Random Acts of Craftiness: Knob Block Knick Knack Thingy

This month I decided to participate in a craft challenge put on by Erin at His & Hers.

 

She's doing a different craft challenge each month. Last month's challenge was to make something using game pieces, but unfortunately I ended up being too busy to participate. This month's challenge is Odds and Ends from the Hardware Store! (Click here to see October's entries)

I can't think of a more perfect challenge for me. It requires me to wander around in a hardware store, which I love to do, until inspiration hits me. I settled on the knob section as my area of inspiration. At the Home Depot near my work they have at least 12-16 feet of aisle devoted to drawer knobs. After I had picked up some knobs I liked I got together some other supplies.

This is what I came up with.

In the end my parts and supplies list consisted of:

-4 miscellaneous drawer knobs

-A length of 2x2

-Black and White spray paint

-Wood glue

-Hemp twine

My tools were a dremel and a handsaw.

Step 1

Cut various lengths from the 2x2. I just kind of free handed this one. I wanted a somewhat random look.

Step 2

Drill holes for the knobs. I tried to get them in the center, but once again I just free handed it.

Step 3

Glue them together. Make sure the bottom sits flat.

Step 4

Paint. I just used masking tape to block off different sections.

Step 5

Put the screws into the knobs and cut the heads off. I also used a wooden knob which I had to paint. The screw on that one is difficult to work with so I'm just gluing that one on.

Step 6

Screw heads into the pre-drilled holes.

Step 7

Tie your bow. I might change this to a purple ribbon later. I suppose as long as I don't glue it in place I can change it as often as I want. Other materials you could use are ribbon, strips of fabric or burlap, lace, etc.

Well there you have it. My random knob block knick-knack thingy for the October Random Acts of Craftiness Challenge.

Thanks to Erin of His & Hers for the challenge.

Back from the Beach

This past week was wonderful! After several weeks of extended overtime and covering for missing people at work a week at the beach was just what my family needed.

We were there from the 20th to the 27th and it was very relaxing. My wife's dad rented two bikes last year and everyone liked that so this year he got four and got a child's seat on one of them. Our boy liked riding on the bike, but what he loved was wearing the helmet! After our bike rides he wouldn't take the thing off. He ran all around the house with it and even took a nap in it.

On our bike rides we found sand dollars, a two and a half foot long sand shark, and two horse shoe crabs.




Beach Hair



Eww


We built several sand castles which I neglected to take pictures of, but they were pretty impressive. They had drawbridges and moats and walls and keeps. One of them was tiered like a ziggurat. They stayed up all week until the end when the tide was coming all the way up to the dunes because of hurricane Sandy.

We watched movies, played games, and I put together (with the help of Grandma Sylvia) a puzzle.




Of course it's a Star Wars puzzle.



I also worked on some boots I'm making for my brother-in-laws costume for NekoCon. I'll post pictures of those when I finish them.

On Thursday Meredith and I got fresh salmon from the docks and made dinner. I did a lemon dill baked salmon.

Meredith made corn bread muffins, couscous and quinao, asparagus, and some other assorted roasted vegetables. It was all delicious.



Yes. That is exactly how we rock a beach trip.


As a side note there was this massive bug on our deck.

I included my hand as an attempt to show scale, but it didn't really work. This thing looked kind of like a stink bug... if multiple other stink bugs had voltron'ed together to form a super ultra mega stink bug.

Aside from anything we did there we mostly just enjoyed time watching the sun come up and go down, and the tide come in and go out, without having to worry about being somewhere, or even what time it was. It was nice to not be surrounded by responsibilities and to just take it easy and relax.

I should be back to a more normal blogging schedule now, barring any crazy Thanksgiving and Christmas preparations. In the mean time I'll leave you with adorable toddler pictures.

Sword of Altair: Complete

I feel as if I should have some big awesome reveal for this thing now that it's finished... but I don't. The pictures I have aren't even that good. That being said, I'm still super excited about it!

