Don't Throw in the Dowel!

Hello, everybody! Here at Cheap Joe's, we love using products in unconventional ways--like spray painting area rugs or making stamps out of erasers--so it's no wonder that I looked at our stock of dowels rods and thought, "I can totally use those." For this week's project, I emulated something I came across on Pinterest (hey, follow the Cheap Joe's Pinterest page if you don't already!) where they used buttons to create this awesome tree: I knew that I could slice up my dowels and create a similar effect--and on a way smaller budget! To start, I stained my Joe's Prime Really Good Cradled Painting Panel with coffee because I wanted to keep the look of the wood grain, but I didn't want it quite as bright as it is when it's raw. After several layers of application and little-to-no change in tone, I eventually just poured a huge puddle onto it and let it soak it all up.  Now it smells pretty great, too! Next, I took a handful of Joe's Prime Really Good Lightfast Acrylic colors and painted the ends of my dowels with the colors I wanted represented in my tree. Painting the sides of the dowels saved a LOT of time later on, and also helped me remember which sizes were going to be which color! While those were drying, I drew and cut out my tree silhouette on a heavy sheet of paper that would be easy to eventually trace around. Once they were dry, I used a razor saw to cut slivers of my smaller dowels. This part was easily the most time-consuming, but it was kind of soothing making repetitive motions.  I was in a very zen place by the end of it... If you don't want to wait as long, or if you don't find manual labor as relaxing as I do, and if you have one available, I'd recommend just using a table saw. Tip: if you end up cutting any imperfect circles, don't toss them out!  They'll come in handy later! With a pile of wood slices ready, I started painting the tops of each of them with their respective colors. Again, painting the sides first saved me a TON of time on this step because I would have otherwise had to wait 2 drying times and get even more paint all over myself than I already did--not that that's a bad thing ;) I also went with a single thin coat because I wanted the natural wood grain to show through on my final piece.  After all, I could have just used plastic circles and saved time.  But the consistency of the look of wood grain throughout was very important to me. As those dried, I cut out some little birds in one of the sheets of paper I marbled with spray paint in a past post.  Yep, all three birds came from ONE sheet of paper! I positioned them where I wanted them in my tree, and then traced around them so that I'd know where I didn't need to put dowels. I started assembling my tree with the largest dowels first, since they would be the hardest to find space for.  Then I glued each of them down with Rubber Cement because of its elasticity and ability to re-position my dowels if need be. Then I began to fill in the spaces with my smaller-sized dowels. Remember when I said not to toss your organic-shaped dowels?  Here's why!  They fit snugly into little nooks and crannies where a perfect circle wouldn't! Once I had glued everything down, I noticed a glaring shininess coming from the edges and tops of some of my dowels--the Rubber Cement!  Curse my sloppy hands! Thankfully, I remembered that if Rubber Cement doesn't have a second surface to bond with, it's super easy to remove! All I had to do was take one of my blending stomps and rub it away! With everything cleaned up, I finally had this: Sure, it's probably a little morbid that I made a tree with the remnants of its dead brethren, but it's also very pretty!  I can't wait to hang this up and impress all of my friends with how perfectly and effortlessly I fit a million little dowel slices together. What have you guys done with dowel rods?  Comment below!

 

Hello, everybody! Here at Cheap Joe's, we love using products in unconventional ways--like spray painting area rugs or making stamps out of erasers--so it's no wonder that I looked at our stock of dowels rods and thought, "I can totally use those.

For this week's project, I emulated something I came across on Pinterest (hey, follow the Cheap Joe's Pinterest page if you don't already!) where they used buttons to create this awesome tree:

I knew that I could slice up my dowels and create a similar effect--and on a way smaller budget! To start, I stained my Joe's Prime Really Good Cradled Painting Panel with coffee because I wanted to keep the look of the wood grain, but I didn't want it quite as bright as it is when it's raw.

 

After several layers of application and little-to-no change in tone, I eventually just poured a huge puddle onto it and let it soak it all up.  Now it smells pretty great, too!

 

Next, I took a handful of Joe's Prime Really Good Lightfast Acrylic colors and painted the ends of my dowels with the colors I wanted represented in my tree.

  

Painting the sides of the dowels saved a LOT of time later on, and also helped me remember which sizes were going to be which color!

 

While those were drying, I drew and cut out my tree silhouette on a heavy sheet of paper that would be easy to eventually trace around.

  

Once they were dry, I used a razor saw to cut slivers of my smaller dowels. This part was easily the most time-consuming, but it was kind of soothing making repetitive motions.  I was in a very zen place by the end of it... If you don't want to wait as long, or if you don't find manual labor as relaxing as I do, and if you have one available, I'd recommend just using a table saw. Tip: if you end up cutting any imperfect circles, don't toss them out!  They'll come in handy later!

  

With a pile of wood slices ready, I started painting the tops of each of them with their respective colors.

  

Again, painting the sides first saved me a TON of time on this step because I would have otherwise had to wait 2 drying times and get even more paint all over myself than I already did--not that that's a bad thing ;) I also went with a single thin coat because I wanted the natural wood grain to show through on my final piece.  After all, I could have just used plastic circles and saved time.  But the consistency of the look of wood grain throughout was very important to me.

  

As those dried, I cut out some little birds in one of the sheets of paper I marbled with spray paint in a past post.  Yep, all three birds came from ONE sheet of paper! 

 I positioned them where I wanted them in my tree and then traced around them so that I'd know where I didn't need to put dowels.

I started assembling my tree with the largest dowels first since they would be the hardest to find space for.  Then I glued each of them down with Rubber Cement because of its elasticity and ability to re-position my dowels if need be.

Then I began to fill in the spaces with my smaller-sized dowels.

  

Remember when I said not to toss your organic-shaped dowels?  Here's why!  They fit snugly into little nooks and crannies where a perfect circle wouldn't! 

 

Once I had glued everything down, I noticed a glaring shininess coming from the edges and tops of some of my dowels--the Rubber Cement!  Curse my sloppy hands! Thankfully, I remembered that if Rubber Cement doesn't have a second surface to bond with, it's super easy to remove! 

 

All I had to do was take one of my blending stomps and rub it away! With everything cleaned up, I finally had this:

  

Sure, it's probably a little morbid that I made a tree with the remnants of its dead brethren, but it's also very pretty!  I can't wait to hang this up and impress all of my friends with how perfectly and effortlessly I fit a million little dowel slices together. What have you guys done with dowel rods? Let us know!