(Note – If you’re new to my page, this is how it works: At the beginning of each week I randomly draw a new project from my Challenge Bucket, then see what I can create before the week is over. You can read all about the Challenge here.)
Earlier this week I shared my website with a friend and asked what she thought of it. It can be so helpful to get someone else’s perspective when I’ve been so immersed in my own. She was reading through The List and paused at “Wood from the Dollar Store.” She immediately asked what I meant by that.
I proceeded to tell her how I always see all sorts of shapes and sizes of wooden craft supplies in the dollar store. For some reason they always attract me and make me want to make something – but I never quite know what.
She understood and kept reading. Well wouldn’t you know that when I reached in the Challenge Bucket this week I pulled out “Wood from the Dollar Store”! (she also told me I used too many exclamation marks… so I’ll try to not use them unless absolutely necessary… I just get excited about things! Oops! I mean…. Oops. Period.)
If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll know that I try to keep the cost of these projects as little as possible by creatively using things I already have. This new challenge was telling me to spend money – thankfully the dollar store is the cheapest place to spend it!
I went to the store without a plan – just hoping to be inspired by what I found. From past experience, I would say this method rarely works and I end up more confused than when I started. The current trip was looking no different as I entered my third dollar store, still empty handed. I scanned the wooden craft supplies and something I’d never seen before caught my eye. It was a small bag of wooden puzzle pieces. I picked it up, still feeling clueless, and was about to put it back when my son came and asked what I was looking at. I told him and he immediately said I should use them. He knows I like puzzles. I know I like puzzles too. I offered the pieces a few more thoughtful moments and an image of them stained different colors came into my head. Maybe I could make a pot holder or tray? If I didn’t take them now I knew I’d go home empty handed, so I made an executive decision (I am the executive here, after all), grabbed a pack of mdf squares and we were on our way.
The first step was to assemble the puzzle. I assumed the pieces would be identical in shape which would grant me versatility as well as easy assembly. This was not the case. Though the pieces appeared identical, they each had a unique place in the puzzle, so I spent the next hour trying nearly every piece in every spot. I slowly gained momentum and sighed relief as I put in the last piece. I then immediately grabbed a pencil and numbered all the backs so I wouldn’t be stuck again!
Against the backdrop of the latest sales from Canadian Tire, I stirred, mixed and tested paints and stains to determine which ones I liked best. I decided on a dark wood gel stain, a red-toned mix of acrylics, and gold craft paint (it didn’t appear very gold – more of a honey color).
After adjusting the tones as needed, I anxiously waited for the paint to dry so I could put it back together again. (Big shout out to the person who thought to write the numbers on the back!)
Next I needed to figure out how to make this puzzle into a tray. I placed it on one of the mdf boards, then pulled out anything I could think of to make the frame. Popsicle sticks, wooden beads, picture frames, wooden dowels. I tried so many things but nothing seemed to even come close to working. After humming and hawing over it for a day, I still had no ideas. Honestly, at this point I was very close to giving up and chalking it up as a loss.
The next morning I decided to make one last ditch effort. After dropping off the kids at school I went back to the dollar store where some painting canvasses caught my eye. They were a little bigger than my puzzle, but contained a frame that actually could work. I decided that for $1.50 it was worth trying.
Once home again I gathered up some tools and removed the canvas from it’s frame. After giving it a light sanding, I stapled faux leather from a previous project onto the bottom. The puzzle looked nice with the frame, but there was still a half inch space that needed to be filled. I pulled out the wooden dowels from my stash and set to the task of cutting them down.
Many mistakes were made here. I cut the dowels too big… then I cut them too small. It was almost comical. But, not to be deterred, I cut small pieces and glued them in the gaps in attempt to hide my carpentry disaster.
At this point I decided that it actually looked ok. If you didn’t look too closely, that is. I sprayed it with a top coat and left it to dry.
The top coat didn’t end up super hard, so if I want to use it as a tray I’ll need to find something different to coat it with. In the meantime it makes a cute little art piece.
This definitely was a puzzling challenge (wow, I just realized this post had so many pun opportunities!) but I’m glad I didn’t give up and now have the reward of a cute little piece to decorate with.
Thanks for joining my adventure this week!
