Candy Cane Stocking Tree Reveal & A Tale

This post is a long time coming.  I've been looking forward to creating this masterpiece for months now.  And it's finally done!

After a few snags and countless hours, here it is!

Isn't it awesome?!  I got the idea from Pinterest, originating at Crafty Vegas Mom.  Hers is super adorable, but I knew I wanted ours to be a bit different.


And here's where I tell you the tale of the Candy Cane Stocking Tree adventure.  It's a fun one.

The Tale

It all started with the idea but no real clue how to make it happen other than to use a fence post and 2x4s.  So Chew-ster and I headed to Lowe's for supplies. 

The first thing we searched for was the fence post.  We searched.  And searched.  And searched.  Turns out, my friends, that Lowe's doesn't actually carry fence posts like the one in Crafty Vegas Mom's picture.  Maybe hers was from Home Depot?  I don't know.  All I know is we had to figure out something else.  

So we bought a 4x4x8 fence post.  Eight feet of fence post.  That's a lot.  But we wanted it to be tall, around five feet - so we weren't too concerned.  And, fortunately, finding the 2x4s was easy.  We bought some paint in red and white, some sparkle additive, and some screws.  

What a hottie  :D

Since we don't have any sort of wood-cutting tools, we headed to Chewie's parents' to use the miter saw they have in their garage.  We cut the fence post down to 8 ft.  Easy.  We then cut the 2x4 into 18 in sections and cut one of the corners at a 45 degree angle for looks.  Also easy.  (Although, admittedly, Chewie did all the cutting.  I watched...from a distance.  Sharp things and I don't get along.)

We got the wood home and immediately went to painting the 2x4s and the fence post.  Tip: sand everything first.  We didn't and paid for it later.  Trust me.  Just do it. 

Painting took a lot of time because it's so cold and damp here that the paint took a while to dry.  And we could only do a side, maybe two, at a time.  Then add another coat to that.  Lots of time.  Good thing I have a patient husband, otherwise I would have screwed it up out of haste!

If you look close, you can see some of the lines.

Fast forward about a day and a half - I broke out my pencil and straight edge and went to town creating the red striped sections.  This was not easy.  I'm not going to even bother telling you how I did it because I'm sure I took the long route instead of the easy one.  There HAS TO BE some easier way to do it, but I have no clue what that is.  I Googled it to no avail.  So, if you figure it out, let me know.

Then we had to go back to Lowe's because we didn't have any painter's tape and needed more paint brushes.  Once we bought those, we taped it all up, added the sparkle paint additive to the red, and hit the road painting.  We probably did two solid coats with touch ups here and there.  

Here's where I thought my life was ruined...or at least our project.  We pulled off the painter's tape, only to reveal that the red had seeped past it onto the white where it wasn't supposed to be.  I don't know if it's the tape's fault or the lack of sanding the wood or both, but I thought I was going to cry.  We'd spent days working on this, and I was ready to see the finished product.  

See the disaster???

Fortunately, my hubby came to the rescue with a brilliant idea.  We bought some fine-tipped angled paint brushes and went to town straightening up the lines and covering the red boo-boos with white paint.  This took a couple of hours.  It was a huge task, but it was so worth it in the end because it turned out so much better!

So much cleaner.  What a relief!

A different angle post-clean-up

Next up, we screwed on the 2x4s at the bottom for stability.  We used a drill and some really hefty screws.  This was probably the easiest part of the whole thing.  We also added some hooks for our stockings, and that was it!

And there you have it!  It was a long project and way more costly than we anticipated, but we absolutely LOVE it!

Our little reindeer buddy who's standing guard

Hope you enjoyed our stocking tree and maybe are even inspired to make one of your own!  Merry Christmas!

"JOY" Holiday Blocks

While working on another project, Chewie and I collected some extra 2x4 blocks of wood, and I decided to make them into something decorative for the holidays!

These were really simple to make.

• Cut the 2x4s to the desired size (ours are 3 in tall).
• Paint with two coats of red paint.
• Make a "JOY" stencil on the computer.
• Tape stencil to block and use white paint.
• Touch up and then trace with a silver Sharpie.

Easy as pie! 

Hope your holiday season is filled with lots of "joy"!

House Sign

Where we live, our house isn't marked very well. It's a little difficult to explain to friends which house is ours because we have a long, winding driveway with no marker indicating our house number.

So we made one. :)

This was really simple...

What to do...

I got two pieces of wood from Lowes: one 8 inch piece and one twelve inch piece.

We then painted them with some red paint we had on hand from when we painted our futon frame for the studio.

While those dried, I designed a stencil in Word with our house numbers and last name. This was basically all trial and error. I'm sure there is an easier way our there to do it, but I was too lazy to find it.

I placed each stencil on top of the corresponding wood pieces and traced the numbers/letters with a ball-point pen, pressing really hard so it would indent the wood a bit.

Next up - paint the numbers/letters with a Sharpie paint pen. That thing is amazing and was much easier to use than paint and a paint brush. Love it and will use it forevermore!

Let that dry and then spray with a waterproof sealer to protect it from the weather.

Last thing was to attach it to a garden stick with some nails and hammer into the ground at the end of our driveway!

We finished it just in time for the get together we had the next night, and our friends all said it was helpful, even ones who had been here previously!

{Also, while we painted the wood, we decided to make another one of these candy jars for our kitchen. It turned out great!}

Enjoy!

P.S. - Sorry the pictures aren't the best - they were all from my iPhone...