Monday, August 8, 2016

How to Make Flamingo Wall Hooks

I needed several decorative wall hooks to organize my craft room. I want something fun, yet versatile, since I have a pile of conference lanyards, craft aprons, and race medals in need of some serious organizing.

I headed to my workshop and made the perfect wall organizer using my all time favorite pieces of kitsch – plastic pink lawn flamingos!


 Pin this tutorial for later!

DIY Pink Lawn Flamingo Wall Organizer

 

  Made three flamingo hooks. This one displays the running medals Husband earned by placing in his age group. He's awesome!
 

You will need:


Lawn flamingos – I bought my small pink lawn flamingos from Amazon here

Painter’s tape

Dremel and cutting disk

Sandpaper

Wood plaque

Pink craft paint

Black craft paint

Paint Brush

Bolt or screw

Socket set or Screwdriver

Aluminum can tab

Gorilla Glue

Gorilla Tape

Gorilla Super Glue

 

How to Make it:


1. Paint the wood plaque with pink craft paint and allow it to dry. 


Tip: Some of the corner edges of my wood base were not sanded smooth when I bought them. I hand sanded them smooth with sandpaper and wiped the excess sawdust from the base with a cloth before I started painting.

2. Mask off the edges with painter’s tape.


 Tape time!

3. Paint the edges of the wood base with black craft paint and allow it to dry.


Painting with two thin coats of craft paint are better than one thick coat of paint.


4. Mark where you want to cut the front from the back of the lawn flamingo with painter’s tape. This guide will make it easier to cut the flamingo in half!


5. Use the Dremel and cutting disk to cut the flamingo in half along your painter’s guide.


 I used sandpaper to hand sand the plastic burs the Dremel left behind from the cut edge of the flamingo.


Tip: I reinforced the internal seams with Gorilla Glue because I want the foaming glue to expand into the plastic seam. I also covered the glued areas with Gorilla Tape for extra insurance to make sure both halves of my flamingo stay together.


 It may not be pretty but it works! Besides no one will see it when we are finished with the project.


6. Attach the screw or bolt to the wood base. The bolt or screw is the hanger that is going to do the heavy lifting so choose accordingly. If you don’t plan on hanging anything on your wall flamingo or something light like an apron, you can use a screw.  I am using a heavy bolt because I plan to hang heavy racing medals from my flamingo hooks, not to mention I already had bolts in my hardware stash that are the length of cut flamingo’s back.



Note: The light pink paint wasn’t quite doing it for me at this stage of the game. I sanded some  areas on the front of the plaque and repainted the base with darker pink craft paint it give it more depth.  That’s why it magically changes color in the tutorial photos.


 
7. Glue the flamingo head to the metal bolt/screw and wood base with the Gorilla Super Glue. I ran a bead of super glue along the side of the screw where it meets the inside back of the flamingo and where the cut flamingo meets the wood base.



You want to lightly tack painter’s tape to the flamingo head and a flat surface like a table to keep it in position while it dries.


Why am I using Gorilla Super instead of traditional Gorilla Glue you ask? Simple. You see how traditional Gorilla Glue expands while it dries to create a strong bond in Step 5? I am fairly terrible at neatly applying foaming Gorilla Glue so it the glue won’t show after it foams and dries. There is a clear Gorilla Glue that might solve this problem. I’ll probably give it a try once I go through my current bottle of brown Gorilla Glue.
 
8. Make the hanger by screwing an aluminum soda pop can tab to the back of the wood plaque.


Recycling at its finest! Not only am I recycling a pop top to make a picture hanger but also the photo from my Wine Cork Wall Hook Tutorial (you can read it here.)

9. Hang it up and hang it up!


 I wear this apron when I do TV cooking demos for my food blog Lazy Budget Chef

Rather buy than DIY? Check out these clever organization ideas - and more! - below!
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