Life Size Manger Scene

about this time my mom (gidgetgoes) talks about making a manger scene to put out near our road but it never happens....... until now when I made it as a Christmas present for her!

For the left overs contest: all of the materials were left over except the straw, a bucket of paint and solar lights. The OSB board was just sitting in our barn an was going to get thrown away, and some of the boards were from pouring cement. The other bucket of paint was from painting out house

materials

1. 5 sheets of 4x8 OSB board
2. boards of varying sizes
3. lots and lots of wood screws
4. paint (I used chocolate colored and some left over house paint)
5. a few solar spot lights
6. straw

tools

1. drill
2. drill bit
3. saw
4. scroll saw
5. circular saw
6. reciprocating saw
7. paint brush
8. paint roller

the frame is 8 ft wide and 4 ft long so you need:

1. three 8 ft boards
2. four 4 ft boards
3. two 6 ft boards*
4. two 5-6 ft boards*

Screw one of the 8 footers into two of the 4 ft boards perpendicularly. then screw the other 8 footer into the top of the 4 ft boards. After that screw the two other 4 ft boards into the bottom of the "square" we just made. Then screw one of the 5-6 boards perpendicularly into one of the 4 ft boards, do the same on the other side. after all of that screw the 6 ft board to the top of the 5-6 ft board and the top of the 4 ft board so there is a slant.

*approx. I measured with a cinder block as a ruler and a screw as a pencil

cover everything with OSB board. Screw the back on first (for rigidity) then cut to OSB boards on the slant of the frame (My wood boards were a bit warped so my slant will be different than yours) and screw them in. After that use two OSB boards and screw them onto the top as the roof.

I used chocolate colored paint for for everything but the back and top. I couldn't reach the middle of the roof so I clamped a clamp onto the paint roller... then ran of paint.

no manger scene is complete without a crib! Get four boards of the same length and mark the middle on all of them. Next, get a small piece of board and mark it on the bigger boards at the half way point. Then use the scroll saw to cut out the area you just marked do this on all four boards they should fit together in a X shape. After that cut out two 4x2 ft pieces of OSB board then screw them onto the Xs.

we had to move it (700 lbs) about 1,500 ft to the end of our road and since it was too big for the back of a pickup and too big for a trailer we had to use dollies to move it

we got it to the the side of the road but the dollies are only made for garage use so we had to carry it...... that didn't go so well we tried to lift but to no avail we tried to lift it again and...... one of the sides snapped off so in the end we took it apart moved it piece by piece to the destination.

When I printed the star template out it was way to big so I had to draw it out. start with a 4 ft by 4 ft cross then measure 5 in from the center out along the lines then connect the top of one of the lines to the perpendicular lines at the five in mark do this with on the four lines. Then draw a line connecting the intersection of the lines you just drew then measure 4 in with the 2 in on the connecting line that connects the connecting lines. after that draw a 3 in line from the 4 in line to the connecting line that connects the connecting line........

Next cut it out. then paint it yellow, spray it with 3M 77 spray adhesive, and add glitter

Now to add the star, straw and lights. To mount the star I got three pieces of wood and made sort of a triangle and screwed it into the roof. I used about half of the straw bale. To get it nice and flat walk over it a couple of times. Next, get your lights and put one on the roof pointed at the star and point the others at the crib.