New blog

So I started another new blog:
http://believeinjunk.blogspot.com/

I know I don't post enough on the other blogs I'm a part of, but I also don't want to weigh this one down with all my projects. And I have quite a few projects that I'll post soon on the new site.

Check it out!

Desk

This one, I can't believe I don't have a before picture. If I do I can't find it. Anyway, this desk was a freebie. I didn't need a desk. My kids didn't need a desk. But it was free. Who am I to say no to that? In it's previous life this desk was blue. I like blue, but it was what I call Country Blue. You know that lighter blue that was popular in the 80's? The previous owners of our home loved Country Blue and pretty much every room in our house is painted in this color. I have gotten it out of our kitchen, but I still need to get it out of the rest of the house.

Back to the desk: I have always seen in magazines where they use wallpaper, old maps, or other paper to cover drawers. I've always wanted to do that. I picked up this wallpaper border on clearance at Wal-mart. It's from their Better Homes and Gardens line and it was $3. This was one of my "I don't know what I'll do with it, but I'm sure a project will come along someday" purchases. The rest of the desk is painted, in you guessed it, Colonial Cream. I think it might be a little too much on the wallpaper. I keep going back and forth on it. But Cordelia likes it and I guess that's all that matters, because it's her desk.

I looked everywhere for handles, but never found any I really, really liked. So I spray painted the original gold metal handles in a cream color. Perfect.

Game night

Mom and I were out junkin' and thriftin' over the weekend. I found this great exercise Twist Board at a thrift store for $3. It has a swivel on the bottom so I had planned on using it as a lazy susan. I just love the graphics on it so I had to get it. I had a few ideas for my lazy susan, but I started having a lot of fun with the games theme so I continued with that. I'm going to do a couple more themes when I have time, but for now it's games.

I printed the Monopoly rules on some vellum and put that around the large candle. In the dish is extra Sorry playing pieces I had. Sometimes I get after myself for having so much stuff, but when a project comes together like this, I'm so happy I've collected all of these things.

The spring has the Clue case file and the candlestick attached to it. I put pencils inside the test tube inside the spring. I just keep finding more and more uses for those springs.

Monopoly coasters

Wine charms made out of Poker chips. I had gotten these poker chips probably 2 years ago for 50 cents. I knew I would eventually find a use for them.

The only new item in this project was the Twist Board. Everything else was in my craft stash. Hooray for being a pack rat!

Homemade stamp

Inspiration found here: http://dalemackey.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/make-a-kid-stamp/ Rion can be such a good artist when he wants to be. I always liked his drawing of a penguin. Now it's a stamp. I think it might go on Christmas cards. Now Torii wants to draw something so I can make it into a stamp too.

Pillow case dresses

A co-worker recently had a craft book and this was one of the ideas in it. It's super easy and so cute. This is really close to the one I made: http://www.ehow.com/how_4422889_make-pillowcase-dress.html. Or just google "pillowcase dresses" and you'll get a bunch of results. I found both of these pillowcases at thrift stores for about 50 cents each. I had to buy bias tape and elastic, but that was the only other expenses. Cute, cheap and recycled! For the yellow one I embrodered a heart at the bottom just so it wouldn't be so plain.

$3.00 window hanging.

I love to thrift store shop now. I haven't really looked at our thrift store's in town until recently. I have found some great 'junk' finds. I just picked up some little ugly wood picture frames and I knew right away what I wanted to do with them. I've been having fun with little quote stuff as you can probably see with my last post. :P They are just so cute to play with. Laurie, this one is for you if you want it, I can send it over. Let me know if you would like it or not. It would look cute hanging in a window or just on a wall. it looks super cute also. I also have one for you stacy with a football logo on it. :D

Mini legal pad holder

This is another idea I got from the book about using recycled items. They made a regular sized legal pad holder, but when I spotted mini legal pads at the dollar store I knew I wanted to make these. They also used brown paper grocery bags for the outside, but the dollar store also had some really cool rolled paper with stars on it. I used the back side for the outside, but used the star side for the inside. The rest of the stuff was all stuff I had on hand so each pad holder costs less than a dollar! I will be making some more of these for sure. I want to make some full sized ones too, but this one is the perfect size for my purse.

More ideas.

Another spagetti jar idea. I found some clear stickers that came in sheets at a local craft store and each sheet had milestones for different year's on them. Of course I went through them and found the milestone's for space related year's so I used them on a jar to make a 'trivia jar.' I filled it with sand so the lettering would stickout more and then added some flowers to dress it up a bit. I think I want to add a little more sand to it though.

Another idea I got when making some juice for Heidi. I used to throw away the frozen juice containers that have the round metal lids on each end of them (walmart brand are great. easy to take apart.) I just take the metal rings off from the cardboard lining and wash them off. Then Glue a favorite picture in the inside to make a framed look. Then glue a magnet on the back and voila, a super cute picture magnet for the fridge. It would also make a great ornament! So you got yummy juice and two picture art for around $2.00. :D

Coffee coaster

Perhaps this blog could become our crafty blog? I found this really great magazine at JoAnn's the other day about crafting with recycled items. It cost $15, but it has so many great ideas and got my creativity going again so I had to pick it up. This was one of the ideas in the book. I always pick up things that visually appeal to me at thrift stores even if I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with them. So I have a lot of stuff downstairs just waiting for a project. Anyway, I happen to have a coffee sack which I cut a square out of for the coaster. Then I just sewed on all the other items. It was fun! I started another coaster that was going to be really cool with part of a coffee ad from an old Life magazine, but the paper ended up tearing apart when I sewed it so I have to come up with something else. I have another recycled project done, but I have to take some pictures first. Then I'll post it.

Pom Pom Flowers stay fresh! Thanks Mom!

Great idea mom found in Country living. Make pom pom flowers for easy decoration and you have cute flowers that are cute and always fresh. :) When mom gave me the idea last week, I went to Real Deals and found these super cute vases for $2/each. Awesome. I wasn't going to decorate much for valentine's day, but the flowers do look cute with some of the old cards mom also gave us. Thanks mom!
p.s- if anyone would like some pom poms made, let know. I can make a few up so easy and send some or if you would like to try, they are so easy and they usually cost from $6-$8/set of two. Walmart should carry them.