Thrifty Decorating

June 6, 2012

The post that keeps getting spammed....

I've been getting hammered with spam and it has revolved around the following post...

I'm pretty sure it's because the post had the word *patriotic* in the title, so

around Memorial Day, I started getting up to and sometimes over 100 spam comments a DAY!

I had a break for about a day and now it's starting again.

So I removed it from my past postings and am reposting here....

Enjoy and hopefully the spam will slow down!

Yesterday, I showed you how I took this old ugly sign that was in the way...

and turned it into a Rustic Flag....for FREE!!

When my hubby cut my wood for me, there was about a 5-6 inch

scrap leftover that I didn't want to throw away.

Andy, over at Poppies at Play, has been making very fun patriotic

crafts and printables and she offered this one for free!

It is part of a set of 3 and she also has the vinyl available for purchase!

I haven't quite figured out how to do printables....I know that you need to somehow send it to a photo processing place....some day I'll figure it out!

Instead, I copied the picture to my desktop and inserted it into a new word document. I resized it and printed it out. At this point, I was interested in the numbers and not the printable.

I cut out my numbers....originally, I had tried to find a similar font on dafont.com, but I was overwhelmed by the choices.....I don't function well when I have too many choices!

I wasn't concerned with cutting the numbers out exactly....am I ever??? I knew that I was going to sand them.

I painted my board red using a dry brush technique that I talked about in my Rustic Flag post....

I traced my numbers with a pencil and painted them in with white paint....my hubby was over my shoulder saying, "Don't you want to use a lettering brush?" No....it's supposed to look rustic!!

I sanded down my letters, added a little "somethin', somethin'" twine and went over it with tea-dye distressing ink.....it was still missing something.

I cut out a free-handed star and painted 3 blue stars, sanded and distressed them.

I love my little piece of wood scrap that turned into a patriotic beauty!

What do you do with your wood scraps?

June 5, 2012

Vinyl Giveaway for Summer Stackers

Do you need a crafty project for the summer?

Jill at Utah Vinyl is giving away the vinyl for these summer stackers

to ONE Thrifty Decorating reader!!

I think that I'd paint my wood blocks a bright yellow or
turquoise! That would look so cute against the white lettering!

Every Monday, Jill offers $2.00 vinyl deals on her
FB page, so be sure to go over and "like" Utah Vinyl and check out her great deals!

While you're there, tell her that you were sent by Thrifty Decorating!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What color would you make your blocks?

June 4, 2012

Turn an Old Window into a Pot Rack

One of my posts that is frequently bringing traffic is how I like to decorate with old windows, so I decided to share my "how-to" make a pot rack with some updated pictures.

Sheesh! Those old pictures are horrid!!

We had an IKEA pot rack sitting in a box for the longest time. When we first moved into our house over 6 years ago, I had purchased one, but was afraid to put it up and put holes in our new walls and ceiling.

I almost gave the set to Goodwill.....I think at one point I even tried painting it?? It was a miserable FAIL! This was before I knew of the wonder of spraypaint!

Thankfully, we kept it because I was able to reclaim some of its parts!

The metal bars of the pot rack are from the IKEA kit....honestly, we never use the actual rails because my hubby is TOO tall. At 6'5" he hits his head on the pots and that makes for an unhappy hubby!

Instead, I just use "S" hooks from the hardware store and hang the pots off

the cross pieces of my window....no injured heads that way!

To hang to the window from the ceiling, we also just used pieces from the hardware store.

We screwed eye hooks into the window and ceiling and then bought inexpensive chain and clasp at our local True Value store. The hardware probably cost under $5.00!

It was a quick and easy project and because the window was free along

the side of the road, the total cost was under $10.00!

What have you made with old windows?

June 1, 2012

Bamboo Tomato Stakes

I have seen this idea on many blogs. Carolyn at homework made some

from bamboo stakes and twigs, but I wanted mine to be free and I

didn't have stakes and none of my trees are big enough yet for twigs.

With free guiding my creativity, I called a friend who had a neighbor with a bamboo patch,

I asked her if I could "borrow" some of the dead plants and she grabbed some for me.

At first, I tried cutting the sticks with small pruning shears....didn't work.

Then, I tried a hand saw....still didn't work, so hubby hauled out the miter saw....perfect!

After I cut all the pieces, I just tied the corners with string.

I already had the jute twine, so the whole project was free!!

Now my goal is to not kill my plants! I have more of a painted

thumb than a green thumb!!

May 30, 2012

Thrifty Thursday #62

It's time again to spotlight some of the amazing projects that link

to Thrifty Thursday! Every week I am just amazed by your creativity.

One of my favorite projects this week was this wire cloche from Homespun Happenings.

I've seen them else where and never though to DIY it!!

Another amazing transformation was from Trash to Treasure who took

an old grandfather clock and made this beautiful bookshelf! This makes me

really want to find an old clock!!

These twine-covered wine jugs from Creatively Living are also a great

way to recycle something "useless" into beautiful decor!

Made in a Day made this faux cake using burlap and paper towels!

A Pinch of Joy shared this Bacon Potato salad...Yum!
I will have to try this at some point this summer!

Chase the Star took an average file cabinet, some spray paint and creativity

and made some chevron storage for her playroom.

Are you excited for summer foods....this peach cobbler from Banana Pudding
looks so good! It's probably because of the stick of butter in it!

Thank you to everyone for linking! You all had just amazing projects!
I tried featuring many of them on my FB page, too!

If you were featured this week, feel free to grab one of my buttons!

Here are some very simple suggestions for the party:

1. Please become a follower of Thrifty Decorating.

2. Be sure to link to your POST and not your blog.

3. Please copy and paste my link button somewhere in

your post or blog so that others can link back.

You can also party with Johnnie

at Saved by Love Creations!

ThriftyThursdayModernButton1 Thrifty Thursday Week 65

May 29, 2012

Faux Grainsack Dining Room Chairs

I am so excited now that the pieces of my dining room are starting to fall into place.

I originally purchased the chairs from the Habitat

Restore....remember what they looked like?

They were a lovely shade of.....BROWN!!

For their new look, I was inspired my THIS pin from my dining room pinterest board. I used homemade chalkpaint that I had on-hand, leftover dropcloth from my slipcovering projects and leftover gray paint from our basement remodel.

Voila.....