Family Sign Available for Purchase

I have had people express interest in the Family Sign that I made a few months ago.  I would be willing to make up to 10 signs for the price of $15.00 each.  I can't guarantee that they would be ready for Christmas.  If you are interested in one and it could be a local delivery, please Facebook me or email me at nwilkinson4@netzero.net.

I'll take the first 10 people.

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Update: Christmas Coasters

My friend, Kristi....not to be confused with my neighbor Kristi..... had an AMAZING idea for her Christmas Coasters and I just can't wait to share it!

Instead of using scrapbook paper.....she's going to use her children's ARTWORK!!!!  Isn't that awesome!
Grandparents just eat that up!!

I'll ask her to take some pictures and give us the instructions after she does it.....if you try it, please send me some pictures to post and share!  My email is nwilkinson4@netzero.net.

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Gorgeous Pinecone Wreath

If only I had pinecones.......I have access to at least 10 pine trees, but no pinecones....where did they all go??

I found this at the Craft-O-Maniac link party today.  Just to clarify.....this is not my wreath, I just liked it and wanted to share!

Here are the instructions.....super easy and I think that The Dollar Tree even has the styrofoam wreath form for $1.00!!!  And honey, I forgive you for dissing the dollar stores in your message yesterday! 

(For those of you who don't know me...my husband is a pastor and had the nerve to diss the dollar store in his message....well, yesterday,....he needed to purchase an extension cord and where did he go......The Dollar Store.....and who was working there??......someone who had been at church over the weekend......and what did she say???...."Look who needs the dollar store now!!!" LOL  I couldn't have said it better!!)

Happy Crafting!!

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Christmas Cloche

You'll never guess what this was.....   

(Hint:  It's from the Goodwill!)





It's an old cheese dome and candlestick!!!!  (Sorry for the blurry pic....I stole it from yahoo images...)

I first got this idea from Thrifty Decor Chick.   Here's the link to her instructions.  (She calls it a "cloche"!)

So.....go grab a $3.00 cheese dome from the Goodwill.....look for a chunky candle stick at the Goodwill.  Grab your Gorilla glue and glue them together.

Paint it the color of your choice.....I used Oil-Rubbed Bronze.  The Thrifty Decor Chick used Heirloom white.

Go to The Dollar Tree....grab a set of sparkly, plastic Christmas balls for $1.00 and fill! 

It's seasonal, too.  I filled it with  pumpkins in the fall and will hopefully find some pinecones for the winter.

 

Don't you just love cheap decorating! :)

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El-cheapo Christmas pillow

I would NEVER buy Christmas pillows.....they are too expensive and you use them for what...30 days?!? 

But....I would spend $1.00 to make a pillow!!

Go to The Dollar Tree.....buy a $1.00 Christmas placement.

Using a seam ripper.....open the short side seam.  (You may need to buy a seam ripper at The Dollar Tree if you don't have one.....do they even sell those there???)

Once I got the seam started, it was easy to open. 

Now....if you have a bag of fiberfill, you don't need a large hole.  I didn't.....and I'm too cheap to go and buy a bag....(it's the distance thing again!)...and bags of fiberfill are expensive......so I needed to open the entire short side seam.

I didn't have fiberfill, but I did have an old pillow in my closet that I've been wanting to get rid of.....aren't they filled with "fluffy stuff"????

Yes!!  Cut apart your pillow.

I just measured my pillow against the placement and trimmed my pillow to fit.

I stuffed it into my placemat......

Now some people at this point may re-sew the seam....but....my sewing machine has been out-of-commission for like 6 years....so it's hot glue to the rescue!

Hot glue your seam closed.....

I have a $1.00 Christmas pillow!! (and a rocking chair in deep need of a new paint job.......)

Merry Christmas!!



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Christmas Coasters

We have a few "white elephant" parties this year and I just need a quick hostess gift.  I've been seeing people use tiles for a bunch of things, so I thought that I'd mod podge some coasters!

