Holding books with elephants.

I wanted a cute little set of bookends for the nursery and my lovely Grandpa agreed to help me with the woodwork side to make some special elephant ones. I chose elephants as they are such an easy shape to draw and work with and they tie in with my elephant quilt. I just love all the cute ways animals can find there way in babies rooms. So if you'd like to try out this craft you will need:

- thick plywood (about 1cm thick)
-jigsaw plus straight cutting blade and scrolling blade
-sandpaper
-electric drill plus bits, and countersink bit

-white primer
-paintbrush
-wood glue
-6x2.5-cm long wood screws

-white and grey semigloss paint 

How to :

1. Create an elephant template of an elephant with separate ears. Lay the template on the plywood and draw around the edge using a pencil so you end up with two elephant shapes and four ears. You will also need four rectangles ( mine are 15cm x 7.5cm) for the bases.

2. Cut along the pencil lines marked on the plywood with a jigsaw using a straight cutting blade for the base rectangles and a scrolling blade to cute the curved elephant and ear pieces.

3. If any of the edges are splintered smooth  them using sandpaper.

4. Use a fine drill bit and an electric drill to make two holes for the elephant's eyes.

5. Apply a coat of white primer to all pieces and let dry. Apply a second coat of primer and sand back.

6.Glue the base rectangles together to form two right angles. Let the glue set a little and drill two pilot holes through the right- angle join. Countersink each drill hole and insert a wood screw the secure the join. Then fill the screw hole and sand smooth.

7. Glue the ears to teach elephant  and glue the elephants to the base. Let the glue dry before screwing the deet to the bases from underneath. 

8. Apply two coats of white paint to the bases and two coats of grey paint to the elephants.

I'm looking forward to getting more and more books and filling up the gap between the book ends.I love how it turned out and think you could make a whole range of cute animal bookends for a kids library/playroom like turtles, pigs and rhinos- any animal that's easy to draw... a whole zoo of book holders. I'll be back with part 3 of my 'Pinspiration making' series tomorrow.

Lisa x
I'm linking up with

Cupcakes and Crinoline,Our Delightful Home,Not Just a Housewife,The Winthrop Chronicles,Funky Polkadot Giraffe,Memories by the Mile,Tiny Sidekick