i hope you're ready because today's videoÂ
is jam-packed with wood diys for hold on much better today we'reÂ
diying for christmas in july  this is whiskey and went my name's whitney and onÂ
this channel i love to share diys and budget home  decor content so if you like that too be sureÂ
to hit subscribe so we can beat craft buddies  now for the past few years i have loved doingÂ
wood projects for christmas in july because it  allows me to get a lot of the pieces that i wantÂ
to make done well ahead of time before it gets  really cold here in illinois so we're going toÂ
head to the hardware store we're going to pick  up some super affordable fence pickets and i'veÂ
got a ton of inspiration for you today to get you  jump started on the christmas season and you canÂ
also sell all of these projects as well to make  extra money for christmas so win-win up first weÂ
are gonna make these super easy but really cute  wood skis as we use fence pickets throughout thisÂ
video we're gonna use a few different kinds from  the traditional dog ear like this to some of theÂ
more pointed ones that we're gonna use for these  skis now mine were outside so keep that in mindÂ
as you're looking and i got mine from menards but  you can get yours from any hardware store and theÂ
pricing is going to be comparable especially if  you live somewhere with a cold winter like i doÂ
summer is a great time to buy them so for these  skis i grabbed two pointed fence pickets and atÂ
menards they ended up being $3.58 for two of them  now while i'm looking at the wood i'm going toÂ
hold it up and look straight down it like this  to make sure it is not curved there's plenty toÂ
choose from so make sure you get a good piece of  wood without a ton of knots as well so i'm goingÂ
in with my power sander i'm sanding the whole  thing and then i'm going to curve the ends so itÂ
looks more like a ski i'm doing that by rocking  my wrist around each of the corners and that'sÂ
going to help a sand it down and b have it be  more of a curved look instead of so pointed thenÂ
i'm grabbing one of my favorite stain colors briar  smoke by verithane and i'm staining both of myÂ
skis now you can decorate yours however you want  i decided to do varsity type lines at the end soÂ
i'm using one inch painters tape to tape off that  i started with one piece at the bottom flush withÂ
the bottom of my ski then i'm using a spacer piece  putting another piece and then in the middle iÂ
ended up using two widths of the one-inch painters  tape so i had a thicker stripe in the middle ifÂ
you plan to put these outside i would recommend  sealing with a polycrylic or a polyurethaneÂ
and i also decided to add this really cute  ski lift sign it was really easy to make i grabbedÂ
some of these craft wood letters from hobby lobby  but you can get them at any craft store and iÂ
just spray painted them white it was quicker  than hand painting them i glued them onto a scrapÂ
stained piece of fence picket that i had from  other projects later in the video added an arrowÂ
and some jute twine and this thing is ready to go  this video was also a collab with some of myÂ
absolute favorite crafty friends here on youtube  it's organized by shannon from the daily diyerÂ
and the cozy christmas cottage if you didn't know  shannon has a second channel that she kicks offÂ
in july and it runs all the way through christmas  and she shares a ton of great christmas specificÂ
content over there so all that info will be linked  down below as well as a playlist so you canÂ
check out everybody's video and you will have  a ton of inspiration to get your wheels turningÂ
for christmas for the rest of the video we are  going to be using variations of these dog-earedÂ
fence pickets for this one i am using one that is  six inches wide by four feet tall now i'm startingÂ
by trimming out lengths of this wide planked board  for these gingerbread houses i'm about to make soÂ
once i have the size i'm going to mark the center  and then i'm cutting 45 degree angles on eitherÂ
side to the center of my board to create a little  house shape now if you have a miter box you canÂ
do this as well i'm just using a chop saw i did  a similar thing to some scrap 2×4 that i wanted toÂ
share with you my brother had this in his workshop  but i cut 245 degree angles on that 2×4 and thenÂ
made three different sizes of houses for the same  project another option too is if you have a jigsawÂ
