Fun With Fabric

A friend of mine recently had her first baby. The theme of her daughter's nursery is Dick and Jane. I love me some Dick and Jane, the girl has good taste. So I decided to make her a gift that she could use for nursery decor and had a function too. Enter this memo/photo board and barette holder.

I took an 11x14 frame that I bought on clearance at Jo-Jo's (Joann's), and used it for the photo board. Lots of cork, fabric, ribbon and hot glue threw togther made the above result.

For a cute little tie in for her daughter, I used pink buttons.

I also used some flat glass marbles to make a few matching push pins.

The barette holder above is the same fabric stretched over an old canvas, then adorned with ribbon and buttons.

Easy to clip barettes directly to the ribbons for fun and functional storage. No digging around in a box, drawer, bowl, etc.

I love the vintage feel to both projects. I am a sucker for all things vintage right now. I really am.

So, are you dying to know how to make your own? Click on the vintage "You Tube" TV on the right sidebar and you'll be directed to my You Tube channel. I have video tutorials for each project. There are a few (okay...maybe more than a few) installments for each project, so make sure you watch them all. Then get to crafting something!

Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" to see where I'll be linking up my latest creations.

Cutting Board Signage

So my hubby made this cute little piggy cutting board in jr high, but it's been sitting in a drawer for years not being used. It's a bit too...um, gross to use as a functioning board but I couldn't toss it. He made it after all. So the other day I finally had an idea, make a sign out of it!

I stencilled "eat" on it and I think it fits into our little kitchen just perfectly. I first used white acrylic paint, followed by a coat of red. I then sanded the letters to give it that weathered look. I then took brown shoe polish and "aged" the board, especially around the edges and also to darken up the letters a bit. The red was way to bright otherwise.

Don't have a cute board to use? Keep your eyes out while junking and I can guarantee that you'll find one. Make a cute sign for your kitchen, it's easy!

Linking up this idea at my fave linky parties. Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" in the upper right hand sidebar to see more great ideas!

Coffee Can to Cute Container

A friend is having her first little one in a few weeks, and so this weekend I worked a gift for her. The nursery theme is Dick and Jane, (SO cute!) but I didn't have any Dick and Jane books lying around the house. However I did have a Richard Scary one, (who can find Goldbug?) so I decided to use it to make the above cute little container. I put flowers in it as you can see, but I'm sure that it can have all sorts of other uses.

I took the can, cleaned it out and got to work. First off I mod podged some book paper to the can. After it had dried I used some green electrical tape around the top and bottom to help cover up imperfections. Then I layered on some red grosgrain ribbon, followed by some white satin ribbon and then topped it off with some blue ric-rac. It looks really cute, no? And it works well with the primary colors in the nursery.

This is the finished gift, all packed up and ready to go. I took a lidded storage box from Ikea and padded it with tissue. In went the flower can, along with a few parenting devotionals, a few Dick and Jane board books, a bib, a cute bucket hat w/floral pin, a vintage children's book and an adorable crocheted baby sweater. She loved her gift, and I had fun putting it together for her.

Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" to see where I'll be sharing this gift idea.

"Vintage" Train Signage

I needed to make a gift for my FIL and my Hubby's uncle. They both are really into trains. I had already framed a neat vintage train photo for each of them, but wanted to do something else. I got the idea to make a sign, this is the end result. I absolutely love how they turned out!

I started with a wooden slat, from IKEA to be exact. I had bought a slatted bed base that we didn't end up needing, so I cut it up and used one of the wooden slats as my base. Totally free wood, precut and sanded. Score!

I took black wrapping paper and Mod Podged it to the wood. After it dried, I took sand paper and distressed it really well.

I had a stencil for the letters. I took white and grey acrylic paint, mixed it and dry brushed it on. I wanted it to be spotty and faded looking and it turned out just the way I thought it would.

The railroad logos I found on the internet and printed them off on cardstock. I picked ones that would be meaningful to the recipients, there are so many to choose from that it's easy to do. I Mod Podged them to the sign, and then distressed them with a pencil eraser and went over them lightly with black ink from a stamp pad to "age" them.

The whole thing was then coated with some matte acrylic spray varnish and I was done. If I could do anything differently, I would have covered the sides with paper and distressed as well.

My hubby actually said, "Wow honey" when I showed him my finished product. That was a first for me, so I'm hoping that the recipients will like them too!

Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" to see where I'll be sharing. Happy Handmade Christmas!

Snow in a Pot

I made these for gifts this year, I was going to do something else but it didn't work so I came up with this instead.

I took two small terracotta pots and painted them, green on the bottom and red around the top. I then glittered them, green glitter on the bottom and gold on the top.

I took fiber-fil and used that as my "snow", filing the pot. I then took some silver glitter and sprinkled it on top.

The "Let it Snow" signs are actually plant markers, I wrote in black sharpie and then hilighted with a white paint pen. I used vintage wooden mini-ornaments and glued one next to the sign. That's it...pretty simple and cheap!

Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" to see where I'll be sharing. Happy Handmade Christmas!!

Cabinet Door Chalkboard

A few months back I picked up some cabinet door fronts from the Habitat ReStore for $1 a piece. They had a lot of great detail and I could see repurposing them for signs. I've already made a sign with one of them, you can see what I did here .

With the other two I decided to make chalkboards. One for myself, and one for my Mommy. They were painted an ivory color, and while pretty they were pretty scratched up so I knew they needed to be painted. Since it's fall I decided to go with a darker color, and since we both tend to use a lot of red/brown/rust in our decorating I thought that I'd go that route.

I absolutely lOvE how these turned out. This was an attempt to sharpen my "faux" finish skills. I used about 5 different colors of paint altogether and went with a mottled finish on the front and kinda antiqued it up a bit. I know, it really doesn't make much sense but let me try and explain what I did.

The front has a sponged/mottled appearance. I mixed a rusty red and a nutmeg brown color and watered it down quite a bit and just sponged it on. I then took a clean washcloth and pressed along the surface, picking up some paint and texturing it a bit more.

The inside rim, closest to the chalkboard is solid acrylic paint, I used the same rust red color but didn't water it down.

The outer rim is ginger brown mixed with a bit of grey and the nutmeg brown. I didn't water this down either, and used a foam brush and gave it a even coat.

Then I washed over everything with metallic brown glaze that was heavily watered down. I love how it adds just a touch of sparkle and just perks up the overall look. I also made sure that the glaze settles in the crevices here and there to just make those lines really pronounced.

Super happy with the result. My Mom said she liked the pictures, hopefully she'll love it in person. $1 for the cabinet door front, everything else I already had on hand. That is my kind of project!!

Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" to see where I'll be sharing this week. Thanks!

Felted Wool Sweater Hat

I am in love with the sweater hat I just made for my daughter. It is the cutest thing, she looks so sweet in it. I took an old wool sweater of hers and felted it and came up with it off the top of my head.

Being that I just came up with it, I have no real "tutorial" so to speak. It was a somewhat random process, so it would be really hard for me to try and explain what I did after the fact.

If you would be interested in trying to make one yourself, let me know. If I get a lot of requests then I'll start looking for another sweater and will post my version of a "tute" (for what it's worth).

It wasn't hard to make, and it's no sew which is always a big plus for me, since the only "sewing" I do as of now is hand stitching and that is sketchy at best. I added the floral pin to just cute it up a bit, got it from a sweet blog friend, Emily.

I used some cute grosgrain ribbon to help made the tassel on top. I also used some scraps to help make the tassel too, very little of the original sweater went in the trash.

Pretty much the sides were just knotted together, similar to making one of those no-sew polar fleece blankets. Very simple.

Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" to see where I'll be linking up.

Cabinet Door Plaque

I went to the Habitat re-store a few months back and picked up all sorts of goodies. I bought these really nice cabinet/drawer fronts for only $1 a piece. They are the long, narrow rectangular ones. The ones I purchased are normally used for the false drawer/cabinet that are installed under a kitchen sink.

Anyhoo, I used the green one above to make this plaque. I am thrilled with how it turned out, and it honestly took me about 30 minutes start to finish. Curious to know how I did it? Let me share with you my secrets!

First off, all the lettering and trim is from my scrapbooking stash. They are all rub-ons! Yep, how easy is that?!? I love these things, they are wonderful for all sorts of other applications besides scrapbooking.

Right now my favorite bible verse that I've memorized and have repeated thousands several times a day is Romans 12:12. "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer". It's a good one!

I just left the drawer front as is. You can see it's kinda dinged/scratched up and that is fine by me. I decided to keep the sign simple, so that the words are what you focus on.

