Pallet Building Part 1

It's been a little while, hasn't it? Well, I work at a local plant nursery, and sometimes the plant shipments come on these pallets x 10. SO MUCH WOOD!!! And the nursery just throws them away! I gave in one day and pulled one into pieces small enough to fit in my car, and brought them home!

Aren't they lovely? No? No you say?! Well, they will be. I have great plans for this great pile of junk. So many plans, and so much wood! I'll share it all with you!
First things first, though. I pulled the boards of a couple pieces apart, so that they were individual. Then came the task of getting rid of all the nails and staples. Ugh. Somebody REALLY enjoyed their staple gun. Check this one out:

 That puppy, just in that one spot, had 11 (eleven) staples. Holy crap.

Most other spots only had a couple. What a relief!

 I took my hammer for most of them, and hammered them backwards, so that the top of each was reachable by my handy pliers.

 Popped those suckers right out!
Then the fun began!

 I took one board, and cut it down to about 22". I dunno why, it just seemed like a good size. I like it when the wood looks weathered, and despite being hit by snow and rain, this wood still looks new. I took matters into my own hands!

To get the weathered look, I simply painted the wood with watered-down black acrylic paint. I've seen it work better than this particular project, but I wasn't terribly unhappy with the result, so I left it as it was!

I went to my computer and printed out the words I wanted to paint. I don't own a die cut machine, so I decided to paint the words instead. Here's how you do it:

1. Tape the printed words to the wood.

2. Write over the words, pressing down rather hard so that it puts an indentation into the wood.

3. Take a tiny paintbrush and very carefully paint in the indented parts. And you're done!

Now I just have to figure out how I want to hang it. Decisions, decisions...

Here is one other thing I made:

I know, I know, it needs a little something on that left side. Working on it! Can't decide what to do yet! While I'm deciding, though, I'll tell you how I got this far!

I took a few different-sized pieces, and put two pieces of wood across the back. Nailed 'em on. Easy.

 Did the same thing, taped on, traced, etc. What NOT to do: trace the words before painting the base color. Stupid paint may fill in all the painstaking work you just did. And you'll have to do it all over. Grrr. I survived, and I think it turned out pretty well, don't you?

I've also already made a US flag, too, but it doesn't have its stars yet. I'll make sure to include a picture of it in Pallets Part 2!