diy decor
Barnwood Scraps Making the most out of scraps f scraps
W By Erin Shipps
And if you’re bad at reading labels like I am, don’t look at the graphite paper, confused as to which side is down and try to test it on a piece of paper, only to get frustrated when it doesn’t work and later find out it’s because the graphite paper transfer is white ... as you can see in the picture at right. Just avoid my embarassing moments. I only let them happen to help you out. Once you’ve transferred the font outline, grab a soldering iron with a fine tip and burn the let- ters in the wood following the outlines. I recom- mend making tiny dots around the outline and connecting them to create a strong outline. Then you can fill it in or even leave it as an outline. Oh, and wear a glove, those things get hot! Attach an inexpensive hanger to the back and you’re done! P.S. You can check out what I did with the long, narrow scraps at vintagekcmag.com.
could paint letters, do a stencil, glue scrabble letters on them ... but no, this project needed to be more rustic. So I Googled how to burn letters into wood and found a great tutorial video. You can find the link on our website vintagekcmag.com. First, measure the scraps (ours were about 15” x 5”) and decide how large you want the letters to be, then find a fun font (I love dafont. com) and print it using Word or any publishing program. I liked the juxtaposition of this pretty font with the rustic wood. Next, you’ll need graphite paper. I got mine at Hobby Lobby for $3.49 (and only used one- third of it). Place the paper graphite-side-down and place your font print on top of the graphite paper. Use tape to secure the graphite paper and font paper directly to the wood. Trace over (or color in) the font with a stylus, pencil or pen, checking the transfer by rolling the paper edge.
e hate wasting anything around here. I mean, what’s the purpose of vintage if not to reuse, recycle and repurpose? So when I had some
scraps left over after making a barnwood coffee table, I decided to let the creativity flow and put them to good use. First of all, I owe credit to my father-in-law for cutting the barnwood in such a way that I had useable leftovers. If I had done it myself you can bet there would have been a million pieces and a million mistakes. (I don’t much like saws.) But he left me with four long nar- row pieces and two end pieces. The end pieces were a no-brainer really. What else could they be but signs? No really, if you have any other ideas, tell me about it at erin@vintagekcmag.com and I’ll pass the word along on our website. But the real work came in deciding how to embellish them. I
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VintageKC / Summer 2012 8
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