Faux Fireplace Log Stack

I have been dying to make this for a few months now.  I love my fireplace, but we've had a standard grate over the front of it and it just wasn't cutting it anymore.  First off, our fireplace is a corner fireplace so a standard grate didn't really fit.  Second, with two boys it was always getting knocked over.  And third, it just didn't look cute (I know, I know....).

I thought about just putting some pretty logs in it to make it look nicer, but then it's still not safe.  We have the metal log holder (I don't know the actual name of it), and there are always footballs or soccer balls or cars landing in there (again, a house with boys...).

I decided I wanted to cover it.  I finally found this cute post and decided I was going to make my own.

Luckily, my dad was cutting down one of his aspen trees.  I asked him if I could take the wood, he said yes!  Yay-free wood!

I measured out the front of my fireplace and the side of it.  Since it's a corner fireplace, I decided to do faux logs in front and actual logs on the side.

[all my wood ready to go]

I measured my wood 16" and started cutting enough logs to fit up the side of the fireplace.  Once those were cut, I had him cut pieces that were about 2" long for the front facade.

[measuring my logs for the side]

getting ready to cut it all

[my awesome husband cutting all the wood]

[logs for the side]

[small pieces for the front]

 All done cutting!  Look at all that wood!!

I let it sit out for a week or so to help it dry out.

Okay, now it was time to put it up.  I used a 1/2" thick MDF board that my husband measured and cut to fit both the front and the sides.  Then I sprayed them both black.

I didn't really care how good these looked as they're being covered with wood, but just enough black to look dark.

Next I placed all my short pieces on how I wanted them & glued them with wood glue.

Getting so close to being done.....

Next I stacked my logs how I wanted them.  Now this got a little tricky...

I then taped the ends of the MDF board where I could see the center of the log (where the log was closest to the board)...

Then we used the drill press to drill holes into the board.

Once the holes were all drilled, we flipped the logs over so the fronts were facing down.  We put the MDF board on top, black facing the logs and started screwing the logs into place.

three of them done...so cool

We put both pieces into place and screwed them together with black screws and voila-it's done!

[Here you can see the front from the side before we put the two pieces together...]

It is a lot of wood and a lot of logs, but I'm so happy the way it turned out!  Grateful my dad let me take the wood and grateful my husband was so willing to help me!

Happy Crafting!

Total Cost: $15?
Total Time: a lot:)

2 DIY Festive Spider Webs

 My son had his Halloween party at school this week and I was in charge of games.

I decided I wanted to make a really cute spiderweb for "pin the spider on the web" and went and bought two pieces of black poster board at Walmart for $.97 each.  It was a lot of work, but turned out super super cute.  But I think it's better as a decoration!

Supplies Needed:
1 black sheet poster board
Twine
Scissors & tape
Hole punch


1. I measured 12 stripes about 1" wide and cut them out

(1.b: I "laminated them with packing tape, not necessary but I wanted to make sure it lasted and I'm too cheap to take it to a store).

2.  Then I punched a holes on both ends of them.

3.  I strung the pieces together to form the center of the web.

4.  Next I laid them all out and started making my round pieces.  I tried to use a bowl, but didn't have any really big enough so I just kind of free handed them.

 

5.  Then I punched holes in the ends of the round ones and punched two more sets of holes on the straight ones.

 6.  Time to string again.

There are two ways to do this.  If you don't want your web to be able to collapse, you can string everything together, but if you want to be able to collapse it for storage, then you can just string one end of the round piece to the straight end.

I did NOT string the entire thing together (I wanted to collapse it for storing), so each piece is only connected on one side.

[see how they are only strung on one side?  This allows me to fold it up when I want to store it]

 7.  I taped all the unattached ends with masking tape on the back.

I love the twine knots at the intersections. It's super cute (I think).

It's a little tricky for the spiders to stay on, but it's still super super cute and my son just loves it.  It took a lot of time, but I really like how it turned out!

I didn't know if it would be easy for the kids to keep their spiders attached to this one, so I decided I wanted to make a more simple one...

I saw a really cute "pin the spider on the web" here and thought that was pretty easy so I made my own.  Super super easy & way cute too!  It cost less than $1 and took maybe 20 minutes to make!


Supplies Needed:
1 yard butcher paper
Marker & Ruler
(Plates various sizes)
Tape
Paper spiders (I printed mine from the internet)

I went to Zurcher's and bought a yard of butcher paper for $.67.  They had all sorts of colors, but I decided on green since it's my son's favorite color and kinda Halloween-ey.

I grabbed a yardstick and started making lines.  I did 8 lines 36" long.  Then I measured from the center and marked about every 3".

Then I took my plates and started tracing lines.  I thought about doing freehand, but my ovals always end up lopsided.

 Then I traced them with permanent marker

 There you have it

I decided to laminate mine (about $6) just so I can use it over and over.  And I found my spiders by just googling cute clipart.  I printed them out on cardstock and then "laminated" them with packing tape.

Super fun!

Happy Halloween!