DIY Butterfly Cross Using DollarTree Frame

The other day I shared how I made a DIY sunflower cross using a Dollar Tree frame. Today I am sharing a “how to” tutorial on how to make a butterfly DIY cross. These have been real popular especially as we transition from winter to spring. 

DIY Sunflower Cross using DollarTree Frame

 

I am really excited to share this DIY tutorial with you guys! I make a wide variety of these crosses to sell and I use DollarTree cross frames to do it. Our DollarTree has carried them year round this year but in years past I have had to order them on their website. These handmade crosses are one of my best sellers and I enjoy making them. 

I got the sunflower for the middle at Hobby Lobby but the DollarTree and Walmart sometimes carries them too. Here are some other variations that I make to sell. 

DIY Blessed Home Decor Upcycled Shutter

      I love upcycling old shutter doors into home decor! I usually find them at the Habit for Humanity Restore and periodically find them for free on Craigslist. The one I used for this piece was part of a set of three that I got off Craigslist for free. They needed to be free too. They were tore up! They had at least three layers of paint of a variety of colors, none seemingly done well. Because I wanted the stained wood look, I sanded off all of the paint. It can be done with chemical paint stripper but I really don’t like working with it. It ends up being such an icky gooey mess. Anyways, here is a short video / slides telling you how I made this piece. 

DIY Jewelry storage / display

I recently made a magazine rack from cutting an old slatted closet door in half. I picked up the door at our local Habitat Re-Store for $7.00. So that left me with the other half of the door to do something with. Below is a picture of before and after I cut the door. For some time now I had been trying to figure out how to store some of my jewelry and had scoured Pinterest but had not really found something I thought would work for me.  Staring at the other half of the closet door I came up with this idea. I still need to get it mounted on the wall and need to buy a few more S hooks for more necklaces and earings but having gotten it finished I was so excited to share it on my blog I did not want to wait. If you read my post on the magazine rack this one will look remarkable similar since up until the finishing touches it is made the same.

 I cut out every other slat. Now ideally it would be nice to use a Dremel Multi-Max with the right attachment to cut the slats flush with the sides and with a little sanding and painting you would never know the other slats were there in the first place (this is shown here on the site I got the idea for the magazine rack http://www.myrepurposedlife.net/2011/10/repurposed-shutter-magazine-rack.html). However I do not have that tool and am trying to do this project on the cheap so was not going to go out and buy it either. So I just used a Black and Decker HandiSaw (as shown in the following picture of my hubby), and just cut it the best I could without nicking the surrounding slats and removed the pieces.

 Then I sanded it just enough to score it up a bit. I also used wood puddy to fill in the cutout from where the hinges were. You don't have to do this, I think leaving it there kind of adds to the whole re-purposed look but I had the puddy on hand and figured why not.

I then proceeded to primer it. I already had the primer on hand from when the house was being worked on. I put two coats of primer on it because the wood was so dark and I thought it would be easier to put multiple layers of primer than multiple layers of paint. This is a picture of the magazine rack primered.

 Then I painted it and varnished it. The paint I bought from the Lowe's discount rack (you know the paint that people have mixed but then don't buy). From the choices available this seemed like the best option. The varnish I had from previous projects. The ornamental wood molding I also bought at Lowes and spray painted purple using paint I had on hand from another project. The hooks are just standard S hooks I picked up at the local hardware store and also spray painted purple.

 Hope you enjoy and are inspired to re-purpose something! My next project I have in the works that both my hubby and I are working on is making a coffee table using re-purposed materials. I will share when we have it finished!