Revamp a Thrift Store Painting

I found this oil painting at a local thrift store for $3. I was drawn to its size and misty fog over the water. I knew it would be perfect for a painting revamp that I had in mind.

After finding this perfect (and cheap) painting, all I had to do was add an appropriate quote over top the painting in white craft paint.

I just free-handed the quote, so this project took all of 5 minutes to do :) I love how it turned out! It reminds me to be thankful for and frequently visit the beautiful mountains we have here in East Tennessee.

Pine Ridge Falls 

Flannel Bombing the Camper

Turns out we love flannel.

Maybe a little too much.

Nah, that could never be ;)

Instead of paying tons for fabric to make new curtains for our vintage camper, I hit up my local thrift store on a sale day and brought home a bag full of flannel shirts for $2.

Then I cut all of the large portions off and lined them up.

Then I sewed them together one by one and added a loop thingy at the top to put the curtain rod through.
It only took me about one hour to do this project, and I absolute adore my custom made curtains for our little camper :)

Also, while I was at it, I took a flannel skirt , made one cut (cut the waist off) and sewed a pillow out of it. Love.

DIY Candle Holders

Supplies:
Stair spindles from Lowes around $2 each
Wooden platforms from Lowes around $2 each
Upcycled salsa jar lids
spray paint

Time :
about 30 min plus drying time

Steps:
1. Paint
2. Glue or screw platforms to spindles
3. Hot glue lids to top of spindles

This is a great way to upcycle lids. Aaron also had the idea to paint pop lids to hold long candles.

Another Christmas Ornament

Well, with over a million repins, I've become a Pinterest sensation with last year's Christmas ornament, so I thought I would post another one to keep my fans happy ha :)

After our wedding, I dried my bouquet and used it to make a  shadowbox. I had a few petals leftover, so I had the idea to use them in a Christmas ornament.

 All I did was cut out a picture of our wedding flowers, roll it up, and insert it into the ornament opening. Then, I used tweezers to straighten it out. Lastly, I put in a few dried rose petals from my bouquet.

Ahhhh, memories.......

Old Shutter Christmas Card Holder

I made this shutter card holder for our wedding, and I loved it so much that I kept it to use as a Christmas card holder as well.

It looks really cute sitting in our kitchen on a couple of picnic baskets also left over from our wedding :)

Garden Decorations

We have a chain link fence (on the property when I bought it), and the neighbors have a privacy fence on their side. As you can see, it doesn't really look very good, so I decided to spruce it up a bit by adding some old windows to it. Even though it didn't hide the ugliness all the way, it did give a better focal point to our garden area.

  Notice that this is a new garden space that needs to be tilled again before we plant. Planting day is this  Tuesday for our cold weather plants!

I also bought a bag of .99 cents Easter eggs to be festive.

To make this, I just used ribbon as a hanger and purchased window clings to put on the windows. I also wrote "Love is a garden, let it grow" on the center window in dry-erase maker, but it didn't show up very well. I may paint that on later with craft paint.

Baby Picture Display

I've been to a lot of weddings that have some type of baby picture display. As far as I can tell, these displays don't really serve a purpose other than just being cute conversation pieces. Well, when I spotted these $2 school chairs at a local thrift store, I knew exactly how I would use them. I think they will serve both the "cute" and "conversation piece" purposes well.

Before 

Steps:

Not much to this little project!

After 

Cold Frame

My handy fiance finished our cold frame today. :) We used two old windows for the top and front walls, and plywood on the other sides. Aaron thought that a painted brick finish would give it a better appearance. I think it turned out really nice and will serve its function very well!

Old Shutter Card Holder

My friend Lauren gave me this old shutter, and I thought it would make a perfect card holder for our wedding. I really love how it turned out!

Time: 20 minutes

Supplies:
Shutter (I decided not to paint this one because it seemed perfect the way it was, but you could paint one any color you need)
Burlap
Lace ribbon
Paint
Hot glue

Steps:
1. Cut burlap into triangles
2. Paint letters onto pieces
3. Let dry then hot glue them to a piece of ribbon
4. Let dry then attach to shutter

Christmas Ornament Exchange

My grandmother is having a ornament exchange at this year's Christmas get-together, and this is the ornament that I made for the event. It was really simple, and I love how it turned out.

Time: 10 minutes

Supplies:
1 clear ornament (mine came from Micheal's)
Fake snow or confetti (glitter would be cute too)
Natural berries and greenery
Block letters (I got a whole bag of these at Wal-Mart for $3 in the necklace/bracelet making section)
Ribbon
Glue
Tweezers

Steps:

1. Glue letters together making sure the word is small enough to fit inside the ornament
2. Fill ornament with snow, berries, and greenery
3. Place word inside using tweezers (I'm sure you could glue the stuff down, but I just left everything in free form with mine)

Upcycle Crayons into Unique Art

When I first saw this idea on Pinterest, I knew I had to try it. I'm a teacher, so worn-out crayons are plentiful in my life. :)

Time: 10-30 minutes

Supplies

Painted and dried canvas

old crayons

paint

hot glue gun

hair dryer

print-off of the image you want to use

Mod-Podge 

Steps:

1. Hot glue crayons onto the top of canvas 

2. Put your hair dryer on the hottest setting and hold close to crayons 

3. Continue melting until you get the look you want (I was so surprised by how fast they melted!) 

4. Cut out desired photo, paint it if necessary, and mod-podge it onto canvas (*note* it may be better to do this step before melting crayons) 

5. Let Dry then add whatever words you desire to the canvas 

Interchangeable Frames

My honey and I just got our engagement photos back, and we greatly needed a way to display them. Aaron mentioned that it would be cool if we had a way to change them easily since we have so many, so I got to work making these cute interchangeable photo frames.

Time: 10 minutes per frame

Supplies:
Old or cheap (Dollar Store!) frames
Spray Paint
Block letters (used for jewelry making and only $3 at Wal-Mart)
Hot glue gun
thick paper or fabric (I saw some really cute burlap ones on Pinterest)
Office Supply clips

Steps:

1. Spray paint frames and clips
2. Cut paper or fabric to size using the back of frame for a guide
3. Glue letters on paper or  fabric
3. Once the clips are dry, glue them onto the center of frame
3. Hang with ribbon

I made 8 of them to display down my hall, and I love them!

Upcycled Craft Night Bag

After 

This past Saturday, I went to a workshop by Stay Makes Cents. As parting gifts, she gave us these useful grocery bags:

Inspired by her talk on saving money, I decided not to purchase a much needed craft-bag to carry to my monthly Whichcrafters meeting (I've been hauling supplies in Wal-Mart bags for 6 months). Instead, I made my own out of our free grocery bag!

Time: 15 minutes

Supplies:

Recycled grocery bag 

Paint

Fabric scraps

buttons

hot glue gun (or sew) 

Steps:

1. Tape off the area that you want to cover

2. Paint area

3. While paint is drying, make a fabric flower (click here for the directions that I followed)

4. Glue flower on bag and decorate with buttons. 

5. Paint the words "Create" or "Make" or "Crafty" on the bag 

6. Let dry and then it's ready to go!