Turnstiles Of The Mind: The Christmas Project

I've never made a Christmas gift before. Well, that's not entirely true. I've never made a Christmas gift that wasn't a class project to honor our parents.

So I've not made a gift before out of my own free will, but this Christmas I decided to do just that.

As with most ideas, this project ended up looking nothing like I had originally envisioned. My original concept was to redo a dresser and have each drawer feature a verse from the hymn "His Eye Is On The Sparrow". The sides of the dresser would have featured three sparrows resting on a vine. A beautiful concept that didn't pan out. Sometimes going smaller isn't a bad thing.

So began the hunt to find a good piece of wood to begin with (I'd actually end up needing two after cracking the first one, though the cut on the second ended up being much better). Next I attempted to find a painter since I am not one and learning how to paint in a matter of weeks would not have worked.

This is where the project took a turn. A friend of a friend suggested a painter and then asked if I'd considered doing a decoupage. As soon as that word was uttered the bells began to ring in my head. I only knew what a decoupage was because of the person that this was made for. Perfect.

A new search began, scouring antique shops for bird books and hymnals in somewhat bad shape that I wouldn't feel bad about cutting up. Alas, nada. So I turned to the last option - the internet and FedEx Office (formerly Kinko's).

The problem with anything new is that it is new and I wanted something that looked somewhat aged. I would have to correct that problem and I had plenty of advice and help along the way.

This project was fun and special because of who it was for but also because of how friends, families, and complete strangers that I told about it helped with suggestions along the way. It wasn't created in a vacuum and it was such a joy to discover what it would end up being. Thank you to anyone that reads this and helped for that help. As I laid it out for gluing, I knew that everything was as it should be - and all that advice given is what got me there. It's a reminder about how blessed we are to have other people in our lives, even for brief instants.

To get that aged look, I needed to tea stain the cardstock the images were printed on. Everything was sourced online with size adjustment needed for the sparrows and the hymn. One of the handy traits of using a Windows machine (sorry Mac users, Apple took away this option from you) is that you can print two pages to one sheet. This was particularly helpful in creating a hymnal size pages for the hymn. Due to the nature of color copying, the birds had to be printed on a form of white cardstock, so covering the images after tearing required two treatments. The white color would not have worked as well with a blotchy finish as the antique gray color did for the hymn.

I used Mod Podge Matte finish to glue down the images and text, put three coats of it on top, and used MinWax Polycrylic to coat the top, bottom, and sides (two coats). Regular old tea was used for aging the paper. Pinking shears were used to cut out the refrain and give the front three different cuts. The hymn was trimmed to look as if it came out of a hymnal. The sparrows were torn off the cardstock for effect. The verses, as stated, were given a pinking treatment.

Here are photos of some of the things I used and the finished piece.


A good brush is essential. This is one with synthetic bristles designed specifically for water-based substances.

Plain old tea. Dabbing is the best way to get a good effect. Rubbing will give you an aged and worn effect. Bludgeoning will give you more of a parchment effect due to the tea leaves being beaten into the cardstock.

Pine cut from Michaels.

Detail of the bare wood before any finish.

The pinking shears are an appropriate color.

We do all have something to sing about, but we have to choose to do so. Yet life is so much better when we choose to sing and be happy, no matter the circumstance.