Christmas presents and decorations

I guess I can post this now that these have been opened and given away.
In the grocery store I was looking at the hobby section and there was a scroll saw holiday issue.  I found some things that looked interesting and so I purchased the magazine.  This is the first of a couple of projects that will come from this publication.

The picture does not do it justice: "O Night Divine" with the star and a dove

 
Each side has a depiction of the the nativity.  The top does come off so things can be put in it.  I cut the notches in the side panels on the table saw.  It would be impossible for me to cut a straight line that far into the wood on a scroll saw.  This way the sides fit together snugly.  I made four boxes so I stacked them all together to give me a good stable base to cut the grooves.

Mary, Joseph and Christ

Shepard and sheep

Camel and Angel

Three wise men

The blue tape was a life saver.  I would have never been able to sand off the pattern without damaging the project.  There were a couple of areas that did not come out as I had hoped but they still came out.  I made four of them.  I thought my wife would like the maple one but she opted for the figured oak one because maple did not have the color for a Christmas decoration.  The cuts were really not that difficult when I had a sharp blade.  I knew when the blade was getting dull it would walk all over the place, especially in the figured oak.  There were a lot of holes that needed to be drilled.
 The interesting  part of this project was all the sharp cutouts.  I though I would have a lot cutouts all over the floor.  I did but not as much as I had thought, most were really thin or the cutout completely turned to sawdust. It also was neat to discover the blades can go through very small holes.

The second project came from a project that I did 25 years ago.  It was made in leather.  This was not a good medium for me.  I am trying to redeem myself and make them out of wood.  The leather ones have slowly fallen apart and are being thrown away this year.  My grandmother had ornaments with all of her kids, their spouses and grandchildren.  I am doing the same for my mother this year.  I have plenty to add to the family still.

Here are the original sleds that were made 25 years ago, what  is left of them anyway.

Here are the new sleds.

These were my design.  I had fun building and figuring out how to make the fixture to put them together.  They are still a little more fragile than I would like them, but I think they came out nice.