DIY Pallet Wood Picture Ornament: Day 9 of 12

I'm pulling out a whole slew of power tools for today's upcycled Christmas ornament!  But don't let that scare you, they make this project one of the quickest ornaments so far (I'll add some product accessory links at the end of this post if you need to reference them). This Pallet Picture Frame Ornament has a bit of sentimental value for me and is an actual gift that I'm making for my brother and sister. (I'm hoping the brother didn't click through when this blog post arrived in his email inbox today - fingers crossed)  Here's the ornament, see the story below: 

Over the last 26 years, no matter where I lived or what my design tastes where at the time, there was always one photo that I prominently displayed:

That's a picture of my "Ninny" embracing my brother and sister as she was getting ready to leave on her last visit with us.  A few short months later she passed away.  I took the picture (with my 110 film camera), that's why I'm not in it. But I have always displayed it to remember her and what an amazing woman she was.

I've also been repeatedly asked by my brother and sister (and mostly my mother) why I have that photo and they don't.  So this year, I decided to do something about it.  Unfortunately, I only had the one picture and have no idea where the negative might be if it even still exists.  So I scanned my only photo and hopped over to Shutterfly.  I had a couple of sheets of wallet-sized photos printed up to use in these DIY picture ornaments.  When my order total came to only a few bucks...I kept browsing.  And I picked up another Christmas gift for my mother.

Mom was just complaining about how her wedding album was a mess. And boy was it?  The album and the photos have yellowed over the years and one edge on each photo was bent and cracked.  You see her album was a touch small for the photos so they had all been folded up and are now pretty brittle. I was able to scan the photos and crop out most of the cracks in the photos and then drop them into pre-styled pages. I'm not much of a "scrapbooker"so having really fabulous layouts already made for me made it so easy to do.  I'm pretty excited about the way it came out and know she'll be excited to see it under the tree this year...but I digress.

There are just three more upcycled ornaments after today, so before you hop over to YouTube for the tutorial, don't forget to enter to win all of the hand-crafted ornaments that I've made during this twelve day event.  Here's the Rafflecopter to enter with for today's Pallet Picture Ornament:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you need to reference them, here are a couple of the accessory products that I used in today's project:
Martha Stewart Simple Circle Cutter
Lenox Hole Saw

And just in case you missed any of our previous projects that we've made, here are the links. (you can still earn extra entries by visiting each one now):

Aluminum Can Ball Ornaments

T-shirt Yarn Candy Canes

Shabby Chic Denim Dove

Felted Sweater Ball Ornament

Paper Towel Roll Flowers

Tissue Box Ball

Cookie Cutter Ornament

Silverware Handle Ornament

An Oh So Upcycled Piece of Pallet Wall Art

So I made a fabulous little piece of wall art, and boy is it upcycled!  It all started with a few planks from a discarded pallet.  Then I added some paint from the "oopsie" paint table from my local Lowes and flowers made from thrifted T-shirts and scrap fabric.

Assembling the "canvas" portion of the artwork was the easy part.  Yes, I had to use a few power tools but it really was quite quick.  The steps are below, but if you'd like to see it done you can view the YouTube video here.

1.  Cut several planks from a pallet (or other pieces of weathered scrap wood) to the same size and sand them before proceeding
2.  Cut two more pieces of scrap wood to act as supports across the backside of the canvas
3.  Drill two pilot holes in one of the pieces and screw in your eye screws
4.  Glue and screw your support pieces into the planks
5.  Attach your picture wire

And that's that...for the canvas.

The artwork itself wasn't difficult but it was bit more involved. I found it easiest to prepare all my pieces and do a rough layout before making anything permanent.  I started with several flowers made from T-shirts.  These are a very simple flower that you can make from T-shirts or any other fabric scraps that you already have.  Check out the video tutorial of the flowers here.

