spend share save

Here’s a project I can’t wait to replicate. Eliza and her mom crafted this project after being inspired by a Spend Share Save box at a friends house.

The idea is simple, start by digging an empty box out of the recycle bin:

Divide the inside into sections (scotch tape and cardboard):

Using a sharp knife, and adult supervision, cut the lid into three pieces to match the sections created on the inside:

When all the chopping and taping is done, decorate your bank and start dividing up your funds. My favorite part is the ’share’ section.

Thanks for the great idea Eliza!!

With winter in full swing, there’s sure to be a glove or two that goes astray. What to do with its lonely only other half… Glove Bunny!!

This Baby Glove Bunny only takes one glove to make. A chop-chop here and a stitch stitch there, here a stuff, there a stuff and there you have it.

I have included a visual layout of how to transform your stray glove into a precious little softie, below. The dashed lines need to be cut with sharp scissors and then sewed together

The two middle fingers are turned into the bunny arms, the legs are cut up from the wrist and sewed apart. The face details can either be stitched on, or adorned with buttons and trim. Be creative… this is only a jumping point!!

For recycled stuffing ideas see my post on Stray Sock Stuffing.

It’s so simple I almost didn’t post it: one long strand of leather, a beautiful bead and a couple knots.

It doubles as a necklace… I will take pictures soon!

The fun of holiday baking doesn’t have to end just yet… just don’t eat these cookies!!

It was a chilly cold weekend, so we stayed in and made salt dough cutouts. This is a fun, squishy, messy, crafty activity that children of all ages can enjoy.

** To make the dough add 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt and about 3/4 of a cup of water to a large mixing bowl, roll up your sleeves, and squish together until it forms a moldable mass. (this is the fun part!!) Should it be too stiff, add more water a tiny bit at a time.  For more fun, food coloring can be added to the mix. **

After the dough was done, we rolled it out and started cutting shapes with play dough toys. Meanwhile, I started warming the oven to 350, so we could bake the shapes to crispy perfection. (about 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cutouts)

A few story books later, we painted the cooled cooked shapes with tempura paints and played with the fun little character pieces.

Check out another fun salt dough project here.

is this a trash heap or a piece of trash?

Once again, I’ve transformed a piece of furniture that has been following my family around since the 70’s. This record hutch used to be some other color? before my mother stained it black in the 90’s. The doors no longer slide and I would have tossed it to the curb, if not for the serious lack of places to put things in my apartment.

paint samples from Home Depot are everything I dreamed they could be

Instead of adding it to a landfill, I discovered paint samples from Home Depot. These 8 oz tintable testers come in a variety of brands and can be color matched to anything, all for under $3 a pop!

The last time (and first time) I redid a piece of furniture I went with a semi-gloss, a recommendation from a friend. At first, I was upset to learn that the testers only came in an eggshell finish, but after I was done, I learned that I prefer eggshell for furniture. Try and learn.

prep and paint!

Preparing this piece for painting was a bit more entailed than I envisioned. After I got started with the sanding, I decided to find a way to get rid of the non-working sliding doors. It took a lot of elbow grease, hammering pulling and prying, but I managed to pop the pieces out one by one. (I saved the pieces for other projects)

...oh, the choices...

Once the prep and paint was complete I decided to get crafty and transform this piece of furniture into a work of art.

it's getting exciting

After choosing some beautiful paper and carefully cutting out my designs with an x-acto knife, it was time to test out a layout.

layout, decoupage, seal

I decoupaged the paper onto the chest with mod podge. I applied a thin layer and then let dry completely before applying another. This is important, because if you try to paint more glue over the paper before it is dry you WILL tear the paper.

the hardest part is aways... waiting

I wanted the design to lay seamlessly on the chest so I applied several layers of mod podge. The last step is to seal the entire piece with an acrylic sealant so that water will not damage your hard work.

Pretty nice!!

(note to self: take better pictures because these don't do it justice)

I’ve been busy, busy, busy, sewing surprises for those I care about (will post details AFTER the gifts have been received).  In the meantime, I thought I would post some pictures of last year’s holiday project.  I’m happy to see that many of the little critters I gave away last year have made a holiday comeback.

Happy Holidays. xoxox

Holiday catalogues…

wooden scraps

chop chop and a little thread

assemble

..dangle & dazzle!

I was about to make an impulse buy and purchase a charming roll of recycled holiday paper (placed cleverly near the register so you drool over it while waiting in line)… then I remembered all the magazines in the recycling bin, and put it back.

There’s beauty in resourcefulness… plain and simple.

While boot chains may be the latest runway runoff, this project is more like the poor girls solution to the glitzy holiday party. New boots were not on this year’s priority spending list, so instead I bought two new things for my holiday getup.. bright teal tights and a $20 necklace overflowing with chains. (If you could imagine, the necklace pictured above is actually what was leftover AFTER making boot chains, so I got 2 new boot chains and a necklace all for twenty bucks!)

All you really need to make DIY shoe jewelry is an amply overflowing necklace, some old shoes and needle-nose pliers (pictured on top). Every girl should have a pair of these in the house, both for crafty projects and DIY jewelry fixes.. they have a pointy tip for squeezing tiny pieces and a cutting mechanism near the axis.

Pull apart the circle links holding the necklace to the clasp and save them for reattaching. Wrap the chains around your boots to determine the length needed to create your jewelry, and then cut the chain at the appropriate place with the cutting part of the pliers.

Now, reattach the chains in the form you want by inserting the circular link between the two ends of your cut chain, and then squeezing the circle back into shape. I did a wrap-around anklet with dangling ends…

While writing up this how-to post Refinery29 conveniently dropped this link in my inbox, check it out for some more great ideas… and then make your own!

With the holidays approaching you’ll soon find yourself knee deep in packaging waste. This is the perfect time to add another type of recycle bin to the home. A projects bin, like this one, can be used to collect empty packaging and other discarded items that have art-project potential. Everything, from the plastic and twist ties holding dolly in place to empty candy containers and wrapping paper, can be re-imagined into something useful.

This project takes a simple idea, and multiplies the fun!

You start with a shoe box, or a box of similar size, and create a room for your toys to dwell. The best thing about this project is not only do you get to do it over and over, at different times, with different friends, etc., but you get to take them all home, and assemble each piece into a grand mansion.

The bedroom, for instance, could have been made at a cousin’s house over Thanksgiving, the kitchen, at a sleepover and the playroom on a rainy afternoon. Creating add-on houses is great for holidays, sick days, vacation days and sleepovers.

The examples below are from one of ingenious kids I spend time with. She used wallpaper and wrapping paper scraps to adorn the walls. Altoids tins became closets and beds. Popsicle sticks are now hardwood floors and stamps transformed into artwork.

Click on the pictures below to get a closer look at the creative uses for everyday trash.

(You MUST click on the pictures to see the incredible detail!)