I hope you like my fast and frugal idea for a easy project. Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" on the right to see where I'll be linking up my idea. Thanks for stopping by!

Kitchen Drawer Shadowbox

I was at the Habitat Re-Store a few weeks back and happened across two old kitchen drawers, priced right at $2 each. They were sturdy, solid wood, big but not too big and had adorably chippy cloud blue paint on them. Home with me they went, not sure what to do with them but knew that they would make a good project.

I was reading one of my fave blogs Funky Junk Interiors (Donna is an inspiration, a repurposing guru) and it had a challenge on using old drawers for projects. Perfect, just what I was looking for! After looking at several link ups, I had an idea. BTW, if you want some more inspiration for uses for old drawers look at her blog
here .

Here's what I came up with. I took the drawer and painted the inside of it with my trusty Kilz in "Antique White". The "Home Sweet Home" is a vinyl decal that I picked up from Joann's for only $0.50!! I mixed up a few different colors of craft paint to come up with the brown that I used for the border.

I had bought this huge roll of beautiful vintage ribbon awhile back at my favorite thrift store. It's really thick, and it fit perfectly to line the inside of the drawer! I love how it looks, I am so glad I was able to use it here.

I took sandpaper and roughed up the edges pretty good, leaving it chippy and scratched up. I wanted it to look somewhat worn and aged.

I'm still playing around with the vignette for the inside. I do like the hanging silverware, almost reminds me of a mini chandellier. The silverware is a mix of my MIL's and an old vintage silver baby spoon my Mom gave me. I love the look of old and new. I'm kinda irked by the outline of the vinyl decal, so I will probably pull it off and cut it out with an exacto knife and reposition it. But for now it'll stay.

All in all, I'm excited with the results. $2.50 in new supplies, everything else I already had on hand. Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" on the right to see where I'll be sharing my latest creation.

Glass Shade Garden Lantern

So I happened along this awesome molded glass shade when I was at the Habitat Re-Store a few weeks ago, I paid a whopping $0.10 for it! It's heavy and I love the chunkiness to it. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but I couldn't pass it up. I was looking at a magazine the other day and came up with the idea to hang it outside.

At first I wasn't sure how to hang it, but then I remembered that I had some wire I had bought for another project and decided to try it. Just simple 26 gauge wire from the hardware store, nothing fancy. It worked!

I just took the wire and wrapped it several times around the shade. This worked because as you can see from the picture, the shade had a lip around it to hold the wire in place. When looking for a shade, keep in mind that you'll want one with a lip. I then left enough slack to rig up a "hook" and just slipped it over the tree branch. Easy as pie!

I'm really happy with the look, I think it blends in nicely as well as stands out in the tree/bush I hung it in. I've not really seen the sun hit it right on yet, but when I do I bet it'll look beautiful! It would also look great with a lit tea light, but I wouldn't use a candle larger than that unless you knew you had a tempered glass shade (which most aren't).

Please click "Linky Parties I Love" on the right to see where I'll be sharing this inexpensive and easy idea.

Crafty Craft Area Organization

On a never ending quest to keep my crafting stash more organized, I came up with a few cheap organizational ideas that I thought might be helpful for someone out there. They've definitely been helpful for me, so far anyways!

I was having an issue with overbuying embellishments for scrapbooking, because I didn't really have them organized and would forget what I had. So I tried organizing them into various boxes, but that didn't really allow me to "see" what I had. I came up with the idea of putting them in Ziploc bags, which helped a lot but I still wanted an easy way to store them where I'd have easy access to them.

I had bought this cafe rod for another purpose, but never mounted it. I found these curtain rings on clearance for $0.50 a 6/pk (yeah, score!) and looking at the two together an idea popped into my head. The first thing I did was mount the rod to the side of my wooden craft island. It's in the garage, please pardon the mess.

Then I threaded the rings and used them to hold the Ziploc bags containing my scrapbooking stuff. Viola! All in one place, organized and easy to see what is there and grab just what I need. It's been awesome so far, and really easy to keep maintained.

Another "hot spot" of trouble was my stash of ribbon/trims. I had all of them crammed in a basket and would just rummage through them to find what I wanted to use. Time consuming, and I was also having the issue of overbuying because I wasn't remembering what I had.