you can cut out more intricate shapes i decided to  do a house with a chimney here now to start makingÂ
these look like christmas i'm taking the color  nutmeg brown and acrylic paint and paintingÂ
everything all sides top bottom the whole nine  then once it dries it's time to ice them so i'mÂ
using some puffy paint to get the look of icing i  did this last year in my christmas baking videoÂ
so if you like gingerbread you've got to check  that out this is super easy i just pulled up someÂ
images of a variety of gingerbread houses and used  the puffy paint it's pretty easy to squeeze andÂ
draw because it's got a fine tip and it's also  really easy to make it look like icing so hereÂ
i'm just flooding the roof of my two by fours  and creating little drips so it looks like theÂ
icing is nice and fresh and hot and just dripping  off of those gingerbread houses these are superÂ
easy to make and i am so excited to add these to  my gingerbread decor in the new house and theseÂ
would also make a great addition to a vendor  booth or something you could throw up on facebookÂ
marketplace to sell locally in your community you  could crank out a bunch of these on a weekend andÂ
make some extra cash for christmas these three  here are all the fence picket ones and they doÂ
stand up on their own as well which is a huge plus  now if you peep that gingerbread lane sign i'mÂ
going to show you how you can create a really  fun christmas sign super cheap without a cricutÂ
so i'm grabbing some thinner fence pickets which  are about four inches wide and i'm going to use myÂ
miter box to cut a piece to about 20 inches wide  this is something you can get really inexpensivelyÂ
over on amazon it comes with the yellow box i'm  using here as well as the saw you can do straightÂ
cuts as well as 45 degree angles and it allows  you to make projects like this without a big sawÂ
now i cut two pieces of my 1 by 2 for the top and  the bottom just the same length and then i cut twoÂ
pieces on either side to finish out my framing now  that's totally optional i just like to frame outÂ
my signs then i'm going to stain all of the frames  as well as the back of my sign in briar smoke thatÂ
just makes the back of your sign look finished if  you put it on a table or something then you don'tÂ
have to worry about the unfinished wood after i  painted the opposite side white then it was timeÂ
to grab some more of those letters that i used  on that ski lodge sign and create what i wantedÂ
to say i decided to do gingerbread lane i spray  painted them with some matte red spray paint it'sÂ
just a lot easier than getting into all the nooks  and crannies of these little intricate letters andÂ
then i'm taking my detailed glue gun and gluing  them all down i used some painters tape to helpÂ
me make sure everything was going to be straight  and then i decided i wanted to add a little bitÂ
more red to the sign so i just added a little  stripe underneath with some more painters tapeÂ
once that was all dry it was time to assemble  and so i started with the pieces that were flushÂ
so that's the top and bottom trim piece i'm using  a nail gun but this is a simple project you couldÂ
easily use a hammer and finishing nails to add  these on this is a really quick and easy way toÂ
make some of these fun signs especially if you  don't have a way to cut out a stencil you couldÂ
also cricket this obviously or you could head to  places like michael's hobby lobby joanne's to getÂ
some stencils they've got some fun christmas ones  usually every year so the sky's the limit but withÂ
a fence picket this is like a four dollar sign  i have been wanting to make a new christmas cardÂ
display for a while now and i thought these fence  pickets would be perfect so i'm grabbing threeÂ
of those wide planked ones these are the six  inch across and i am then taking a scrapÂ
piece of my thinner one so the four inch wide  to mark and cut some braces so they don't have toÂ
be perfect you just want to make sure that they  stretch across all three pieces so you can braceÂ
it and hook them together i also decided to take  off the dog ear on the top so it would be straightÂ
before i sanded but you could leave that and not  need a saw for that portion then i am staining allÂ
of my pieces including the braces with briar smoke  letting them dry overnight and then we're gonnaÂ
assemble our sign so the three braces go right on  the back and then i'm using one inch nails withÂ
my nail gun on all these projects the one inch  is perfect if you don't have a nail gun you couldÂ
