the table top with a staple gun. Step 3- Cover the batting with your chosen fabric. Step 4- Finish out your corners.

Then pull the left flap to the right and staple. Step 5- Now it’s time for tufting. Step 6- String a heavy and strong thread through the eye of a very large needle. Step 8- String your button onto the thread and then push the needle back through. Step 11- Bring your base together. Recycled Craft Ideas - Crafts from Recycled Materials.