DIY Personalized Table Centerpiece

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Has it already been a week ago? Time is speeding by!

Only 20 days til Christmas! Oh my!!

Last weekend my nephew and family were in town, it was so nice to see them! Knowing they wouldn't be here for Christmas, hubby and I wanted to give them one of their gifts.

DIY Christmas Centerpiece
Of course, I forgot to take a picture before we gave it to them. That is so typical of me... :/ Oh well.

The picture above, my niece-in-law was so kind to take with her phone, when she got home. 

This was a joint project with me and hubby. He cut the wood and put it together. (And did a great job, btw!) I stained the wood and carved "The Mann Family".

We made this literally in a couple of hours over two days. The most time consuming was carving out the name. Here are the pieces hubby cut. 

Fitting box pieces together

Just seeing how they will fit.

I stained the board I was going to work on for the name first. You can see I was practicing a bit on that piece of scrap.

Staining boards

I ended up staining all the boards ebony, using what I had on hand by Cabot. You can see the printed name I'm going to transfer onto the stained board.

I used my time tested method, tracing the words onto the wood. You can see how I did that when I made my Easter Sign (here)

I was so nervous doing this project! I was so close to chickening out and just painting it. I'm so glad I didn't!

Tracing and outlining the name

Tracing the name out... easy! Carving it out with the Dremel? A bit stressful. 

One mistake and it's done. I just tried to go slow. My hand was numb by the time I was done. :) 

I did an outline with the smallest bit.

Dremel carving the name out

I used a larger bit to carve the rest out. Then I took the sanding bit to smooth some of the letters a bit.
  
I was so surprised at how well it came out! I wish I had taken a close up picture of the carving. I just wanted to get it finished!

Hubby glued and used our nail gun to put it together. Snap! Done!

Glued and nailed box together

Complete!  Now time to decorate it.

Centerpiece Box Complete

What's awesome about this kind of centerpiece is you can switch out the decor for each season or holiday.

I put in some battery operated lights, pine garland, a few pine cones, ornaments, bells and a bow. Wa! La!

DIY Christmas Centerpiece

I think I need to make one of these for my table...maybe after the holidays. Too busy now!

You might want to make one for yourself or as a gift like I did!

Blessings,
 photo New Lori 100_zps2lw4mgnc.jpg

4 comments

  1. Oh my! I love this idea! It looks great!

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    1. Thanks, Kirby! I'm thinking I need to make another one for myself!

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  2. I've done that too...made something for someone and forgot to take a photo. Looks like you did great! I love this idea as well! Thanks for leaving me some blog love today! Brought a smile to my face! Now I'm off to clean the house before the wood people get here. They are going to redo our stairs and bedroom. The carpet is GOING! Yay! I'm so excited! TTFN ;)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Shan! Thanks so much for you comment! I've been a little neglectful of the ol blog... Hope you had a very Merry Christmas! Ready to start the new year!

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