do screws or a hammer and nails to hook them all  together then i wanted to add a little personalityÂ
to it so i decided to create a stencil out of  magic cover from dollar tree and i'm goingÂ
to talk a little bit more about that later  but it is really easy i just cut it on the washiÂ
setting and it's a cheap way to create a stencil  so this says what's a christmas gram i want oneÂ
from the movie elf it's one of my favorites you  guys know i die on the hill of christmas vacationÂ
is the best christmas movie but elf is definitely  a close second i've got a full video of elfÂ
inspired diys if you want to check that out but  here i'm just going through with a foam brush andÂ
tapping up and down you want to make sure that it  is a light coat so it doesn't go underneath yourÂ
stencil but then once you do that you can peel it  off and you've got a really fun little saying ifÂ
you don't have a cricut but want to make something  similar you can grab some of those wood lettersÂ
from hobby lobby and you could add those to it  or you could just leave it that rustic color andÂ
you could use it to display things all year round  so once that was done i needed to add somethingÂ
for my duke twine to hang from so i could  actually clip up my cards so i just added someÂ
little one-inch finish nails to either side  and then i painted some of these really cute woodÂ
light bulbs i got these from amazon they were an  impulse buy and i love them i painted them redÂ
and green and strung them up on some jute twine  then i just started wrapping it around using thoseÂ
nails on the back so then that way everything is  going to be all nice and tight and i like to useÂ
one continuous piece of jute twine i think it  helps it hold more sturdy i'm just creating likeÂ
a spiderweb look here so that i have somewhere to  clip my cards here's what the back looks likeÂ
with the jute twine on all of the nails it  just is nice to have it kind of grip thereÂ
and then i added some clips that i covered  in washi tape and then also these are justÂ
little gingerbread stickers from hobby lobby  this thing is so cute i absolutely love it i'm soÂ
excited to use it this christmas it's bigger than  the one i currently have and i love gettingÂ
christmas cards and so i want to make sure  i can display all of them and this is going toÂ
allow me to do that if you want a smaller option  i had some scrap of the four inch wide planks soÂ
i ended up painting one red and white and then  i just nailed them together with two randomÂ
braces on the back just scrap i was using up  and then i got these three inch letters fromÂ
amazon they were very affordable they're a cute  font and i did christmas grams so similar to theÂ
other one added some jute twine on either side and  then you can add clips whether they be clippedÂ
to your jute twine or glued onto the sign you  just want to make sure that your clip opening isÂ
facing up or outward so you can put cards on them  but this is a really great way to display yourÂ
christmas cards you can put this on a shelf you  don't need to hang it anywhere it doesn't take upÂ
a lot of space and it would be great for someone  in an apartment where they want to displayÂ
their cards but don't have a ton of space  now i had to recruit my buddy for this next oneÂ
because this is a little bit of a sentimental  project this will be great for anybody that hasÂ
a little one in their life i took finn and my  mom had to help but i ended up measuring him toÂ
use his height for this next one so i'm grabbing  another one of the six inch wide fence pickets andÂ
i'm measuring it to the height of fin so he's 39Â Â inches he's about 38 inches but i gave it a littleÂ
extra because i want this to be how tall he was at  christmas and i'm also cutting a 1×2 for the hatÂ
then we're going to start by painting it white  and we're going to make a really cute snowman hereÂ
so about three quarters of the way up your white  and then you're going to paint your little one byÂ
two that you cut black as well as the top of the  fence picket i decided to leave the dog ear atÂ
the top but you could cut that off if you want  to be a straight top hat so here's that comingÂ
together and then it's time to add our face so  i'm starting with a pencil to create a carrot noseÂ
i like to give myself just a light outline instead  of just winging it with the paint it helps becauseÂ
you can erase the pencil on the white chalk paint  and then i'm using a detailed brush to just paintÂ
