Scrap wood garden angel

Hi,  I haven't blogged in awhile but I wanted to share the garden angel I made recently. (hubby did help a bit too) People have asked how I made it, so I wanted to post it here where it was accessible.  I found one on Pinterest I really liked and gave it my own spin. 

Here is the finished angel althought I haven't found the perfect halo yet, and may dry brush the angel white... I haven't decided yet.

I already had the shutter.  It is approximately 4' tall and 15" wide. I used old scrap boards I had on hand.  The bottom wing board is an old piece of trim that has a design.  I thought it might look a little like feathers.  The flowers are metal, in a rusty bucket, but you can make yours to hold a wreath, small bucket of flowers, a heart, etc.  Hubby helped me drill holes up into the shutter sides to insert rebar so it wouldn't sit directly on the ground, but you can skip that step if you like.

I laid my shutter on my work bench and laid boards underneath it where the wings would be.  I decided about how long I wanted the top wing board, and cut if off, rounding the ends a little with the jigsaw.  I then made each of the other two boards a little shorter than the one above it.  I used rockers off an old broken rocking chair for the arms, but you can use a board and just shape them a bit.  Once the wings were cut I turned them over, and screwed a piece of thin wood lath across all three to hold them together.

When it came time to make the head I used a small bucket and traced a circle leaving room below it on the board to make shoulders to attach the head to the top of the shutter. 

I then put a screw down thru the top of the shoulder into the shutter body. 

One tip:  When drawing your head and shoulders make them proportionate to the shutter body so they are too narrow or wide, and look like they match the body size.

I'd love to hear from you if you make one, and found these directions helpful.  Now have fun and be creative.

Myra

I've decided to add a couple more pics.  One will show how I attached the head/shoulders to the shutter body and the other shows how I reinforced the wings by securing them together.

I hope the additional pics help.