I've been looking for a big trunk or chest for our living room (no luck so far) and checked out several consignment shops last Saturday. At the Mona Lisa consignment in AF, there wasn't a trunk, but there were these little wood plaques that had old seed packets mod-podged onto them. I loved it, so I made my own (the plaques, about 2"x4", were 12$ a piece). Here's my version:
I had the frames lying around (the one on the right was actually another little project- I painted and added the beads, like this one, sans butterflies), and the burlap, and got the seed packets at walmart for 20 cents a piece. I also tried to age the packets a little bit, but you can't tell in the picture. I crumpled them up and folded them a bunch and rubbed them on the burlap to make the creases look old. I also added some dirt.
My next framing idea was inspired by something I saw at Gardner Village forever ago, and then was reminded when I saw the skeleton keys at the consignment shop (for 4-5$ each- I remember being in high school and going to Star Mill before it was all prettied up and getting a whole jar of skeleton keys for that same price). Anyway, since I didn't want to spend that much on them, I just googled "skeleton keys" and found this place and bought a bunch there for a lot less. I actually already owned that first big jailer's set- I got it at Tai Pan awhile ago. So, on my bookcase I now have this:
I might paint the frame, but I don't know. Seems like all of my frames have been painted now, so I kind of wanted to leave one natural.
Nobody look too closely- I did this really fast and didn't fix several things that went wrong, because, hey, it's a garbage can. How the garbage can problem arose: In Mim's room, I was using a sort of medium sized, white, open top garbage. I'm pretty sure it was just an extra that was around that I put in the baby's room. When she was younger and going through about 10 wet diapers a day, I was great about emptying it daily. As she's gotten older, it fills up less quickly, I get kind of lazy, and as a result, her room occasionally smells a bit like pee (poopy diapers are always taken immediately to the outside garbage; I'm not that gross). So I plan that this new garbage will solve 2 problems- 1) it's only big enough to fit maybe 4 diapers in, thus I can't be as lazy, and 2) if I am lazy, it has a lid, which should help contain the pee smell until I can shake the laziness. I used acrylic paint over the plastic and then mod-podged some wrapping paper I already had on the rest of it. And then hotglued on some buttons to hide my crooked bottom border. I kind of want to do something to the top, but no ideas yet. If you have one, let me know.
It needs some work, and some cuter fabric. And some legs. I'm planning on making one in blues for Mim's room. Oh, it also needs a nest. I have plans for that. I need to have started sewing 15 years ago, so I could have a fabric stock that I could go to, instead of heading to the store every time I need another color, pattern, etc.
For the future: seams closer to the edges, fray remaining use a bead or something for the eye, not burlap you colored with a sharpie (this is what happens when you don't have scraps from 15 years of crafting/sewing) add some legs with wire if you don't add legs, put it in a nest
Also, I got this idea from a blog, but I don't remember where and I can't find it. If anybody does know, I would like to give the right person credit, so please pass the information along.
In the background is my background St. Patrick's kitsch for inside. It's a glitter 4 leaf clover in a frame. Oh yeah.
So, I tried sewing on a knit a few days back, to make Mim some leggings. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I'm definitely not going to take any close up pictures of the hems. I plan on making some red ones next, then I think it would be a good idea to have them in several shades of pink. Honestly, I want them for her in every color. Plus, you could easily get 2 pairs per half a yard of fabric, which means these babies only cost $1.75. I'm going to try some embellishments on the next pair, as well. Buttons along the bottom hem, or maybe a gather up the outside of the leg. Also, the top she's wearing is actually one of her old newborn dresses (I think it's 6 month size, actually). She had so many of those little dresses and I just adored them, so it's nice to be able to recycle them. Plus, the red makes her eyes look especially blue. I got the idea of recycling little dresses from here. I couldn't find the post where she specifically talks about doing it, but her blog is full of great re-purposing ideas. I've already cut the tops off of a few of Mim's onsies that never fit her quite right (i.e. were too baggy when they were the right length, but now that she'll fill them out, they're much too short) to make into some little dresses, once I find some coordinating fabric.
There it is, in all its gaudy, cheesy glory. I love it. Plus it was a blast to make. I pretty much just went to Joann's and got a bunch of glittery green stuff. The St. Patrick's day decor was 50% off, so I used a bunch of that. The original plan was to go to the dollar store, but 50% off at Joann's was cheap enough for me. If I do another kitschy wreath in the future (maybe Halloween?), I'll definitely utilize the Oriental Trading Co. catalog. I'm sad that I didn't think of that in time for this wreath, because they had some awesome leprechaun figurines I would have loved to include. Next year.
I already wrote about these. They're here just so this blog isn't naked. Oh, and my other reason for putting stuff I make on a separate blog: so I can enter other, better crafting blogs' giveaways without putting my real (read: family) blog link on there.
I really am. But I wanted a place to document the stuff I make, as well as put a blog roll of all my favorite crafting/sewing blogs. Right now, a lot of them are buttons on my top bar, but there's more and more everyday and it's just too crowded up there. Plus, if I use this blog for my crafting stuff, I can stop putting it on my one about my family.