on the cute little carrot nose once that was dry  so i didn't get orange paint all over my handÂ
i gave him two eyes and then some dots for his  mouth i glued on the little hat piece and then iÂ
added some white details with a white paint marker  use some ribbon from my stash to give him a cuteÂ
little scarf and i ended up tucking it underneath  so it looked more like a scarf instead of justÂ
a bow tie and then the final touches were some  greenery on the hat and then i also added someÂ
dots down lower for his buttons this is so cute  and i really love that it is the height of finnÂ
i actually wrote on the back of the sign how tall  he was and information about the first year inÂ
our new home so in that way every year when we  get it out we could say finn when we movedÂ
into this house you were this tall i love  the sentimental value and i can't take creditÂ
for this idea because my mom usually does this  for her kindergarten students to give to theirÂ
parents for christmas and this would also be a  great grandparents gift as well if you enjoy myÂ
videos be sure to take a second and head down  and check out the subscribe box you want to makeÂ
sure that you have that bell clicked and that just  means youtube will notify you every time i uploadÂ
a new video so you won't miss any of my content i  recently saw a few different variations of theseÂ
churches on pinterest and i knew i had to try my  hand at it so it is a big mashup plus my ownÂ
flair on some of these projects we're grabbing  two of the skinnier fence pickets so the fourÂ
inch wide for this one and i'm cutting everything  on my miter box here to show you that you don'tÂ
need a big saw to do these projects i am cutting  some different pieces to a variety of lengths andÂ
i'll show you the lengths in a minute and then i  am also going to cut some at a 45 degree angleÂ
and then some with a point like this so you're  going to want a 14 inch long piece in the centerÂ
two 10 inch with 45 degree cuts on either side  and then your bottom you can either do a 14Â
inch piece for a wider base or a 10 inch base  for a smaller one and then we're going to stainÂ
all of the pieces in that brier smoke now i was  going for a rustic look here so i decided to useÂ
some vaseline on top of dried stain and you don't  want to use too much but you can add it to someÂ
corners or the center and what it's going to do  is it's going to resist the stain taking thatÂ
chalk paint that i'm putting on here here's what  it looks like with a light coat and then once itÂ
dries i'm taking a paper towel and just pulling  downward on it and it's going to give you kindÂ
of that chippy paint technique i saw this on tic  tac and i knew i wanted to try it and i thoughtÂ
these would be the perfect time so now there's  a few ways that you can assemble your churches orÂ
barns to make them look how you want i decided to  do one like this where the two outside pieces wereÂ
overlapping and i am going to hook it together  with these gorilla glue hot glue sticks they doÂ
work on wood and so for little hobby crafts like  this that aren't going to be holding any weightÂ
it's a lot easier to hook them up like that then  i'm adding some glue to the bottom and gluingÂ
it down to my base and this is the 10 inch base  for the white one i did them flush all threeÂ
across and this is a 14 inch base i put it on  now to add some faux snow i mixed up some whiteÂ
paint and some baking soda until it got thick  and then i added it to the eaves of all of theÂ
different parts of both churches you want to  make sure you pile it up a little bit so it looksÂ
like freshly fallen snow i also added some to the  bottom as well and i think it turned out soÂ
cute i love that i'm gonna be able to use  these for both christmas as well as just winterÂ
snowy decor and then the final touch was some  jute twine and some little sprigs from thisÂ
greenery pick i had in my stash from hobby lobby  super simple and super rustic really easy to makeÂ
and these also i think would sell really well at a  vendor show as i was randomly scrolling pinterestÂ
recently i saw this image of the stocking holder  and i knew i had to make it this is what inspiredÂ
the entire video this is from the blog beyond the  fence picket i will link her blog down belowÂ
she's got a lot of cute fence picket projects  now for this you are going to want to grab someÂ
of those larger six inch pickets i grabbed three  for a total of 567.
