When hubby and I discovered that our sweet grandson had Legos on his Santa wish list for Christmas, we decided to make this tray to keep the pieces contained and make it easier for him to relocate and store his creations between building sessions.
The construction design is super simple - basically a plywood base surrounded by wood trim.
Materials:
Lego Gray Baseplates - 6 pieces
1/2" plywood cut to 17" x 22"
1" x 1" boards - 2 pieces cut to 17" long
1" x 1" boards - 2 pieces cut to 22" long
1" x 1/4" wood strips - 2 pieces 18-1/2" long
1" x 1/4" wood strips - 2 pieces 16-1/2" long
1-1/2" diameter self-adhesive felt pads
Construction adhesive (we used Gorilla Glue All Surface)
Wood glue
Furniture clamps
Brad nailer and 1/2" brads
Paint or stain
Fine sandpaper
NOTE: Carefully sand all wood pieces to remove any splinter hazards.
To begin, we connected the 6 baseplates together using Legos.
Apply construction adhesive liberally and evenly to the plywood.
Leaving the Legos in place as spacers, we placed the connected baseplates centered evenly on the adhesive covered plywood and pressed all baseplates firmly to ensure adhesion to the plywood. Reposition quickly as needed so that you have the same amount of exposed plywood on each side.
Let dry overnight.
After gluing the baseplates to the plywood, I found I didn't like being able to see the plywood between the baseplate seams.
Soooo using a super thin artist's brush I used dark grey paint to paint the seams and the top edges of the plywood. If you're less obsessive (and likely, you ARE!), you don't need to paint at all. :)
Hubby did a little fancy carpentry at this point and made gorgeous lap corners in the trim pieces that served to hide the sides of the plywood. But, you can use straight cuts and connect straight ends for an easier option.
The top trim pieces were attached to the outer edges of the top of the tray with wood glue and brad nails and we used clamps to hold them in place while allowing the wood glue to dry overnight.
With the top of the tray assembled, we then worked on the underside by attaching thin wood strips with brad nails and wood glue. We used scrap strips, but if buying them, 1" x 1/4" trim boards work well. The strips covered any rough edges or gaps, to prevent splinters in little fingers.
At this point you can get creative with paint or wood stain.
We chose to paint the underside with dark espresso latex paint and for a rustic farmhouse look, left the top trim natural and applied clear polyurethane.
After applying two coats of polyurethane to the top trim boards, letting it dry, and attaching the felt pads to the underside of each corner, the tray was complete and ready to gift wrap for Christmas!
We're hoping our sweet little guy enjoys this Lego tray! Do you have a little one (or not so little one) on your gift list that is crazy about Lego? It's not too late to make one of these trays just in time for Christmas!
UPDATE: We celebrated Christmas with the little ones this past weekend and the Lego tray was a big hit!
Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts
and ideas! I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If
your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much
for visiting!
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It's starting to look and feel a lot like Christmas ... the presents are wrapped, the mantel is aglow, and our home is an explosion of glittery gold, bold red and deep green.
This year's mantel is decked out in three layers of garlands ... a base of vertically strung pinecones, and a lighted spruce garland, topped off with a gilded cascading garland. Instructions for the DIY pinecone garland are HERE.
Above the mantel, a traditional spruce wreath with gold and red ball ornaments is surrounded by a gold open picture frame and a symmetrical arrangement of glittery cutout gold stars and red trees, red felt cone trees, and copper lanterns filled with gold wrapped candles.
A splash of red also warms the hearth area - this darling wood step stool painted with shiny red enamel was built by hubby's grandfather many years ago and is the perfect perch for the vintage red truck and tree. Surprisingly, our gold painted Thanksgiving pumpkin appears to be alive and well to shine on through Christmas.
On our coffee table, a large clear glass cloche filled with red glass ball ornaments is resting on a gold framed mirror tray. In reality, it's not a tray at all - it's a wall mirror found at Target. Nice when items can do double duty.
Accompanying the cloche is a little red lighted vehicle with Christmas tree. It was originally green and received a festive makeover with red paint. Read more about that HERE.
The two
slipper chairs in the living room are adorned with red rosette pillows,
and my thrifty find of the season ... a dark grey plush throw with super
large fluffy pom poms. I was thrilled to find it at Tuesday Morning
for only $14.99!!! If you're searching for these, they also had them in
ivory and a light tan.
In a break from tradition, this year's large living room tree is decorated all in gold, with burlap garland and gold raffia. It rests in a burlap filled galvanized container. To see how we set up the tree container, click HERE.
