Camping Crate
My kids have a Halloween Carnival each October at their elementary school. Each class makes a themed gift basket to donate in a raffle, and this year I wanted to help by making the basket, or in my case a crate or box made out of wood. I have four kids at the school but with all we have going on I only volunteered to do two of them. Today I want to share the camping crate I made. You can see the golf box here.
I have been smitten with crates lately and have been needing an excuse to make one....
Eeek!
I Love it! (and that is just my camping stuff I threw in for the pictures, just for fun)
Not only is this cute little crate useful for carrying your camping gear....
It can also make a great little seat for when you are out in the wild!
So here is how I made it.
It got all my wood from the Home Depot cull bin....grand total....$4. Yeah, I love cheap! Well, actually the four smallest boards I just pulled from my stash. Then I figured on a size and cut the boards and sanded them. Here they are ready for a steel wool/vinegar treatment, or "natural stain".
I had just enough left over from some of the gift crates I made. (I believe I treated the gift crate in the second picture of that post, I didn't treat all of them) To make this all you need is one thing of 0000 steel wool, rip it into pieces and put it in a jar, then pour vinegar in the jar until it covers the steel wool, put the lid on and let it sit for 24 hours. Done!
I just brushed it on. See how the wood changes instantly...
Look how dark it is now.
Here is a picture from the other side. You can see the progression as I stared with the wider boards in the back and ended with the ones in the front. They were all pine boards so they ended up the same color. What I love is that different types of wood with end up in different shades.
Now to build! I started with gluing and nailing the two side pieces just like the one above.
Then I flipped it over to do the other side.
All sides are done! It is nice and sturdy! If you look to the right you will see a nail sticking out. I had a few that struck other nails and came out the side. I had to clip those off and use some wood filler.
Because I was just winging it on this crate, I had a gap a little to big at the bottom. I grabbed this middle piece to fill the gap. I treated it after I nailed it on. It really gives the crate some character, and I love that the wood ended up darker than the rest.
I also ended up adding screws to the bottom...just to make sure that it could hold lots of heavy stuff! This is a picture of when I had just drilled the holes.
My husband convinced me it was a worthy cause and that I should part with the perfect handles.....I eventually gave in....they were, after all perfect for the crate....(sigh!)
Because the theme was camping I wanted to add something....so I did the ink transfer method and added this cute label I designed. You can find a tutorial on how to do this quick easy transfer method Here.
I wiped it down really well, and sprayed some sealer on it, and it was done!
I hope who ever won it loves it as much as I do!
Mindi
I will be linking to these parties.
3 comments
such a fun idea! I love the idea of having something packed already to go to make camping easier!
ReplyDeleteLove this idea!
ReplyDeleteWould make a great gift for my OUTDOORS-MAN son in law.
Pinning it to my homemade Christmas board!
...via MRL party, Patricia
Mindi--LOVE the camping crate...my cull bin would never have these pine boards because they are sold by the foot. lucky you!
ReplyDeletegail
Your comments make me smile! I love to hear what you think!