So then we're going to goÂ
through and make all of our cuts for our snowmen  now we did five snowmen but i only had threeÂ
dog-eared tops so i set my saw to 35.3 degrees and  i ended up cutting the tops of some of the piecesÂ
so they matched so here's everything i mentioned  before the outside two are 14 inches the middleÂ
one is 13 inches and then the two smaller ones  are 12 inches then i grabbed a 1 by 2 laid it downÂ
and measured where i wanted it to kind of hang off  like their hat brim and i cut that down to sizeÂ
so that it fit like this then my last step was  to take some more of that wider fence picket andÂ
lay it across the back to kind of figure out how  long it needed to be and this is going to allow usÂ
to hook all of our snowmen together as one piece  so here are all my pieces of wood that i cut forÂ
my snowmen now it's time to paint so i painted all  of them about the bottom three quarters in whiteÂ
and then i laid them all out so i could figure out  where i needed to put the hat i painted the 1×2Â
with black matte chalk paint and then i ended up  laying it down and marking where i wanted the hatÂ
brim so i knew how far down the black paint needed  to go then i repeated what i did with the whiteÂ
so that i have these black and white tops of the  dog-eared fence pickets now because they are allÂ
different heights i went through and put some blue  painters tape in the center of all of them kind ofÂ
where i wanted all the faces to line up because i  was doing them individually and that really helpedÂ
so that when they get put together all the faces  are even even though they aren't the same sizeÂ
now i'm doing a similar face to what i did for  the fin height fence picket earlier i'm just kindÂ
of drawing it out and then i'm laying them next  to each other to figure out where i want the noseÂ
to line up and also what way i want them to face i  also added on top of the wet orange paint a littleÂ
bit of brown paint and mixed it in that just gave  a little bit of depth to the carrot with it stillÂ
being one solid orange color once those were dry  i did the same face that i did on that other oneÂ
so two eyes and then five dots for the mouth and  once those were dry it was time to assemble soÂ
i'm gonna lay all of them face down in the order  that i want and make sure that the bottom isÂ
flush that i'm taking my kind of stringer piece  across the back my brace laying it down andÂ
then using my one inch nails to nail it down  the one inch nails are key here because you don'tÂ
want it popping through the face of your snowman  but one inch works perfect and then i'm doing theÂ
same thing with the hat now i had some holes on  the top from the nail gun so i decided to use someÂ
plastic wood it's just wood filler i only needed  a little bit it's a teeny tiny hole from theÂ
brad nail i filled it sanded it and then ended  up adding a little bit more of that black chalkÂ
paint so you wouldn't even know the nails were  in there now i wanted to add the hook similar toÂ
the inspiration so that if i wanted to hang stuff  i could so i got these little black hooks in a bigÂ
pack from amazon i ended up drilling some pilot  holes and then screwing them into the centerÂ
of each board to finish it off i just tied on  some christmas ribbon because i want to be ableÂ
to switch out the red tart and ribbon for maybe  a black and white buffalo check after christmasÂ
so that this is something that could go through  christmas into my winter decor while i was lookingÂ
for inspo for this video i came across funky  junkie interiors on pinterest and she has a lot ofÂ
pictures of decorating with old coca-cola crates  i've wanted one for so long but i haven'tÂ
been able to find one so i'm going to use  scrap from some of these six inch wide picketsÂ
i'm cutting two pieces at 20 inches long and two  pieces at eight inches long that is going to allowÂ
me to make my box i also grabbed from menards  some of these old like hammered looking vintageÂ
drawer pulls and those are going to be the handles  on my box to drill holes for my handles i'm justÂ
taking some painters tape applying it to the back  of my pole and then because it's indented thatÂ
allows me to use it to drill directly through the  painters tape so i know right where the holes needÂ
to be i'm using that same piece on the other side  so it is the right size in the right locationÂ
and to give it that old worn look i'm going  to take some water and some gray acrylic paintÂ
mix it up and i'm going to gray wash this wood  so i'm just putting it on and then i'm usingÂ
an old sock to really buff it in so that it's  not like covering like paint it's just kind ofÂ
a wash this makes it look really weathered and  it looks like you got it off of a palette whichÂ
is awesome then to assemble my box it was really  simple i just took some wood glue on eitherÂ
side of the eight inch piece used a clamp to  hold it down if you don't have a clamp you couldÂ
just use a friend with hands to help you hold it  and then while the wood glue is setting i'm alsoÂ
going to use those one inch nails that i got for  the other sign and i'm just going to nail itÂ
together now if you don't have nails you can  absolutely use screws for this just make sureÂ
you drill pilot holes i touched up any areas  that i missed with the gray wash and then iÂ
