Western General Store

Spring is just around the corner so time to bring out the colors of spring. It's easy to make a Spring Hat Wreath. I had this sun hat and found a flower garland at the craft store to wrap around it. I wired on a burlap bow and a twine hanger for the top. Make a horseshoe candle holder by screwing Small Horseshoes onto a block of wood, paint it the colors of spring and add silk or real flowers. Use as centerpieces for weddings or parties. It will hold a 3" pillar candle or... A votive. To make a rustic spring planter I gathered scraps from my weathered pallet wood projects. I glued and nailed the upright pieces to a pallet wood base. I used the rest of the flower garland and tied twine around the  planter. Or you could add daisies and a distressed Cross Nail . Here is another color scheme with a Mini Star Nail . These ideas should give you inspiration to create for Springtime.

Hearts are the theme today to spread some love around the world! I made these two lariat hearts by simply using a 44" piece of lariat, pulling it into the shape of a heart and wrapping with red leather lace, leaving enough excess for a tassel. I could stop right there. You can hang these anywhere and I thought they looked great! But I wanted to make more hearts! So, I made a heart from pallet boards. I cut a heart shape from plywood, placed the boards together, traced the heart shape on the boards and cut them on the scroll saw, then glued them to the plywood. Actually, I used liquid nails which I don't recommend because it takes too long to dry. This heart is 8" wide x 7" tall. Then I cut 2 small hearts from the scraps. They are 3 1/2" wide x 3" tall. I attached a green lariat to the large heart with a brad nail gun and tied the lariat hearts together with red bows. I glued on the small hearts and added a red bandana. When I throw...

This project evolved over time as I came up with ideas. Sometimes I pick up a horseshoe and ideas start popping into my head. My husband has a wood shop so we have tons of wood. I grabbed a board and screwed a Large Horseshoe on each side and put a couple of finger towels on it. Cute! But...that wasn't quite what I wanted. How about a napkin holder? You don't need to be a welder to make this! I cut a piece of mahogany to 6 5/8" long  x 2 3/8" wide x 1" thick and screwed Large Horseshoes to it after they were spray painted black. You can use any wood and color schemes. Standard napkins fit perfectly! Then I decided to make a no weld hand towel stand. I took the base from a previous project ( Longhorn Jewelry Holder ) which is 6" x 6" x 3/4" thick. The mahogany post is 1 3/4" x 1" x 16" tall. The Medium Star , 2 Large Horseshoes, and a  Small Star Nai l for the top were spray painted black. Try other type...

I wanted to incorporate the Star in Ring into a Christmas wreath and was going to use green garland, but decided to use a lariat rope instead. I tied the rope onto the ring with leather lace and tied on horseshoes and a spur. This looked kind of messy to me. So I took everything off and started again. I wrapped the rope with jute twine at the top and on each side and tied it tight. It is holding the Star in Ring at the top of the rope. I stuck Small Star Nails into the twine and you may want to add some hot glue. The tasseled rope at the top was from another project and I placed it behind the star nail. Add a little glue here too. It is just a piece of lariat rope unraveled and wrapped with leather lace. I added a burlap bow with pine cones to the bottom. Leave that off for year round and decorate for other holidays accordingly. Have fun!

I saw this coat rack in a local antique store and noticed many of the items are in our store so I thought I'd try to make one like it. I gathered pieces of weathered pallet wood, cut and placed them like I wanted them. Pictured are the approximate dimensions of the boards. They are 1/2" thick. The trim was cut on a table saw and they are 1/2" x 1". The finished project was 22 1/4" wide x 20 1/4" tall. My version appears to be a smaller scaled down version of the original. The boards were put together with biscuits and glue then clamped. The center support is 1 1/8" wide.  The trim was glued and nailed with a brad gun. The little corner pieces  are 1/4" thick and were glued and nailed with a brad gun. I bought 2 10" x 10" mirrors from the craft store and installed them with mirror clips. I sprayed all of the iron pieces with vinegar and placed them in the sun to rust. The iron pieces were then sprayed with a cl...

When I first wake up in the morning ideas pop into my head. That was the case with this idea. I thought of attaching frames to a piece of lariat rope but found that there are several different ways to do this. I started with the loop end at the top and attached inexpensive frames with a brad nail gun. I was going to cut the rope at the bottom and tassel it. Instead I just hung the remainder of the rope on the top frame. Not bad, but I wanted to try something else. Beginning at the tassel end I doubled enough rope for the frames and tassel at the end. To hold it together I wrapped leather lace at the top, leaving enough for a loop for hanging. I wrapped leather lace at the bottom leaving enough for unraveling into a large double tassel. I attached the frames and hung it on the wall. The rope tended to curve so I nailed in Mini Star Nails to keep it straight and against the wall. I attached the remainder of the rope at the top with leather lace. You could decorate this for the...

This is a wood star corner block used for trim on Americana themed windows and doors. I saw this at the home improvement store and envisioned a cute wooden trinket box. I cut a board into pieces the same size as the star trim and glued and nailed it together with a brad nail gun. I spray painted it white and added hinges and a latch from the hardware store. It would be fun to decorate this trinket box for the holidays.