Old Keys Anew

Yes...  ANOTHER Pinterest idea - - here's the picture I found & pinned:

How cute is that?  It wasn't exactly the look I was going for, but the general idea is too cute to ignore.  I had a booth at the flea market this past weekend and wandered around shopping through other people junk.  O what fun!!  I DID find a bucket of old keys (they aren't nearly as fancy as the ones on Pinterest but...)  I knew I HAD to buy them.  I got 5 of them.

My little town, which I love, has lots and lots of antique stores downtown and I just happen to work downtown and have an hour for lunch.  One venture the other day landed me in the 1/2 price basement of the Memories antique store.  For 2 cute wooden frames, descent size - $5 each.  I paid $5 for both.  Sweet!

Here's the final product after a day of thinking and some more pretty scrapbook paper that I found a use for. Again, it matches our colors and I am very happy with how it turned out.  Tell me what you think!!

Do you love it like I do??  

(The green 'ribbon' I hung it by was this silly little belt on a sweater I bought.  I don't like belts... makes my tubby tummy too obvious.  lol.  So this is a MUCH better use for it.)

Paper-Tree Statement Piece

I (like many, many others) am completely addicted to Pinterest!  The Crafts & DIY section is my favorite and always has new stuff for me to drool over and re-Pin.  One of the things I keep going back to is those adorable twig-trees with scrapbooking paper for leaves.  I think they are fabulous and I was dead set on making my own!!  Here's one I found on Pinterest:

I have very little shelf space or counters for pretty vases so I had to figure out where to put it... then I realized I have this wall vase that I've already made/decorated once.  Our colors were red & black with an asian theme awhile back so I made this:

But... these are no longer our colors..... and I really needed to do another craft.  

I was at the Goodwill about a month ago, I could spend forever there, getting ideas for new crafts and imagining how I could change it to make it more beautiful or absolutely fantastic.  I saw the ugliest flowers twist-tied to a big bunch of real wooden twigs.  I fiddled with it enough to see that the twigs could all separate.... so I bought it.  $1.00.  

After many trips to Walmart, Lowes, and Menards I managed to collect lots and lots of paint swatches... combined with a few sheets of my scrapbook paper and I had everything I needed for this project.  Once I found the time, I sat down one evening... pulled apart my old red & black one.... And?... built my pretty purple & green one.  Here it is... I love it!  What do you think?????

It's on a focal wall in our living room and just makes the whole living room feel pulled together and crafty... I get all 'little girl" and gitty when I look at it.  So proud of myself, I am beaming on the inside.  Hehehe.

Even Chris said (more than once) that he likes it!

BAM!

My frame...

I have received and started to fix up my giant, enormous, large picture frame.  I'm sure someone buys or sells it because of the actual picture inside it, however I think it's hideous and just fell in love with the scrolly, wooden frame.

Just the simple picture shows you the frame, but doesn't do justice to the actual size of it... so I had Ethan stand next to it.  What do you think??

I am about half done with my 'frame-renovation'.... once it's complete, I WILL post pictures to get some feedback.  I am actually NOT in love with what I did on the inside, however the frame is looking pretty darn cute!!

My Dining Room Wall

I thought I'd share my wall with ya'll.  I have oodles and oodles of picture frames.... and while unpacking, I noticed quite a few of them were white.  The library is selling old magazines per pack.  You get 4 or 6 of them in one pack... and 2 packs for a buck.  Shoot... I love looking through mag's for good recipes, so I bought a few bundles.  I noticed some very appealing pictures of food in the Good Housekeeping magazines, and then had an idea.  

Here is the outcome!! 

Can you tell what they are??  A roast.  Berry cheesecake.  Mint leaves.  Bananas.  Yellow & red tomatoes.  Melted chocolate on a spoon.  Blueberries.

Blueberry cupcakes.  Blueberry chocolate mousse pie.  Scallions.  Almonds.  

Like it??

Adorable message boards

Another cute craft I've found on Pinterest....  using old frames for cute dry erase message boards.  I had two matching, boring picture frames.  I think I'll paint them later, but they are cream and that works for now.  Put some nice scrapbook paper and some ideas together and this is what I got.  

One is a menu board.... 

The 2nd one I made is just cute... because my family loves one another.

(Go ahead.... you can 'awe' if you want.)

You just write your message on the glass and it wipes off perfectly!  I'm going to add ribbon to it later, to make it more appealing to hang.  But this is it for now.

I still think they're cute.

What do you think?

