Time to Paint Your Wagon!

I am glad to say I have officially finished the covered wagon! I had my fair share of problems with getting it built. I learned quickly that I do not work well with chicken wire. All complications aside, the final product turned out well and is pretty sturdy. Now, onto my final how-to:

How-To

• First, take a large wardrobe box and cut it to the shape of a wagon. Then, hot-glue it together.

• Next, dry-brush the box to create a wood finish.

• After that dries, the fun begins. I had a lot of trial and error with attaching the chicken wire to create the arc of the wagon cover. What worked the best, was to cut off the amount of chicken wire you need to create the shape of the wagon cover. Then using metal wire (I used the wire that was used to bundle the chicken wire I bought), loop the wire through the box and twist it around the chicken wire to anchor it to the box.

• Once your frame is built, take the fabric you want as your cover and attach it to the chicken wire. I sewed the fabric on the front and back of the chicken wire, then I hot glued the fabric along the side of the box.

• To create the wheels, take strong, stiff cardboard and draw and cut out the size wheels you want. We are going attach a 12" wooded cross stitching hoop to the inside of the wheel, so make sure it fits your cardboard. Once they are cut out, paint and decorate them.

• Once they are dry, hot glue the cross stitching hoop to the back your wheel. You'll need to have a total of two cross stitching hoops, because you can use both the inner and outer hoops, so you'll have one hoop for each wheel.

• After the hoops are attached to the wheels, take two square wooden dowels and cut them to match the width of your box plus the width of two of your cross stitching hoops. Then hot glue the dowels to the base of your cross stitching hoops to create an axis type base for your wagon.

• Once these are good and dry, slide them under the front and back of your wagon.

Now you have a covered wagon!

A lot of people have told me they are making covered wagons. Email me your finished product; I would love to share some other wagons and how they were made.

So, as I said before, this is my final how-to for this year's theme. Thank you to everyone who has followed this blog. I have enjoyed sharing decorating ideas and tips, and I plan on doing so again next year, so bookmark me and start checking in around December (I hear next year's theme is New York). I'll post some pictures of the rooms decorated sometime next week. I hope everyone has a wonderful and successful Bible school!