Scrap Wood Crows – Rockwell Bladerunner

I was looking for ideas to use up some scrap wood the other day – I know, you’re thinking “does she ever do any projects that actually create scrap wood?!”  – and yes, one big project, like a sofa table or a privacy planter box creates a fair amount of scrap wood in one project.

So I have a big pile.

A big pile to me anyways; I have a large garbage can overflowing with bits that are all 12″ or less.  Too small for larger projects, but too large to throw into a landfill – so I hang onto them until an idea comes to mind.

One of my favourite bloggers – Jaime at That’sMyLetter – is always coming up with great ways to use up little scrap bits like these popsicle bag tags/ keychains:

So, over the summer, I chopped up enough scrap wood (using my Rockwell Bladerunner X2) to create about 30 of these scrap wood popsicles and let the neighbourhood kids loose!

They had fun sanding, drilling and painting – and I have a super-cute chocolate-with-sprinkles popsicle hanging from my purse.

Along the same lines as these scrap wood popsicles, I wanted to create something Fall-inspired….

It’s a bit early for Hallowe’en decor just yet, but I wanted to see if I could recreate some wooden crows I’d seen at Michael’s recently, so I found a crow shape, resized it to be small enough to fit within a 1×4″ scrap and traced the image.

The Rockwell Bladerunner X2 isn’t a scroll saw exactly – it’s more of a multi-purpose saw that is perfect for crafters that want to do a bit of everything.  It has a rip fence if you want to make straight cuts, a mitre guide for angles, and is more than capable of doing some larger scroll work – like these crows:

I should have taken a photo during – I apologize, my hands were full – but everything you see in this image was cut with my Rockwell Bladerunner X2.

I love this saw!  It’s compact, light and can do so many things – it’s a real asset to your DIY arsenal – and with a price tag of around $150, it’s a low-cost alternative to purchasing a few larger saws.

I digress – once I had my scrap wood crows cut, and lightly sanded, I coated them with a dark grey paint.  This is the colour that will show through when you (later) sand it down to give it a distressed/rustic look.

While that dried, I decided to play with some medium gauge wire to see if I could create little legs:

I put a few nails into an old board and carefully wrapped the wire around the first toe and bottom nail – then removed the wire and pinched these folds tightly.

I put the wire back onto the nails and repeated for the other two toes, pinching in between.  Once I had all three pinched tightly, I twisted the tails of the wire together and manipulated the feet to look more like crow’s toes.

Don’t worry about the length of the legs at this point – they can be cut shorter if need be – just create two legs (or in my case, four) and then drill small holes into the bottom of your scrap wood crows to house them.

You can adjust the length of your crow’s legs and/or the depth of your drill holes until your scrap wood crow stands balanced.  Add a dab of wood glue to the legs and insert into the drill holes once you have the right sizes.

Paint your crows black and, when dry, lightly sand the entire bird to get the desired rustic/distressed look.

I finished up by painting the beak yellow, or you could add eyes either with a sharpie or by drilling a small hole, glue some craft feathers on as wings – or glitter your scrap wood crows for a more bling-y finish.

I’m feeling confident that you will be seeing this idea again come Christmas; I’m picturing adorable little chickadees with scarves on!

Have a great one!

*Note:  I was given a Rockwell Bladerunner months ago to test and review.  This post was not sponsored by Rockwell Tools, it is a secondary endorsement of my own.

Linked to:

• Between Naps on the Porch
• The DIY Mommy