Home-made scrap wood green greetings cards - stencilled, hand-painted, collage & découpage.

For the past few years we have been making our own ecological greetings cards for Christmas. This not only saves resources and money but it creates a personal gift, which hopefully shows family, friends and neighbours, we took time to create something just for them. From past experience we know that people keep these cards, which being of wood are less ephemeral than the paper varieties and are meant to be hung up and used as small pictures or decorations. By using this method, which combines stencil, hand-painted additions, collage and découpage you can easily produce multiple cards but each design will be individual and thus unique.

As we have rare breed organic poultry and also many beautiful cross-bred chickens, Sue took her inspiration for this year's card 'Chic Chick' from one of the flock but the principle would be the same for whatever you decided to use for your main image.

This is Snowy, suitably named for this time of year, she is a Columbian Cochin bantam and as you can see from above, she has already been used as a model for another of our projects. (This was a wheat-filled hot water bottle alternative, Sue designed, made and named the Snuggly Snowy. You can find how to make it by following the link.)

Materials 

The wood used in these and the other previous year's card designs, which I will share at the end of this blog, is from fruit crates. These come in various woods and qualities but what we are looking for is pine rather than poplar. This latter tends to be thinner and may have already begun to warp in transit. We get our crates from our local organic shop and we sort and store the quality pine for all kinds of wood working projects. You can identify them by the fact that the wood actually feels better quality and you will also see a reddish tinge to the grain.

The paints Sue uses are, for the main colour wash an acrylic water-based varnish. This she tints with a natural earth pigment (if you have never used these before and would like to find out more about them and how to mix them, then we have a post on just that topic here). For the white of the hen's body she used an ecological paint bought from our local natural building store. The rest of the colours were from her watercolour paint box. I'll now leave her to fill in the rest.

You can cut a stencil for the main design from any sort of fairly strong card but if you are going to use it repeatedly, as here, then it is well worth investing in a sheet of oiled stencil paper. I  bought a couple of large sheets years ago and when I have a small item to make as a stencil, I usually end up just trimming a corner off one of my old designs. If you were just to use a plain card to make a stencil and to apply it many times and I had nearly 40 cards to make here, you could end up with at best, a badly defined outline and at worse, a soggy mess!

The rest of the collage items are feathers from a friend's turkey and guinea fowl, bits of decoration, découpage and ribbon, all picked up from a thrift shop and some good old-fashioned jute string.

Finally that inspiration, without which we can never get quite the right feel for any message or expression of sentiment, wonderful old blue black ink and thick writing paper. (The black ink bottle is just the vessel to enable us to dip the fountain pen for refilling)

Tools

A tri-square (or CD case) and a cutting block.  

A saw to cut the fine-grained fruit crate wood,

I find the best options are either a Japanese draw saw (above left) or a tenon saw.

Fine sandpaper to clear up any burrs.

A glue gun if you intend to add collage and découpage elements to the card

A craft knife for cutting stencils.


For the rest, you will need some PVA glue or similar to attach the paper on which to write your greeting, scissors and most importantly one extra item, which in a sense is a tool or rather a useful contrivance if you are intending to use an image such as a chicken, taken from life - something large and juicy they love to eat.

Creating a strong repeatable image

If you are worried about getting the correct proportion and a nice crisp outline, then why not follow in the footsteps of the Impressionists and Pre-Raphaelites and use photography. Nowadays with the computer, we can reinvent the 18th and 19th century silhouette portrait tracing-machine of candles, screen and grid.

Once you have your design you can then photograph it and reduce it down on the screen but for a naive painting, you can just get the gist of the general outline in your mind and thus onto paper.  From this paper template you will now be able to cut your stencil.

As you will deduce from the above photograph, I took this in retrospect, after some 40ish uses of this same stencil. However, as you can see I am only just beginning to lose a little of the definition of my original cut.

Creating and using a stencil brush

The brush I use for stencilling was probably intended for use in stippling effects on a wall, as this is a limited usage, many end up in thrift shops and can easily be converted for stencilling. If you can't find these then an ordinary paint brush used for painting and decorating, given a slight trim, can also be used.

All that is needed to obtain a crisp stencil, is to wrap a good strong elastic band (this one from a bunch of watercress) around the brush. 




When using the above to create a stencil, you will need to work the paint well into the brush and at the same time get rid of any excess moisture which could spoil the outline of the stencil. I have always found that using the paint tin lid or china saucer and tapping the brush into the paint and then just onto the lid/saucer several times before applying the stencil works really well.

Some tips for painting on fruit crate wood

I like to use a broad brush and work with the grain of the wood. I paint one side and the edges and then put the pieces aside to dry, sometimes using the top rail of the wood cooker to speed this up, before painting the other side. 

 


However, because this is thin open-grained wood you can occasionally experience warping, so with the varnish still 'tacky', pile up any problematic pieces and put a weight on them. After a few minutes remove the weight, gently prise apart any pieces that have stuck together and then leave in the air to completely dry. If any slight warping occurs, repeat the process.

 

Creating a unique piece

You are now ready to stencil your image onto the wood,

decorate with additional touches of paint,

thread through your picture 'wire' of string and ribbon,



 

add your collage and découpage,

and append your personal greeting.





Now if you'd like to sit back and watch some films of our previous designs.



If you've enjoyed this article and found it useful please feel free to share it or to comment and/or make observations. All the very best and until next time,

Andy 

© Andy Colley 2014

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An Insect Hotel as a Utility Box Cover. Part 2 - Roof Construction & Furnishing

THE ROOF

The roof was constructed in a similar fashion to that of a house. The pitch was 45°. The gable ends supported the ridge purlins/laths. The slates were nailed to the laths using galvanised clout nails. 

