DIY Drifttwood Starfish

When I prepare to decorate a room I always begin with a search through magazines, Google  and now the all inclusive source for ideas, Pinterest. When my new craft room was finished I wanted it to have a coastal, crafty feel so that's what I sought out to find. Oh, I almost forgot it had to be easy and economical too! Luckily for me I'm a little bit crafty and if I see it I can usually take it from there and copy it. My  first source of inspiration was a cute, little driftwood heart seen here http://www.simplicityinthesouth.com/2013/01/how-to-make-driftwood-heart-art.html.  However I didn't think the heart was what I was aiming for so I thought of a starfish shape and that's what I settled on. I used a piece of  MDF board to draw out the shape and asked my hubby to cut it out for me as that's not my department, he's the tool guy!

Next came the fun part of fitting all the little pieces of wood together, puzzle style. It was relaxing for me but for some I would say they'd view it the opposite and think that I was so full of patience, but it's all about what you enjoy doing!

What I found after trial and error was to double glue the piece with tiny amount of hot glue and a small amount of carpenters glue as well since I was going to glue wood to a wood product. Whereas if I just used the carpenters glue I could only do a  fit together a few pieces at a time until the glue set, therefore adding the hot glue sped up the process up a whole lot.

The star above hung so proudly in my room until my daughter came to visit for a holiday and loved it as well! It now hangs in her new house which that brought a bit of her home back to her new surroundings. Oh well, back to where I started....collect the driftwood, wash it, dry it, sort it and so on! Starfish number 2 would be faster since my wall was now bare again. This time I chose corrugated cardboard as the base and just used hot glue alone for the adhesive. To my surprise it worked out fine since the wood pieces are lightweight and it won't ever be put outside to possibly get wet. I think I even like it better then the first one since the shape is more curvy like a starfish occurs naturally.