Grab a cheap white 4 inch tile...

Cut a piece of cork just smaller than the tile and hot glue it to the bottom.  (The roll of cork was kind've expensive at $10.00, but I can get about a million tiles out of it and use it for other projects!)

You can use anything at this point....scrapbook paper, decorative napkins, wrapping paper.....I tried a bunch of things (and failed!) and ended up with coordinating scrapbook paper....I got it at The Paper Place.

One thing that I learned the hard way is that you want your paper slightly smaller than the tile.....

Brush on your Mod Podge....I'm thinking that one of those foam brushes would work WAY better than a paint brush....I just didn't have one....

Add your first layer of paper and Mod Podge over it....and then if you want to, add a coordinating paper on top of the first layer...

You can see the nice finish the Mod Podge puts on the tile.....I thought that it still needed something, so I hot glued a jute bow to the corner....

I think that I am going to seal them....I'm not sure how durable Mod Podge will be under the stress of a potentially wet drink....  I'll probably use a satin polyeurethane. 

When I tried a "test" group with wrapping paper and Mod Podge, I added a glossy polyeurethane finish...YUCK!!  I just don't like shiny!

Total Cost:  Tiles from the Habitat Restore:  4 @ $0.10 = $0.40;  Paper from The Paper Place:  2 @ $1.00= $2.00;  Cork:  maybe used $0.50 worth; Mod Podge and String....I already had.

Total cost:  $2.90!!!



Update:

Another idea is to add your children's artwork:

Click HERE to see how Kristi did it!

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Christmas decorating by "shopping the house"

Remember this?

I "Christmas-i-fied" it......it now looks like this...............

Total cost.....$2.00!!!!!

The Dollar Tree  (really....can I get a commission for this????) has little boxes of white lights for $1.00 and tubes of plastic Christmas balls for $1.00.....and then I used ribbon that I already had....

Merry Christmas! (Actually.....Happy Thanksgiving!)

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Reader's Thrifty pic's

I just had to post this picture that my friend Lisa emailed to me....

....LOVE how she used her Dollar Tree glassware, too!! (I really like her buffet behind the table!)

If you've made a craft from the blog and would like me to feature it, please email a picture to me at nwilkinson4@netzero.net.

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Recycled Cookie Jar

I don't have a cookie jar.  I'm just too cheap to buy one...

Well, my hubby bought a big bin of pretzels the other day and we ate them in about 15 minutes, so the empty jar has been sitting on the sink waiting to go into recycling......

....when I suddenly thought....I could put cookies in there....AND if I wrap it in scrapbook paper and mod podge it could be bea-U-tiful!

First....I wanted to spray it because I couldn't figure out how to do the lid with scrapbook paper...so I got out the primer.

And then if I would have had enough Rustoleum Canyon Black, I would have used it, but I only had ORB....

I grabbed my scrapbook paper....it's gorgeous and from The Paper Place.   They have an amazing selection! (And Hobby Lobby is like 45 minutes AWAY!!  I've never even been there....sigh....)

After trimming it to fit, I started to Mod Podge...

Since the bin got more narrow at the bottom, I did cut some slits so that the paper would overlap at the bottom....otherwise it would have been terribly wrinkled.

I added a sheer ribbon....I may add something else here, but all that I had on-hand was sheer black ribbon.

I then wanted a cute "something" on the lid when I remembered that I picked up extra knobs for a recycled dresser that I had.  I got the knobs for like $0.10 at the Habitat Restore.

I sprayed it with ORB  (Ugh!....look at my spraypaint speckled fingers....)

 

My Christmas cookie jar!!!  Total cost:  About $1.10!!!!

Brainstorm:  I was just making chex party mix for Thanksgiving.....wouldn't this make a wonderful hostess gift to take homemade goodies in???? 

Health note----be sure to only get spraypaint on the OUTside of the can!!  (Just thought that I'd better add that....LOL)

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Sneak peak....