The gable ends were thus 90° triangles and comprised of pallet planks nailed to principal rafters.

I made an end lapped joint at the top of these rafters so as to furnish a flat face to which the gable end planks could be nailed.

Each gable end rested on the top face of the East and West wall planks, one in line with the South wall and the other the North. 

Pallet planks screwed to the outer face of the North and South walls served as the fixing face for the gable ends.

Once the carpentry was in place, I used a string running from the end of the ridge purlin to the end of the bottom lath as a guide for the lateral position of the slates. 

For the first row of slates I also needed to ensure that they did not protrude into the path of the opening doors. 

To this end I clamped a plank to the underside of the East/West wall planks. This was also the the upper limit for the doors on these elevations. Hence, provided the slate rested on this guide plank I was assured that the door would not be obstructed.

The slates for the first row were cut to half length so as to form the eaves row.
 

I drilled nail holes in all the slates prior to fixing. When fixing slates in the middle of the roof I found it necessary to support the lath behind where I was nailing with a lump hammer, I should have had a rafter in the centre to give a little more stiffness!

 

Prior to the last row of slates being nailed in place, I laid a strip of roofing felt over the ridge and on top of the penultimate row of slates to  ensure the roof was weatherproof
 

 

I used lead flashing to cover the slates upper edges at the roof ridge.

Finally, I closed the gaps between the underside of the slate and the principal rafters by cutting and stapling fruit crate wood to the inside face of the rafter.

 

FINISHINGS & FURNISHINGS 

 

Wooden catches and handles were made for the doors.

 
A coat of linseed oil, tinted with four earth pigments, was applied. If you have never used these before, we have an article here


The hotel was furnished with a selection of pallet wood blocks, these had been drilled using a jig I had made for ease of 'mass production' I will link to it when I have made the film on it.

We also featured a beautifully figured dead branch from our friend's woodland.

Pine cones from the nearby sea shore and many dead flower/plant stems and stalks, drilled shrub branches, bamboos and dried leaves from our garden.

We also particularly added some length of giant bamboo to accommodate the glorious European black bee.

For detailed information on how and what to choose, sizes of holes to drill and tips on length and diameter of individual accommodation for specific arthropods please refer to our Luxury Insect Hotel  design.

A layer of chicken-wire was fixed over the front of the insect house to protect it from birds, who both love to look for nesting materials, try to attach nests and/or eat the insects!

The wire was neatly held in place with some strips of fruit-crate wood.






For the installation of  this insect hotel and the successful hiding of an eyesore, follow this link.

In the meantime, thanks for dropping by and if you have enjoyed this post please share and feel free to comment, ask questions or relate your own experience of the de-uglification of utility boxes.

All the best from sunny Normandie, Andy 

© Andy Colley 2014

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DIY Pallet Wood Hen House Chicken Coop Part 4 - Assembly contnued and Finishings

Natural Finish - A piece of buddleia branch trimmed to make way for the Hen House is used to fashion its doorknob.

It's day three of the Assembly of the new Hen House. The chicks have spent their first night in their new home. It's bigger and roomier than their old one, never again will I design or make a hen house which doesn't have space for us to stand upright! I also found that putting a door in both back and front makes for ease of cleaning and is a good way of removing perches and keeping the house aired in hot weather. The house is sited on the far side of the garden and is in the angle of the back wall of a neighbouring longère and the North bocage (raised hedge). In the Winter it receives the sun quite early in the morning, when the rest of the garden is in the shadow of the house, which runs the entire length of the garden, some 50 metres (164 feet). It's  a regular suntrap in the Summer, which is why the fig tree does so well there and the hens, sybarites through and through, love it.

 

Breakfast in front of the New Hen House.  

Raising the Roof

We start the day by putting the gable ends in place. These are temporarily held in position with diagonal supports to the walls, which will be removed once the ridge purlin is in place.

 

Using a straight edge ensures that the wall and gable end are in line so that the ridge purlin brace may be fitted.

The House is now beginning to take shape with both the gable ends in place. We are now ready to fit the ridge purlin.   

The ridge purlin is measured and cut to length once the gable ends are in place.  

The ridge purlin is screwed to the inside face of the gable end apex. Screw holes are drilled through the gable end frame prior to fitting the purlin in place.

Once the purlin is in place, the braces can be fitted to each end of the Hen House. These braces are designed to take the roof load off the screws securing the purlin to the gable end. The roof load is thus borne by the side walls and floor. 

Once the ridge purlin and brace have been screwed together, the temporary diagonal supports may be removed.

 

Furring strips are now fitted to the ridge purlin. 

The roof is now ready for the panels to be fitted.

The panels are screwed to the walls and gable ends from the inside and from the outside to attach the ridge purlin.

  

The most expensive part of the Hen House, a good quality tarpaulin, can now  be fitted.

The surplus material is trimmed off and battens cut from pallet wood are used to fix the tarpaulin to the underside of the roof panels.

The open sides of the pallet base are sealed with planking, nailed to the wooden blocks.

The decoration with découpage is made from paper napkins.

The building inspector calls to assess the job. He's a white-laced buff crested and bearded Polish, one of three brothers who are joint heads of this house.







If you want to see our Polish chickens in action:

There is another post here, which shows how I used butt joints to construct the roof panels of pallet wood too. This makes the house even cheaper for those of you who don't have left-over or recuperated tongue & groove cladding.

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to share this article, comment, ask questions and if you'd like to be assured of getting the next post, then sign up to follow this blog.

All the best, Andy

© Andy Colley 2014

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