My last update finished with me painting it silver. Since then I painted in the detail on the handle and I added the leather grip.

For the detail I just watered down some black latex craft paint, painted it on, let it dry just a little bit... and then wiped it off. I had to do several coats but I think it turned out really well.

Because the shape of my grip is not uniform it was a little hard to cut the leather to match the pommel. I started by wrapping paper around it and making a template but I still ended up tweaking it quite a bit after I cut it out. I ended up gluing half of the grip on just so it would hold tight while I made my adjustments.

After I had it how I wanted it I glued the rest and put a bunch of rubber bands on to hold it tight.

Now it's done!

I want to get some really good pictures of it so when I do I'll probably add those in here. Also, the handle does look a little plain to me so I might be tweaking it or adding something to it. I'm not sure, but whatever happens later happens later. Right now I'm counting this done.

If you want to see this thing from start to finish you can check out these links:
-Sword of Altair (WIP Part 1)
-Slow and Steady (WIP Part 2)
-Eureka! (WIP Part 3)
-It Looks Like a Sword! (WIP Part 4)
-So Close... (WIP Part 5)
-Progress Report (WIP Part 6)
-Primed (WIP Part 7)
-Latest Sword Update (WIP Part 8)

Missed Deadlines

Well the plan was to have the sword done by this past Friday. That didn't happen. It is very close... but not quite done. I hate it when I set deadlines for myself and then I can't keep them. Work has been crazy but this is the last week before it calms down a little. Next week I'll be on vacation (YAY!) and then the lady who runs our warehouse will be back and I can go back to taking real lunches and working on my projects (another YAY!). I'd like to get this sword done before vacation starts and considering the amount of work left I don't think that will be a problem. Right now I'm just tweaking the grip before I fully glue it down. But still, let's hope everything goes well and I get it done. I'm taking some stuff on vacation to work on another project. It's a set of boot spats for the costume my brother-in-law is wearing to NekoCon. I'll try to get some pictures of it, and assuming it comes out good write a blog about it.

This past weekend was pretty awesome. On the way to the farmer's market Saturday morning we stopped at a yard sale. They had one of those kids motorized jeeps for $20! So we snapped that up. We also found a whole box of Thomas the Tank Engine wooden train set pieces for $4. What were they thinking?!? We grabbed that too. I also picked up a palm sander for $7 which is cool since I've been wanting one of those for a while. Now I can sand all kinds of things and refinish furniture and it will be great! I'm already excited about using it.

Well, time to get back to work. I can't wait for vacation!

Latest Sword Update (WIP Part 8)

Our connection went down on Friday so I wasn't able to post the update for my sword. So I'm going to talk about it today because I'm super excited to show it off!

I can't remember where I found it, but I saw that some guy used the "Rustoleum hammered silver" on a sword and used light coats so he got the metal look without the hammered look. So that's what I did. I definitely need more practice with spray paint because it was not easy to spray light coats evenly. Maybe I'll get one of those trigger attachments. I can't wait to finish this and post the finished pictures! I'll have to get some goods ones instead of just cell phone pictures.

Instructables Contest!

Sorry to neglect you guys yesterday, but rather than posting a blog I spent some time making an Instructable.

I've posted a total of five Instructables now and have plans for at least four more in the near future. I like making them but one of the reasons why I'm trying to focus on making more of them right now is because they're running contests! Well, they're always running contests, but they have a couple contests right now that I'm eligible to enter. Right now I have two contest entries: How to make the Hammer of Thor and Wooden Toy Dagger. If you're an Instructables member or feel like signing up you can vote and help me win some cool prizes. I'm entered in the 3rd Annual Make it Stick Contest and the Halloween Prop Contest.

Here are my other Instructables in case you want to check them out.

Pendant Necklaces
Peg People: A Fun Toy for Most Ages
Breakfast Board: An Unconventional Start to the Day

The ones I plan on creating next are for the rest of my Thor costume, my wife's Hawkeye costume, the sword I'm currently working on, and possibly a pirate costume one.