You will never guess what this was and what it's going to be!!!  I'll show you tomorrow and how to make it!!

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Williams and Sonoma knock-off

Okay...so I got my idea for this from Thrifty Decor Chick.   Her website has been my inspiration!  She's the one that says these are a Williams and Sonoma knock-off.  Quite honestly, I am not even sure what Williams and Sonoma is......is it a store?  a catalog?  Oh well.....it's obviously too expensive!

Go to The Dollar Tree.....my son was SO embarassed that I was in the store taking pictures!!

Grab a $1 candlestick.

Walk down the aisle and grab a $1 vase.

Go home and grab your gorilla glue.

 (Yes..I know...I was too lazy to go and take another picture!)

And the reveal..........

I am thinking of filling them with pinecones for Christmas....I need to go and check the PB online catalog and see what they are doing!

(And I am still working on my PB inspired Christmas mantle....I just don't have any red glitter and I live too far away from the craft stores!!! Grr!)



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Pottery Barn Lantern Knock-off's

I just love knocking off Pottery Barn.....maybe it's because they keep canceling my catalog.....I think that they are onto the fact that I never buy anything, I just steal their ideas! ;)

With Christmas coming soon  (it scares me how soon...yikes!)...I need to switch out the pumpkins and mums on my porch.

What about this IDEA, but make it Christmas-y? 

They are wood...............spray painted!!!!

With a glass jar and candle from The Dollar Tree!!!  Can you even imagine them in ORB????

Check out Cleverly Inspired to see her complete tutorial.

I'm thinking of painting mine white and adding a metallic blue bow to match our shutters and adding evergreens around the bottom.  OH!-----I could even put my PB knock-off/music wrapped/dollar tree/battery-operated candles in them!!!!!

.......But will they match my husband's multi-colored old-fashion C7 Christmas lights draped all over the house???? 

*sigh*......it's all about compromise!! :)

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ORB Lights Tutorial

Of all the posts....everyone seems to LOVE Oil-Rubbed Bronze spray paint!  Isn't it amazing!!  It transforms ANYTHING into something beautiful!

A reader had a question about the lights that I had mentioned in another posting, so here are some instructions ......they are SOOOO easy!!

I have no before pictures, but please trust me....this lamp was UGLY!!!  It was an 80's maroon color......deep maroon!  I purchased it at Goodwill for about $3.00.  (I think that it was in my haul the day I picked the 30% coupon from the fishbowl!)

I am not particular when I spray....I don't even pull out any painter's tape.  I think that I just took this into the field next door and sprayed!! (It was warmer then!)

When spraying......just do light, even coats.....and don't panic if you get drips!  After it dries, you can sand down the drips and spray all over again....it's amazing!

I probably put 2 coats of ORB on this lamp....maybe 3 because the maroon was so dark. 

Isn't she gorgeous???? (I don't know if the picture is blurry or if that is just dust!)


Now....because you may be wondering about the fall sign......it's also oil-rubbed bronze (ORB).

This project cost me NOTHING!!!  The Nester tells her readers to "shop the house" and that is exactly what I did.  I ripped the pictures of my nieces and nephews out of the frame (so sorry!) and sprayed it. 

Then...I took scrapbook paper on-hand....trimmed it to 8 1/2 x 11 and stuck it in my printer.  I found scripty looking letters in my word processing program.... and then printed them out randomly with enough space between them to have a border.

I cut them out in rectangles to center the letter in the frames and that was it!!

Free....free....free!!!  I even found a little leaf on Google images and printed it out.....really it took all of 10 minutes not including the dry time.

I think for Christmas I am going to go and get Christmas-y scrapbook paper and print out the letters "PEACE" or "JESUS."

Here's another hint-----if you don't have a frame like mine that is connected....  (And I actually tried to tear them apart, but realized that it would destroy the whole thing....it's bent a little if you look closely!)...go to The Dollar Tree....buy individual small frames there for $1.00---spray them and you have something even more adorable!!

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