Wood Tray and Decorative Flower Ball

Thought I'd share my two latest projects with you...

First of all, I needed some type of container to hold the remote controls and junk that collects on the coffee table, so I decided to build a wood tray.  It's nothing new design-wise, but it has functionality and I'm happy with the way it turned out. 

I simply used some scrap pine for the four sides and 1/4" plywood for the bottom.  I glued and nailed it together.  After a good sanding, I stained the tray with a dark walnut stain by Minwax.  I then basecoated the box with a paint color called Cinnamon Sizzle (this was leftover from the color on my entrance walls).  After it dried, I watered down Red Iron Oxide paint by Decoart and applied the paint as a topcoat to deepen the color.  Again, I let it dry, lightly sanded the surface and then applied a black stain by Saman to give it a more aged look.  I then used a water-based satin varnish to the tray. 

I drilled two holes in each end and made handles out of a product I found called "Wreath & Stem Cord".

 I liked the color and texture and thought it would make great handles.  That was it!

My next project, again, nothing new, is the decorative flower ball.  I needed an accent piece so I thought I'd see what I could come up with with what I had on hand. 

I used a 5" styrofoam ball as the base.  I then found some leftover fabric from my kitchen curtains and cut it into strips approximately 1 1/2" wide by 10" long.  Then I started making fabric roses.  I made 24 roses to cover the ball.  Using hot glue, I attached the roses to the styrofoam leaving gaps in between each rose.  I then hot glued spanish moss between the roses to cover the exposed styrofoam.  I trimmed the moss to remove the long ends.   Because it needed some color, I decided to hot glue some faux leaves to the ball.  It turned out just "okay" and I'll use it, but I know I can improve on it!

Thank you for stopping by...I love visitors and I love your comments too!

Lesa