Our New Welcome Sign

In the process of remodelling our house, Karla and I wanted to make our own piece of art to welcome our guests.  Karla found a similar idea for a welcome sign made out of old barn wood on Pintrest.  I don't have barn wood, but I do have an old fence outside :).  Actually, the two black boards are old fence boards, mostly for the texture (which can't be seen in the picture).  The main part of the sign was made from 2 cedar fence boards straight from Lowes ($1.49 each).  Karla used her Silhouette machine to make stencils and painted the words on the wood.  I have to admit that both Karla and I have stopped on multiple occasions to admire our latest creation!

Rebecca's Little Treasure Box

A friend of mine who I hadn't seen in years connected with me online and asked me to help him build a treasure box for a little girl named Rebecca, the 5 yr old daughter of a good friend of his.  We had a great time building this project together and catching up.  The box was made of oak with some light molding for trim.  The "R" was cut out on a scroll saw from a piece of oak that had been planed down to around 1/8th inch

 

 

The words "Rebecca's Little Treasures" were wood-burned by hand.  It took me roughly 1.5 hours because of the fine lines in the font.  It looks pretty awesome though against the dark wood and totally fits the style of the box!

 

 

 

Every little princess deserves her own felt lined treasure box!

 

 

Thanks for this opportunity James, it was great reconnecting with you!

 

Spain, Arkansas & the Philippines Mission Plaque

 This is now the 3rd LDS mission plaque I have created.  Karla's Aunt had seen the plaque I created for my in-laws and asked me if I she could "order" one for her in-laws for Christmas. I was excited at the prospect...and even more excited when she told me one of the missions was in the Philippines.  At that point, I decided I had to give it a try-I had done Hawaii, how much harder could a few more islands be, right?

I woodburned all of the mission names by hand on the side panel below their respective flags. 

You can probably tell that the three mission shapes ranged in difficultly, with Arkansas being the easiest and the Philippines being the most difficult.  I'll had to admit that I didn't recognize Spain's outline, because I am so used to seeing it with Portugal filling in the gap on on the west coast.

  

 The Philippines was the great challenge of this project, but it was personally very fulfilling.  The tracing, cutting and assembling of the 30 largest islands took many hours over a period of a few weeks.  I wanted to be sure that if any Philippino looked at this cut out, they would be impressed with the accuracy of every island represented.  Go ahead and check a map!  The tough part of that is that most of these islands could hide under a quarter, many under a penny or dime-and islands don't lend themselves to any geometric corners or straight lines.  Needless to say, my fingers were within 1 inch of the scroll saw blade at any given time.  Many of the islands were so small that once the final cut was made to release them from the main block, they fell down into the interior of the machine and I would have to dig through the saw dust and recover them.  

I mounted all of the islands on a thin piece of poplar the same way I did with the Hawaii cut out I made in 2009 (posted previously).

 The flags were printed and mounted to small boards to elevate them from the side panel.

 I have used this scripture, Matthew 28:19 as the scripture for all three mission plaques thus far.  I have them engraved at a local trophy shop on a brass square.  It is exciting to see the influence a single family can have across the globe from missionary service.

This project gave me some extra confidence in doing some technically challenging pieces.  Overall, I am very pleased with the way it turned out. (Seen below without the shadowbox) 

Families Are Forever Mirror

I made this mirror for my wife a year or two after we were married.  In addition to woodworking, I enjoy cutting/shaping and etching mirrors and glass.  This is a very basic project, but represents a core truth that brings me unexpressable joy every day: Families are Forever.  Love you, Karla! 

Reno Institute of Religion

I had the opportunity to serve as the Institute Council President at the Reno Institute of Religion for a couple years as I attend the University of Nevada Reno (Go Wolf Pack!).  We provided activities and social events for LDS students in the area.  I made this project to sit on my desk at the institute and still sits there today. 

Tyler's Workshop

This was a little Christmas project for my nephew Tyler a few years back.  He was just starting to show interest in tools, especially screwdrivers.  I made him this little tabletop bench for him to practice without secretly taking apart all of his family's furniture.  We also gave him a screwdriver, a tape measure and a small level in a little tool belt that Karla made. 

Chili, Cobbler & Bread Cook-off Trophies

For the last 3 years, I have built trophies for our ward's annual chili-off held in the fall.  In 2009, I was shown the golden bowl of chili and asked if I could make a base.  Since then, regardless of where I was, I was asked or volunteered to make the trophies.  In 2010, I was the leader of some 11 year old boy scouts and they helped me build them that year.  The design is about as simple as you can get, a 4x4 post cut to around 5 inches, two routered squares for the caps and some thrift store utensils spray painted gold.  They certainly create some excitement at the events though.  And yes, my daughter is darn cute!

The First Mission Plaque

I have previously posted a plaque that I made for my in-laws showing the locations where my wife's family members had served as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I had mentioned that it was the second such plaque.  This is the first one I created back in 2003.

 This project started when I went to a Vietnamese restaurant with my dad after I received my mission call to Bangkok, Thailand.  They had a large wooden cut out of Vietnam on the wall that intrigued me.  I decided to go home and make a smaller cut out of Thailand.  When my mom saw it, she asked me to make her one and also one for my dad and brother's missions.  That gave me the idea to make a single wall hanging to highlight the family's service.

 When I originally made the plaque, my younger brother still had another 4 years before he'd receive a mission call at age 19.  I made a wooden cut out of a question mark to signify that we were still awaiting another mission call in the family (I'll have to post the picture later). When he received his call 4 years later to Chicago, Illinois I was relieved to see that it fit PERFECTLY in the gap I left.  I did not adjust the placement of any of the other shapes (crazy huh?)  I was terrified he'd get called somewhere with a long, horizontal shape like Montana or Russia.  It worked out great.

 On this original plaque, I wood burned a miniature map of the world on the top.  I woodburned the names of the missions on the actual mission shapes on this version as well rather than under the flag.  On the two later versions, I had at least one shape which was a group of islands (Hawaii & Philippines) so I wrote the names on the side rather than on the actual shape.

"Jenna's Princess Treasure Box"

Jenna (now 4 years old) had started showing interest in the money I leave on my nightstand each night.  I decided to make her a little treasure box so she could start collecting some "monies." 

 Some red felt helped it feel special. Jenna now calls it her princess treasure box.

  I added a sacagawea dollar to help her start her collection.