DIY Ombre Sunset Love Birds Wood Art

This is my favorite wood art project so far. I loved the lovebirds but I really wanted them to have a sunset in the background. I browsed a couple Ombre painting techniques and came up with my own technique. I've been using more of a "color wash" (watered down paint) technique on wood, so the grain shows through. I wanted to keep this effect in my sunset project. 

I starts with four sunset-ish colors. I put a glob of each on my "palette".  Start out with a piece of wood that is sanded to your preferred texture. My wood of choice is old, weathered fence paneling. 

With a damp foam brush paint your sun, and a circle of orange, pink and purple around the sun.

Keeping the foam brush damp, take some pink paint and drag from the pink circle halfway into the purple area. Blot the two colors together. 

Continue blending the rest of the colors and let it dry. 

After it dries, give it a few swipes with a fine grit sandpaper. Trace your love birds onto the wood.

And fill it in! 

Simple and Easy DIY Jewelry Hanger

As my jewelry obsession grows, my storage needs grow as well. I was putting hooks directly in the wall, but everytime I put another hook in the wall, I felt a little more guilty for putting another hole in the wall. So I came up with this project in my never ending attempt to re-purpose all our fence panels. 

I started with a piece of old fence paneling. I sanded it, painted it and then sanding off a little of the paint to make it look "rustic". 

I marked 2 rows for hooks, spaced every 2 inches, and staggered from one row to the next. I drilled pilot holes with a 1/16" drill bit to make it easier to get the hooks in. 

Then screw in all the hooks! I used vice grips to save my fingers from the screws. I added eye hooks on the top for hanging (not pictured).

After haning all my jewelry I realized that I should have made it bigger because I am out of hooks.