Rustic Tree...

This project has been a long time in the making. It probably took me a good five months from beginning to end (I took a lot of breaks in between steps) but it was so worth it! I got the inspiration for this from Three Men and a Lady.

First, we found some old wooden pallets back behind Target one night and brought them home. Then my hubby pulled them apart and nailed them to some boards to make this rugged square. Then I stained the slats a dark wood stain. The search was on to find a tree picture that I liked. This was the winner...

The picture was in color but I made it black and white so that it would be easier to trace onto the boards. I covered the wood with some white contact paper so that I could trace the image onto the wood. I had the picture copied to a transparency at Kinkos and then I borrowed a projector from my church and projected the image onto the wood.

This part was a little nerve wracking. All of those squiggly lines!!! I kept saying, "Honey, do you think people are going to know that this is supposed to be a tree?" I wasn't convinced for a while. The most tedious part of the project was cutting out all of the negative space with an exacto knife. That took forever! Once that was done I put one coat of paint on it and pulled the contact paper off while it was still wet. The paint bled through on some parts and I had to do a little touch up afterwards, but I think that it turned out amazing!!!!

I'm so happy with this project! It's very rustic, so there are lots of imperfections and flaws, but that's what was nice about it. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my crafting so it was nice to have a project that could be a little rough and rugged. I still might take my sander to it and rough it up some more in a few places, you know... to add to the rustic feel. I really do love it. I hate to pick favorites, but I think that this might be my favorite project I have ever made for my house before...