Ashton & Collins Family Tree

So I took this project on because I love my little sister and I like a good challenge. She wanted to make a family tree for her new in-laws but wanted to include both family's. Anyone who has looked at my blog knows that last year I did some family tree but they were just one family, so two seemed liked a challenge. But I said I'd do it and got to work.

I tried to just draw it out first but of course it didn't work so I had to tape a bunch of paper together and draw it out til I got what I needed. After we cut it out and used it as a template for the rest of the project.

After we drew it out my brother in-law router ed out the tree outline

We then filled it with black paint and sanded it.

We then taped it off to stain it.
(At this point I forgot to take some pictures so we fast forward)

Because everything was custom on this project i got to make one of my first frames. Which ends up being the biggest frame I make.

So stained and ready for the bottom leaves. I bought 200 2 1/4 leaves for this tree and used about 180 of them it was insane.

One hour and I got the bottom laid out and glued on. What I learned with the last one was that wood glue didn't hold up well when moving so I used glue that I use to laminate granite with. If those leaves fall off now I'd be real surprised.

Collins side

Ashton side

Names penciled on

Names marked on

I pre did all the leaves before I got to far so I was ready once I got to this part

Up close of what it looked like once done.

With my other trees it was just one family name so I was able to do a neat banner across the trunk so I was a little stumped what to do with this.

So I came up with these granite name plates

Collins side

Ashton side

Finished Product
this board is 3' x 4'

The Boy's Door Signs

I really can't take any credit for these. I just bought the materials and glued them together. The most I did was paint the letters and the backboard.

This is my new nephews

My oldest

My youngest

Saw Dust #2

if you are using wood glue or wood filler on a project mix sawdust into it to match the color of the wood you are using this will help hide it better

Lego Chess

I have buckets of legos that I've had since I was 3 and now that I don't get to play with them anymore I wanted to do something with them that I could use so I built a chess set

the king

the queen

the bishop

the knight

the rook

the pawn

the red side

the white side

of course Ethan was there to help he thought it was pretty cool

I built this in the middle of winter when it was to hot to go outside and work it took me over six hour to put it all together I actually have to go back and glue them all together but I'm in no hurry to do it

Eth and Lincs step stool

So I was going to make just a stool for Ethan at first but then my wife asked me what I was going to do when my soon to be new baby needed one, I said I'd make another but the she pointed out how little our bathroom is so I decided to make it for both of them

I through this together pretty fast so I didn't take any pictures til the end

Wedding Arbor

For those of you out there who do not know me here is a little story. I am the oldest of 6 kids. I love my siblings very much even the ones who drive me crazy. So I try and do what I can to help them with things in there lives. My little sister recently got engaged and married. She and her husband are like all young people I know and do not have a lot of money. So her wedding had to be small and cost efficeint. My wife helped her plan a lot of her wedding from things she needed how to get them ect...ect... At some point my sister decided she was not going to have any kind of alter, stand, or arbor to stand on, under or by when she got married because she was on a budget and to rent things like that cost to much. So my wife knowing how to soften my beat less bloodless heart asked me to make her an arbor. Never making on or anything that big I was a little overwhelmed but went to it any ways. This is what I got.

I knew this was going to take a long time and that I was going to have it after so I wanted to make sure I did it right

I cut all my top pieces out first because I knew that was going to take me the longest to make, I cut all the ends at 45degree angles and routed all the ends to make it look real nice

I then notches into the top pieces to attach them to the support beams

I used 2 kinds of glue for the legs

Gorilla glue and tite bond 2

Seeing that Traves and myself have never made something like this we ran into a few snags one being we didn't know how to put it together once it was ready

But we managed

At this point I was feeling pretty good about how it was going

At some point of this build Traves taut Ethan how to use his electric drill we set up some screws for him on his work table for him to take out and put in and he thought that was pretty awesome so after I had put the trellis on the side he found the screws and started taking them out, I only found out after he handed me a hand full of screws with a big grin and wanted me to put them back in so he could take them out again I laughed for a long time after that and let him help

I wanted to hide some screws so I drilled out the holes

then filled them with dowels then sanded them down I didn't get a picture of the sanded down but it hid very well

this is it ready for stain

Ethan helping

how can you get mad at someone who looks this cute

After one coat of stain

the top buttons have 2 coats the bottom has just one

so like all projects I do this took me longer than I thought it was going to but like I said I really wanted it to look nice, so when I stained the trellis I bought at the store and it looked awful I panicked because her wedding was a week away and I didn't know what to do, so i looked up a bunch online to see other ways people have made the sides saw one I liked and made a quick run to the lumber store

After 2 coats of stain

I was literally working on it the night before her wedding so I forgot to take pictures after my trellis problem happened so this is the only picture I have with it finished and by itself

This is my little sister and my new brother