This and That

I love to be able to make creative items- and make them cheaply. I get great satisfaction out of making something with my own two hands, and saving money while doing it!! It's also always nice to be able to make something really cool that other people would like as well... like his wonderful creation below:

This handy little idea came to me after weeks of throwing away fresh fruit and veggies due to mine and my husband's horrible memory. If something isn't right in front of our face- we forget about it. Ta-da- The Fresh List. I simply took a magnetic erase board and tucked ribbon in around the edges, then hot glued the edges to make sure they stayed put. For the title I used scrabpooking chipboard letters I never got around to using and hot glued them on. Perfection. Now we always know what we have in the depths of our fridge!

I mentioned in my post before my love affair with scrapbook paper. I don't scrapbook much anymore, but oh how I love to collect the paper! It is so versatile. I have used it to wrap gifts, to make cards, cover small wooden boxes using the decoupage technqiue and lots more. My most recent creation:

My living room wall decor! This space was empty for a good 2-3 months. It was killing me. We spent a fraction of what we would have on these IKEA frames and picture rail than if we had tried to find an art print to go with our decor. That was the problem- we couldn't find an art print that matched our decor... so I went to AC Moore and got these awesome scrapbooking papers. I wish you could see the detail a little more. They aren't just one solid color, all have a litte design going on. They fill up the space nicely and the "art" cost less than $3. Talk about bang for your buck!

Once upon a time I lived in a space with lime green walls and equally bright colored accessories. Anyone who knows me, may remember the yearbook section from our freshman yearbook, and my "cool room" nomination. Bright- right? Anyway, I held onto these framed mirrors from that room that were metallic purple and pink with some sort of silver pattern on them... cute for a little girl maybe, but I wanted to use them in our new apartment, so those colors wouldn't quite cut it:

The end result. I sanded them down- dilemma - I didn't stop to think that the sand paper I was using would scratch the mirror. Ooops. Fix- use cooridinating neutral colored bottoms to frame the inside of the frames! They covered my mistake and added a cute little whimsical touch! Cost= $0. The mirrors were old, the paint was laying around and the buttons were pilling up in old ball jars from my grandmother. Love it!

Remember- most anything that you buy in the store can be done at home, it just takes a different way of thinking!

Always,

CW