Magnetic Board

So... I've found a cute craft idea on Pinterest, how to make a magnetic board.  I had all the stuff, so figured - why not?  Here it is!!! 

It's an old cookie sheet that I was about a day way from tossing when I saw the idea on Pinterest.  I bought lots of small scrap-fabric from Walmart (only $1.27, and it's an inch bigger than my cookie sheet - so I lucked out!) And I always have ribbons and buttons on hand.  The only thing I had to buy were those magnet thingys with the sticky stuff on back.  

I won't show you the back of the board, because it's awfully ugly.  (I HATE glue... I'm clumsy and don't trust it, really.)  I used duct tape... and lots of it!!  But when I do crafts, I don't care how the unseen parts look as long as the finished, seen part is adorable.  And I do believe this turned out pretty darn cute!!  (All the buttons on the board are magnets.)  I love this!! 

What do you think??

Not a Lame Frame

Since we've moved into our place (early November) I've slowly been decorating.  With little to no money, it's hard to do.... that's where being crafty comes in handy.  I go to the goodwill a lot, flea markets, garage sales, craigslist... there are unlimited craft projects within my budget just waiting for me to conquer!

There's a small, but awesome, second hand furniture store downtown.  They have great prices and is owned by a very nice, hometown man.  He's kind, trustworthy and friendly.  Even though he sold this huge, beautiful, wooden-swirl mirror that I wanted... he has managed to hold onto the giant picture I want.  No... I don't want the picture, it's very ugly... but the frame is large.  Big.  Huge.  Giant!!  (Probably 5ft x 4ft??)  It's scrolly, wooden and painted a distressed white.  The picture is some ugly, 70's scenery... I didn't really look that close cuz I considered it ugly and dismissed it quickly.  However the frame is gorgeous and I've talked Chris into letting me get it!!

We've made a few small payments on it and now it's paid for and they will be delivering it on sunday!!  (Tomorrow!)  Now.... Chris says, "What are you going to put in it?"  Oh... yeah.  It's a frame, what goes IN IT?  Hm...  I've spent days thinking... and with my crafty brain, I've had tons of ideas.  However my budget doesn't always agree with my crafts.

I have finally decided what to do.... I got the supplies and now I'm just going to get going!  Not sure how it'll turn out... or how long I'll like it.  But if it turns out like it looks in my head - I'll be totally satisfied!  I'll post pictures and updates when I can!!!

Things I'd like to try...

I've recenlty come across these things, randomly on the internet (as most things happen that way for me...) and here are some things I'd like to try out.  If or when I actually DO these, I will post updates.  Let me know what you think, or if you've tried them, how they turned out for you!! 

I love this idea because it's simple, inexpensive and it says 'crafty' without looking cheap.  I have a few frames already in my house that I am thinking about converting to this.  We'll see how it works out.

I've had my eye on a very large, white detailed frame I saw at the local used furniture store.  It's got the ugliest, 70's, gawdy scenery painting inside it, but I have lots of ideas how to fix it.  The frame itself will cover most of my wall... I'd guess it's 5 feet wide and 4 feet tall??  It's not too terribly expensive, so once I get my hands on it (if it's still AT the store... and no other crafty women got it before me) I will post pictures, before and after, to share with everyone.  

Now this is a very cool use for an old door.  I've priced used, old wooden doors and they still remain outside my budget. However, once the price or my budget changes, this will be one of the first

projects on my list.  Isn't this so cute??

This, however, is definitely in my budget!!  These are VHS tape cases, screwed to the wall with a new picture placed inside the cover.  You can store valueable or nicknacks or what-not in them once they are hung.  I was thinking of making several for my kitchen and label them Desserts, Main Dishes, Side Dishes, etc and placing recipe cards inside them.  Wouldn't that be neat?

A clever magnetic board..... it's a cookie sheet covered in adorable fabric, hung by a coordinating ribbon. Oh, adorable!  How easy?  Why buy a new cookie sheet for this?  I have an old one I wanted to get rid of last night but kept it for 'some reason'.  Maybe this is the reason??  I'm going to definitely try this and share my outcome with you.

There's probably a million and one craft ideas using frames... thankfully I have tons of frames not in use right now.  I love the 'floating' look this project gives.... and it's versatility is really appealing. Not sure exactly what I'd do inside the frame, but as soon as I figure it out - I'll share it.

I've also found a link & directions on how to make your own bouncy balls and how to make marbles crack and then you can hang them as decoration.  Too cute!  If (should really say when) I do these... I'll post updates.  If you guys try any of these or similar, please let me know how

they turned out!  (Pictures would be totally awesome!!!)