Making Halloween Decorations using Recycled Wood

Shari Welch is a volunteer for SCRAP Denton where she is on the education committee, teaches workshops, art camp, and performs art demos. With her art passion and being a mixed media artist, she enjoys helping others discover their creativity. She is fortunate to have a creative reuse store in her town and SCRAP Denton is where 75% or more of her materials come from. What makes it even better is being able to recycle as well. For your local home improvement she advises that you visit habitat for humanity stores and scrap wood bins. This is because construction sites are begging to get rid of their small scraps of wood. This I show she does it:

Painting the pieces the colour she wants the cracks to be. This technique can be done the sides, top, and bottom so I taped the edges with painters tape. To achieve a smooth coverage use a finger to spread the glue. You want to let the glue sit for a minute. The glue should be tacky not dry.

Apply the top coat and in random directions making sure that the bristles are slightly breaking through the glue.

Leave it alone for a few hours or even better over night for best crackle results.

For the front and back apply printed tissue paper with PPA adhesive. This adhesive is perfect for thin papers.

Use Tim Holtz distress ink in black soot for the edges.

Finish this project by gluing all the pieces together; add some images, yarn and shiny embellishments.