Western General Store

I was asked by a woman to make a boot top cross using the boots of her friend's deceased father. I had never made one but wanted to do this, so I accepted. I decided to experiment, so using 2 pair of my husband's boots, I got to work and also made a tutorial for this blog. I found a piece of old plywood and drew out a cross with each leg being 4 inches wide. The plywood was 15 3/4" wide and I made the height 23". After it was cut out on the band saw, I realized the plywood needed to be thicker for tacks and trim, but now I had a cross template. I cut a new cross out of 1/2" plywood. I cut the boot tops off. I marked a center line on each leg of the plywood cross and marked an arrow where the center of the boot top would be placed. I measured past the arrows for the correct size of leather for the center of the cross. I used black scrap leather, cut it to fit and glued it on. 1/4" x 3/4" cedar trim was glued and nailed to the edge. Next time the trim sho...

I was cutting out these shelf brackets from mahogany and noticed a pretty left-over design. Well, I must make something out of that! An idea came to me to make a Decorative Cross piece. The dimensions of this piece are 5" wide x 14" tall. I knew mahogany had a dark rich tone when sealed with a clear sealer. For contrast I squiggled some acrylic turquoise lines to look like turquoise inlay. Since this is the back, I could practice my technique. A Key hole was installed on the back for easy hanging. I put a finish on a Leather Cross , then glued on a metal Cross with regular Gorilla Glue. I've never used this glue before, and it worked great! I sawed off the little loop hanger at the top of the metal cross and filed any sharp edges. I wanted to sand some of the sealer so I could glue on the leather cross. I traced the cross onto contact paper, cut it out and taped it onto the wood. After sanding, I glued the leather cross onto the wood using...

The colors on this hand carved wooden bowl didn't exactly turn out as I had envisioned, but maybe it will give you some inspiration. I painted the bowl white then streaked it with turquoise, sanded it and applied light brown Briwax. I glued a painted leather cross with Tite Bond Original to the bowl and nailed in brass furniture nails.

You can use our Cross Brackets to make this simple bench. The top piece is 11 x 36 x 1 1/2 and the legs are 11 x 16 x 1 1/2 pine. Four Cross Brackets were screwed into the top piece and leg pieces. I removed the hanger from each of the small crosses which I wanted to attach to each leg. Then found a longer screw that would fit it and drilled a hole in the leg piece. Use a counter sink bit if necessary. Screw the cross to the leg piece from the inside. After the dark brown Briwax  finish was applied I noticed my sanding marks which gave it a distressed look. There are several other types of braces on the website that you could use such as Star Braces, Cobb Webb Braces, and Horse Braces. The items used in this project are: Cross Bracket Small Cross D58-078

I had some weathered pallet boards and decided to make a rustic cross. I cut them the length I wanted and my assistant/husband cut a dado on the table saw. The dimensions of the cross became 16 1/2" wide x 19" tall. I glued the boards together and attached copper upholstery nails. These photos are to show you the different crosses you could use with the pallet wood cross. You can drill a hole through the cast iron cross and screw it to the wood. You could probably use epoxy to attach this small cross. You could also paint the wood or the cast iron crosses to give it the effect you wanted. Here are the cast iron crosses shown in this project: Cross with Star and Horseshoe Cross with Horseshoes and Star Cross D58-080 Cross D58-090 Send us photos of your projects along with instructions and we will post them right here on the blog. Also we welcome your questions, suggestions or comments.

I used one of our pallet wood blanks to make a rustic candle holder. I painted it white and continued to add several different colors until it looked old and rustic. I wrapped rope around it and tied in a bow, then added an iron cross I had with epoxy. I put a flameless votive candle in the top but you could use a real candle. DIY or purchase on the website: Pallet Wood Blanks Blue Crosses - Set of Three Blue Cross Candle Holder