Coffee Wood Stain

Want to give your wood projects some carmel goodness.  Dunk it some coffee for a few hours :)

Coffin in the Grass

I wanted to try out a wood stain so I stained a couple of coffin-shaped trinket boxes. I really liked how rich and aged it made the wood look.

Before I stained it, the coffin looked like this, just plain light-colored wood.

Start with a trinket box and sand it down before you do anything else.

The next step for this coffin was distressing the wood. I took a hammer, chain, and screwdrivers and gave it a good beating. It's good to do this before staining the wood, then you can get the stain down in those distress marks to darken them up. If you distress it after you stain the wood, you could end up with light wood showing through, and that ruins the effect of the stain.

I rubbed wood stain into the box both inside and out. Watch your fingers when staining! The oil from your hands can mess with the finish. If you have some latex gloves, wear them.

The coffin box was still quite plain after all the distressing and staining. I loved the look but it needed an artist's touch. So I used a fine-tip brush to hand-paint grass all around the base of the coffin.

Tips for painting grass: 

• Start with a dark green (tint your medium green with a tiny bit of black), then gradually layer on lighter colors
• Paint grass in clumps!Think crab grass. Natural grass can be varying in height and density of ground coverage.
• Vary the lengths of the grass, and let the blades bend in different directions and cross each other.
• The top of the grass should taper to a point. Practice your paint strokes, lightly using the tip of a fine-tipped brush.

Painted Trinket Boxes

This is a super-easy craft for any skill level! It's also an excellent introduction to wood painting.

Design ideas are endless... above I started with a plain wooden box, painted it brown, then gave it some Steampunk flavor with metallic copper and gold paints and a little brushed-on blue.

You find everything you need at your local craft store (both Michael's and JoAnn's carries these):

• small wood box ($1)
• 1 tube of All-Purpose Sealer (for preparing wood surfaces). Brand I used: Delta Ceramcoat
• Acryllic paints in desired colors (comes in tubes, about 89 cents and up)
• Paint brushes (for acryllic paint, use nylon bristles, not natural hair) - 1 detail brush, one 1/2-centimeter wide flat brush, squared or angled
• Sand paper
• Mod Podge (for finishing coat, if desired)
• disposable cup with water
• paper towel (for wiping brushes)
• a palette (can use a clean piece of scrap plastic or cover a small dish with plastic wrap)

Directions:

1. Sand down any splinters and rough spots.
2. Apply one coat of sealer to the outside sides and top of the box, let dry
3. Paint! Let dry between coats.
4. Finish with Mod Podge, if desired. Only apply Mod Podge to the top and sides, do not cover the inside or bottom because the surface can stick.

Try these fun variations:

• Hot-glue a rectangle of felt to the inside bottom.
• Hot-glue a tiny mirror onto the inside of the lid.
• Use chalkboard paint on the top so you can write messages on it!
• Mod Podge a collage of pictures or scrapbook paper on the box.
• Paint a box blank, then add rub-on metallic paint to make it look like metal
• Add glitter! (apply with white glue)

Message in Wood Blocks

So I was walking through the Wood section of my local mega mart craft store and found these miniature children alphabet blocks. So cute.



Ok everyone, this project is WAYYYYYY easy, I dont want a single person complaining they can't do this.

And this project was really inexpensive, cost was about $2 a pack and I had to buy two packs.

Directions

1) Piece together with a message that you like. In my case I used me and my honey's names. I find that it looks more interesting if you dont go with the standard symmetrical row by row look.

2) Glue them in place, I used good old fashion white glue

3) Wait until the glue dries

And here is our finished product.

SO CUTE and personable



-SmallRiniLady