The topper is a gold star with white lights, and glittery gold cascading sprays. The sprays were found at Lowe's and the star topper at Target. Tree ornaments were all items we had on hand.
Instructions for making the burlap and book page stocking ornaments can be found HERE.
The foyer
decor (adjacent to the large tree) is simple and consists of a
lighted tabletop urn centerpiece on the foyer table, and a simple door wreath.
Our gift wrapping color theme this year is a combination of metallic gold, white and black. I created and cut the gift tags from black card stock using my Silhouette Cameo, and shiny gold paper fills cutout tree openings in the tags.
Names were written on the tags with a metallic gold Sharpie (from Lowe's).
In the dining room, a new addition this season is the hot beverage bar on the small antique chest. The chest is just the right size for all the goodies needed to enjoy a hot cup of coffee, tea, spiced cider or cocoa. In addition to the Keurig and K-cups, add-ins are ready to go - chocolate chips, marshmallows, flavored coffee creamer, sprinkles, candy cane stirrers and cinnamon.
The dining room table centerpiece is another large glass cloche, filled with red and gold glass ornaments and surrounded by gold and red beaded garland. This cloche is displayed on a farmhouse style carved round wood tray with metal handles. The tray was from Decor Steals and came in a set of two.
A counter height bar separates our kitchen from our dining room and it's a great place for two lighted 4' counter trees in urns. They're decorated with the handmade cinnamon ornaments from last year (instructions found HERE and HERE).
Next to each lighted counter tree are small gold metal ornament stands loaded with red and gold ornaments and "skirted" with red berry candle rings. The gold metal stands were Goodwill finds this summer.
If you're still with me, have you noticed that pillows move around a lot in our home? :)
In the kitchen, we continue the explosion of festive red. Our kitchen is typically very neutral and at Christmas the red really makes it come alive.
The light fixture above the island is dressed up a bit with green garland and red and gold tinsel wreaths. A similar wreath is also centered on the garland at the kitchen sink window.
Our framed Christmas countdown is in full swing on the kitchen counter, along with a mug of hot cinnamon flavored candy canes in a holiday mug perched on a white and gold dotted cupcake pedestal. A trio of glittery gold cone trees add a little sparkle to the top of the fridge.
The trio of cracked glass lighted orbs on the counter remain year-round because we enjoy them so much.
A white ceramic soup tureen is great for displaying Christmas crackers/poppers (which do you call them?) until Christmas day and a chubby little Santa is keeping them company.
Wrapping up this holiday tour, our master bedroom has a touch of glitz in the form of tinsel trees and matching gold wreath.
How is your holiday decor coming along? Are you just beginning to decorate, shop for gifts and plan your menu? Or, have you finished and are now breathing a sigh of relief?
Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts
and ideas! I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If
your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much
for visiting!
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Looking for a personalized gift that shows you care? These inspiration jars can be customized for any occasion and are sure to bring a smile to any recipient.
Thank you to Sherry at The Charm of Home for graciously featuring this project!
These inspiration jars were made with 1 quart wide mouthed canning jars.
For the version above, I created a round jar label in Picmonkey, printed them, cut them out, covered them with clear Contact paper, and inserted them in the jar lids.
The cross gift tags were cut from black cardstock with my Silhouette Cameo, backed with contrasting paper, and tied to the jar with string.
For the inspirational verses and quotes, I searched for those that I felt would be especially meaningful to the recipient, typed them into Word, printed and cut them into strips, folded them, and filled the jar.
I really like that these can be totally customized for any occasion - motivational, get well, encouragement, etc.
Just do a Google search for quotes or verses by subject and you'll find an endless supply to use. And, you're not limited to just text - photos and drawings can also be used.
For another version of the inspiration jar (above), I painted the jar lid with aqua craft paint. The gift tag is an unfinished wood tag (found at any craft store and even Walmart) painted aqua, tied to a small sparkly white cross with white ribbon. The cross was found in the miniature Christmas decor section at Hobby Lobby.
For yet another version, for a family member with Alzheimer's, I filled a jar with slips of paper containing photos of family (labeled with names), photos of former homes (labeled with locations) and funny cartoons and jokes, along with inspirational quotes and verses.
It's fun to fill the jar with items that are hand picked for each individual and those that are sure to make them smile.
Wouldn't these also be neat to give to kids - using a plastic jar, with a colorful monogram label, and filled with positive messages and fun pictures?
Have you given or received an inspiration jar?
Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts
and ideas! I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If
your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much
for visiting!
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