Karlin's Vanity

So for Christmas every year all the grand kids on my wife's side pick names for the kid they will get a gift. Of course the kid doesn't get it the parent does so I picked who I wanted this year because I wanted to build my favorite little niece a vanity.

I started with the base. Pre-cut the drawer hole out and 45 Cut the corners.

I then glued it together which proved to be difficult with the clamps I have but I figured it out.

I then glued the top to the drawer piece using granite glue.

The legs

The bench I made the exact way as the top.

For the back I just made up a design I didn't really know what I was doing I made it up as I was going.

After I cut it out I routered where the mirror was going to sit.

When I got to this point I felt that something was missing.

So I went and bought some accent pieces to make it a little more girly.

Painted and drying

Done all accept for the mirror and seeing I did this in two days then took it to my mother-in-laws house after I didn't get a picture with a mirror in it.

When I gave it to her she didn't quite know what it was but after I told her what it was she loved it so It was worth building it.

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