added in my handles and my box was complete  now for the coca-cola element i'm going toÂ
use that magic cover that i talked about  earlier from dollar tree i like to use this forÂ
stencils you just apply it right to your mat and  you put it in your cricut just like you'dÂ
cut vinyl i had my assistant help me here  and i cut it on the washi tape setting itÂ
cuts really great for me you just want to  make sure you have a sticky mat i went aheadÂ
and weeded it like a stencil so i weeded out the  inside of it used my paper transfer tape fromÂ
expressions vinyl and applied it right to my box  and then i'm doing the same thing that i didÂ
on the card holder earlier just stippling  up and down with some black paint now theÂ
goal here is to make sure you can see the  outline of the drink coca-cola but you don'tÂ
have all of it covered so it looks rustic  now this image i kind of piecemealed together fromÂ
a few different logos so i will link this file  over on my blog that i put together so you canÂ
use it for free if you want to do the same thing  now while it's wet i am peeling it off so itÂ
doesn't seal down to my wood at all and that is it  super quick and easy it turned out so much betterÂ
than i even thought i think it really looks like  the inspiration and for christmas i do plan to addÂ
some greenery inside of it but i also like that  i could flip the box around and it has one sideÂ
that is plain so this is gonna be really multi-use  decor not just christmas now we've cut up a lotÂ
of wood in this video and that left me with a  lot of scraps and you guys know i'm a sucker forÂ
a good scrap wood project so here's what i did  with my scraps i took some large and small scrapsÂ
and cut them into squares and then i painted them  with some nutmeg brown so the same colorÂ
that we did the gingerbread houses earlier  i decided to make some gingerbread men and womenÂ
so i started by adding some red paint and buffing  it in with my finger and then i got these littleÂ
unfinished wood pieces off of amazon for the  nose i painted those red and then i started toÂ
draw the face so i did circle eyes i added some  eyelashes for my gingerbread woman a littleÂ
smiley face over the cheeks and then my noses  you can add some additional detail with a whiteÂ
paint marker and then i glued on all of my noses  and finished it off with some rick rack ribbonÂ
around the top and the bottom i did white on  my three small ones and then red and white on myÂ
larger like gingerbread mommy that it looks like  and these turned out so cute these were aÂ
great use of scrap they go really well with  my sign as well as my little gingerbreadÂ
cookies that i made earlier in the video  and they're also great with my little marshmallowsÂ
i made that in my baking video last year so check  out that video if you want to see that tutorial iÂ
also wanted to use some of my scraps and my jigsaw  to make some fun shapes for a tiered tray so iÂ
started by kind of sketching out a circle and then  i used my jigsaw to cut around the top to create aÂ
curved surface i also did the same thing with some  four inch wide fence pickets then because it'sÂ
curved i went through with my power sander and  used my wrist to kind of rock it here so that it'sÂ
giving it a sanded look but also curved make sure  all of your edges are sanded down and then we'reÂ
gonna make these into some cute little beanie hats  so i got a pack of christmas fabric just someÂ
fat quarters off of amazon they had some really  cute prints i cut a piece to size and then stuckÂ
it down with hot glue the mod podge just wasn't  cooperating here with wood and fabric so i decidedÂ
to just use hot glue then i'm going to stretch the  pieces on the straight sides as much as i canÂ
because it's not going to gap on me because they  are straight sides tuck in your edges and thenÂ
i went around the top and created some slits so  then that way i could kind of pull it tight so youÂ
could still see the curve at the top of the wood once that was all glued down all i needed to doÂ
was cut another piece of fabric just to cover  over the top to make sure the back was coveredÂ
because you'll see it from different angles on a  tiered tray then it was time for embellishmentsÂ
so i created a pom-pom with these new pom-pom  makers i ordered off of amazon i really like themÂ
and they're really easy to use to create pom-poms  they're really affordable as well i made it trimÂ
the edges and then glued it onto the top of my hat  and then i took some more of that whiteÂ
yarn and wrapped it around the bottom  of the hat to make it look a littleÂ
bit more like a folded over beanie  i made a variety of different sizes from theÂ
scrap and i also like that i did the green  and white so i could use those for winter decorÂ
as well and these are so cute i love the prints  and they're going to be a perfect addition to myÂ
holiday tiered trays thanks so much for watching  be sure to leave me a comment and let me knowÂ
what your favorite project was today and also head  down to the description box for a link to thatÂ
full playlist so you can see everybody's video  a huge thank you to shannon for inviting meÂ
to be a part of this collab and be sure to  check out that christmas channel you willÂ
be so happy that you did and hit subscribe  if you're new so you don't miss a futureÂ
video i'll catch you in the next one bye