A Mermaid 'Tail'
This mermaid was my daughter's Christmas present. She's loved mermaids since she was a little girl (remember Ariel?) and even has a Pinterest board dedicated to them. I started by looking at LOTS of images on the internet. I had an idea of what I was looking for and started drawing the different elements like the hair and tail. When I was done, she was about 3 feet tall. I got out pallet wood and started 'fitting' her on the wood. The goal was getting her to fit on as few pieces of wood as possible. Once I was happy with the layout, I traced the pattern with a marker. Out came the jigsaw and before you knew it, she was completely cut out. The wood from this pallet was very light, almost white and I thought about just putting a light stain on her; but, since blue was a color in my daughter's house, I went with that. I used chalk paint, some light distressing and clear wax. In case you're wondering how...