To make the stems and the shaped flower petals I simple wrapped some craft wire with T-shirt and other scraps, securing it with a little E6000 Adhesive.  I used the same adhesive to attach all fabric pieces to the pallet canvas.  But before I did that, I used my Sizzix Big Shot Die Cutting Machine
to cut all of the letters out from contact paper.  I applied the letters to the pallet canvas and used a dry brush to paint over them.  Then I removed the contact paper and used a paint pen to make the letters pop.  You can see it ALL done in this video tutorial.

How to Carve a House Number Plaque from Pallet Wood

My final little DIY project for mom and dad's Mailbox Makeover is this scrap wood house number plaque that I carved with my Dremel.

It's big, you can see it clear down the road...that's what I was going for.  Unfortunately, as the parents age we have to think about things like clearly marked house numbers for the ambulance.  A lesson learned when my dad started having unexplained seizures last summer.  He's better, but big numbers are a good thing.  And this one is totally unique, not another one like it on the block.

This was a pretty easy project.  After painting my wood, I used a High Speed Cutter
in my Dremel to carve the numbers.  Then a few eye screws and a couple plant hooks were all I needed to hang the plaque.  Of course I whipped up a video tutorial so be sure to check it out.

And that wraps up the Mailbox Makeover.  Here's one more look at the finished project:

If you missed my post on that DIY pallet wood edging you can find it here.

How to Make Garden Edging From Pallet Wood

I was pretty tickled with the way this rustic garden edging turned out.  I was even more tickled that I made it from pallet wood and soda bottles!

I made this garden edging as part of a mailbox makeover for my parents 44th wedding anniversary. Be sure to check out the before and after if you missed it. I used wide strips of 2-litter soda bottles to connect 4-plank sections of pallet fencing.  Nine inch lengths of metal dowels were inserted into two planks of each section and hammered into the ground.  It really was as easy as that, you can check out my YouTube channel to see the full tutorial.

Wondering if you have the tools to complete the job?  Here are some that I think would be helpful.

Disclaimer:  While this post contains affiliate links, these are the products that I have previously purchased and regularly use in my craft room.  I do not receive compensation for my opinion, however, I do receive a few pennies commission if you decide to purchase these products through Amazon. More pennies equals more tutorials, thank you for your support!

Fast Fix Friday: How To Remove a Stubborn Nail

So, I've been messing around with pallets quite a bit lately.  Soon I will post some of my projects and show you how I made them.  You'll be tempted, of course, to take on the projects yourself!  This is one Fast Fix Friday you won't want to miss when you do decide to take on a pallet project, whether one of mine or someone else.

Ah, pallet wood, glorious pallet wood!

I'm going to show you how to remove a stubborn nail that has been cut in half with a sawzall.  But you can apply this method to other projects as well.  Here is what the board looks like after I've separated it from the pallet with my sawzall:

The nail heads are on the other side and pounded in beneath the surface of the wood plank. So the traditional method of pulling it out with a hammer is out.  You'll notice that the bottom nail is actually flush with the plank and the top nail, not so much.  It is actually crooked and buried under the surface of the plank.  To remedy this situation you'll need two things; a hammer and some kind of small screwdriver....okay, okay, there is actually a tool that you can use for this purpose.  It looks like an ice pick with a screw driver handle, please don't ask me to tell you what it's called because I don't know.  But I happen to have this el cheapo, tiny flat head screwdriver kicking around and it works just fine.  And since I've never used it for anything else, I'm using it for this!

Okay, ready?  Place your ice pick thingy (or tiny screwdriver) on the tip end of the nail and give it a couple of love taps with the hammer.  When you flip your board over you'll see that the nail head is now exposed and you can slide your hammer underneath it and pry it out of the plank.

If you are starting with a crooked nail tip simply slide your tool under the nail at about a 45 degree angle and tap it with your hammer until it is standing straight up.  Now you can use the hammer to bang it out.

And SUCCESS!  Now I'm left with nothing more than these charming holes in the plank that will add some character to my final piece.

Fill the holes you say? Never!