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.

Cheap Thrills

Summertime is officially here. Lots of fun. Accompanied with lots of, "I'm bored", "There is nothing to do" and "He/She is bothering me". The solution, keep them busy! Sometimes easier said than done, especially when you don't want to spend a lot of money. However there are many great things to do that don't cost much (or are completely free) that don't necessarily require that you GO somewhere. Some oldies but goodies we enjoy are:

Painting $1 models from the craft store. Note that the paint DOES wash off of surfaces easily, but still have the kids wear playclothes!

Who doesn't love a good game of dress up?

Have fun eating a messy lunch, in this case, spaghetti.

Find a local petting zoo and feed the animals, $0.25 a handful!

By far our best investment all summer long is our $15 wading pool.

Eat your meals "alfresco" (thanks Fancy Nancy!)

Tire them out at the park! Have fun finding new parks in the area that you normally don't frequent.

We had a blast just hanging out at Bass Pro Shop a few weeks back. We rode ATV's and boats, and the place was a Taxidermist's paradise!

You can never go wrong with Kool-Aid playdough.

This is just a sample of things we like to do during the summertime that doesn't bust the bank. What do you like to do with the kids? I'm always up for new ideas, please join in and share your ideas!

Paint Your Own Planters

So I'm always on the lookout for inexpensive large pots. As I'm sure you know those aren't easy to find. Even the plastic ones tend to run around $10 for a good sized one measuring 12-14" in diameter. At a local nursery last summer I stumbled across what is now my favorite frugal planter. I found recycled cardboard planters for less than $4 a piece! They are big too, they run around 14" in diameter!

They "technically" are disposable, but I've had them for two years now. Left outside year round and have had no issues and they are as sound as they were when I brought them home.

The only thing is they are a lovely shade of putty, and I wanted something different for the garden. So I got out my trusty spray paint and went to work. The planter above is painted a shade of sage green. It's hard to tell in the photo, but it looks great in person.


Here are the planters in their unpainted state. They are awesomely textured and look so nice once painted. Think of all the options you have, you can make these fit any garden or "look" you are going for. The texturing makes the paint really pop too. They do use a fair amount of paint since they are cardboard, but using cheapie spray paint makes sense here. Plus I think the paint helps the planters become more impervious to the elements.

Keep your eyes open at your local nurseries for these, as I've yet to find them in any big box store. Snatch them up if you find them, I dare you to buy something similar new for less!

Linking up to my favorite linky parties, click on "Linky Parties I Love" on the right for the directory.