I must say I have really enjoyed this No Spend November challenge, where I choose things from inside my home to update or repurpose, without spending any money.  Don’t get me wrong, I have spent a lot of time considering how to turn our trash into treasure, which at times has caused me to pull out just a little bit of hair.  But for the most part, it has allowed me to be creative with not only my wee (but mighty) skills, but also my time.  I think that’s why, for this week, I had to move into the garage.  There, my trash is different.  My trash in the garage isn’t something I have purchased and pushed aside.  Rather, it’s what was left over of something that was designed and built for a purpose.  In my garage, I have so. much. scrap. wood. It is starting to take over our corners and nooks.  Earlier this season, I created some mini wood signs for my autumn decor, so I thought I would continue in that trend.  First, I had to look at the scrap wood that I had.  I really wanted to stick to those pieces that were under 2 feet long.  Any longer, and I could do more with it (think box or centerpiece), and wood can get expensive!  I have seen these really sweet door tags as well.  For those, I needed a certain width of wood.  Fortunately, I found a small, 13 inch piece of 2×6 probably from this dining table project, and about 2 feet of scrap 1×6 from shelving that I built for our basement.  Those are perfect for what I want to accomplish, so let’s get started on Week 4 of DIY projects that cost zero dollars for my No Spend November Challenge.

Project 8: Wood Block Art

Let’s first take a look at that beautiful wood scrap pile.  Isn’t it lovely?

Here’s the 2×6 scrap wood cut into 6 inch blocks.

Then I sanded them to get them ready to stain.

After sanding, I stained them using part Rustoleum Dark Walnut and part Minwax Classic Grey.  It’s just what I had, and I didn’t want the dark stain OR the light grey stain, so I combined them.

**Side note: I HATE clean up! So, when I stain, I usually do as much as I can.  This meant I grabbed a small 2×4 scrap and cut it into (3)  4″ pieces to stain as well.  Plus, they’re SO CUTE!

After the staining dried, I taped off the outside to prepare to paint.  I used a tape measure to make sure the tape was uniform.  I wanted it to look like it had a frame around it (without actually having to make the frame **Lazy or Smart? Hmmm).

Then I painted the larger blocks with Valspar paint in Cream in My Coffee, and the smaller ones with leftover chalkboard paint from this project.

Once the paint is dry, the possibilities are endless.  You can stencil words or phrases on them, draw a themed silouhette, write a letter on them, put a clip on them to hold a picture…so many ideas.  I chose to write a holiday themed song lyric on the two larger blocks, and draw a Christmas themed silouhette on the smaller three blocks.  The nice thing about the chalkboard paint is that I can change the chalk art out with the seasons.

Here are the smaller blocks.  This part was really simple.  I just googled “Christmas silhouette” and chose one (or three).  P.S. Don’t mind my workspace 🙂

The larger blocks took a little more time, but not much.  For the font, I typed out the lyrics “Silent night. Holy Night.” on Word through Word Art (Insert/Word Art).  I knew I wanted the word about 3″, so I chose a font size that would allow that.  Then, I mirrored the image through the Art effects button, chose 3D Rotation, and changed the X rotation to 180 degrees.  If that totally confused you (as it did me), I just googled “mirror font in word” and it turned up a few really simple tutorials with screen shot images.  Then I printed them out.  The first one I did was WAY too small, so I did the second one with a bigger font.  Since the second one was so big, I didn’t want to waste ink, so I also added an outline to the font and made the fill white so all that showed up was the outline.  Very similar to my DIY Antique Kitchen Sign project post here.

Then I cut the word I needed for the placement on the block.  I used a pencil to outline the word, placed it on the block, and rubbed it on the block with the eraser.  It transferred really nicely!

Once the font was transferred, I just took a paint pen and traced over it, being careful to stay on the lines.  I filled it in where necessary.

See that small one up there?  Way too small, in my opinion.  I ended up painting over it and painting the “Holy. Night.” on that block.

In the space:

And another one:

Project 9: Wooden Door Tags

For the door tags, I cut the 1×6 pieces into two 11 inch pieces.  Then, I cut 30 degree ends off to create the “tag” look.  Next, I drilled 1/2 inch holes at the top for my twine, threaded, and knotted.

Now, it’s time to write those sayings.  This time, I freehanded the font with pencil, made corrections, and finished with a few rounds of paint marker.

Then I hung it on our door with a little burlap bow.

There you have it!  Two festive projects, completed from scrap wood, costing me No money and only a little bit of time.

I’ve really enjoyed this challenge, but it’s time to pull out those Christmas decorations and get going!  I’ll probably scale it back for Christmas as well, but the bitter outdoor temps are making painting and staining very difficult.  So until it warms up again, I’m going to have to focus on the inside.  Next week I will be putting together some centerpieces, so be on the lookout!

Thanks for joining me on this month long journey of being creative with what we have.  It has truly taught me that the more grateful I am with what I have, the more of what I have is enough!  Happy Thanksgiving.  God Bless!

If you liked this post, you would really like these too!

No Spend November Challenge Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

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