My kids have an easel, and the roll that the paper came on is really sturdy, like seriously 100x's sturdier than any paper towel tube. So I rolled the various items around the tube and kept them secure with small elastic rubber bands that I stole took from my daughter's hair stuff. Now it's all easily stored and organized in one place.

I'm interested in hearing how you keep your crafting area organized on the cheap. What items have you repurposed to fit another need? How do you keep little items in check without buying sometimes expensive organizational tools? Please share your thoughts, I'd love to hear them!

Please click on "Linky Parties I love" on the right to see where I'll be sharing my ideas.

Think Outside the Drawer

So I have a super tiny kitchen, as in really small. I have a very small countertop area that holds the sink, a dishrack, the coffee maker and my kitchen-aid. That is all I can fit on that countertop. That is the only one in the entire kitchen. I have a buffet turned work island in the center of the kitchen, but the only thing I have on it is a cutting board.

Our cabinets in the kitchen hang really low, so mounting appliances under them isn't an option. Besides the fact that we rent, and we can't make any changes anyway but work with what's already existing. The microwave and toaster used to be on another small buffet but it was white and had a TON of crevices and was a major pain to clean. Momma was at her breaking point and something new needed to replace it. My only requirement was that I didn't want it to be white and it had to have a somewhat easy to clean surface.
Meet the newest member of our family, the sideboard. I think I'll name her Sally. Sally sideboard is really a dresser that I bought off of Craigslist this last weekend for $80. I wish she would have been a little less, but she fits in our kitchen perfectly and she holds a lot of stuff.

She has ten lovely drawers, all but two are filled up with stuff. Right now I have my cuisinart, waffle maker, george forman grill, cookie cutters, cake decorating stuff, recipe book, blender, a few bread baskets and washcloths for cleaning up the kids tucked safely away inside her lovely drawers. Like I said, she holds a lot of stuff!

I had fun making the top functional and pretty. I had to have the microwave and toaster oven on top. But I also wanted to add some functional fanciness to it as well. The canister you see here is filled with paper napkins. It's sitting on top of a red antique devilled egg tray and the tongs for the toaster oven are within easy reach. Your going to give me a pass on my dirty toaster oven, right? That thing is a major pain to keep clean. Seriously, I love how it works but cleaning it is an almost futile endeavor.
The end of the sideboard was looking bare, as I didn't have any other appliances that HAD to go there. So I decided to borrow a lamp from the living room to give the kitchen some more light. I also wanted to add a decorative element, so I added the potted flower and the pictures. I just bought this Kalancoe plant from 99 cent everything the day before and it looks awesome here. I found some moss growing in the backyard so I dug it up and brought it in, makes the flowers look professionally potted, huh? The pot saucer is an old transferware bread plate that I got for 99 cents awhile back.

Both of the white picture frames came from 99 cents everything as well. If you have that store in your area and you've not gone, you are committing a frugal felony! That is hands down the best dollar store I've been too. Anyways, I wanted to frame something that would be meaningful for me. I spend a TON of time in the kitchen (as most Mommies do) and I need the encouragement. So I framed my favorite picture of me and my Momma, every time I look at that picture I smile.

I also made a frame with a word that I've really been trying to put into perspective as a Mom lately, "Legacy". Anything and everything has the potential of being the building blocks of the legacy I will leave for my kids. They are at an age now that makes me very aware of how my actions will leave a lasting impression. I have a lot of work to do in that area, I need the reminder daily, sometimes hourly, that what I'm doing day in and day out is really contributing to the overall larger picture.

Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" on the right for the blogs that I like to party with and will be linking up to.

Coupe Soup Candleholder

I found this really cute iridescent glass shade at Goodwill for 99 cents. It reminds me of the glass shades that you use with ceiling fans that have light fixtures. It's a pretty tan color with that awesome iridescent finish. I had found this cute "vintage" coupe soup bowl at an antique mall awhile back and paid a whopping 99 cents for it too. I love the pattern, I'm a sucker for pretty much all things transferware.

I was going to glue the bowl down to the glass shade, but decided not too so that I could use the pieces for other uses if I wanted to. Besides I wasn't too worried about it being unstable, since the bowl is larger than the shade it's pretty solid. I used two different ribbons to tie around the top of the glass shade. The top wasn't very pretty, so I wanted to hide it.

All in all I think it turned out pretty cute. Like the uniqueness of it and I'm glad that I didn't glue them together so that I can use them for different things at a later date.

Linking up to the following,