Altered mini mister caddy

I bought this at a yard sale recently.  I altered it this morning.





I mixed a couple of shades of blue paint.  There wasn't much left of either of them.  I painted the whole thing blue.  While it was still a little when I went over it with white paint.  If I had crackle medium I would have used a crackle finish on it.  I plan on getting some this weekend.  I really like the way this turned out without it though.

Then I glued the lace trim around the box.  The flowers all came from a bouquet that I bought at Goodwill.  I took several of them off and colored them with Perfect Pearl and Forever Blue Perfect Pearls.  Then I glued those onto the box with button centers.

I'm really happy with this project.


This is what is looked like before (bottom right).

Craft projects and creative slump

Hi everyone,

I've been creating but I feel like every project is an epic fail.  Ugh.  Maybe it's just because I'm tired but I like these projects well enough in person but they look terrible in pictures.


The box came from Goodwill.  I covered it with buttons, a wood knob, and glitter/beads.  It needs something.
My Aunt gave me some good suggestions I just haven't finished it yet.


My Mom gave me the tin.  I bought the mini scrapbook years ago at Goodwill.  My sister-in-law gave me the wood pieces.  I just glued them on and put ribbon around the tin.  I need to add some finishing touches and cut the ribbon down on the book.


This is completely finished.  I'm happy with it.  I used the metal flowers that I bought this weekend at a yard sale.  I cut them apart and hot glued them onto the box.  I added some beads.  The ribbon around the box came from Hazel as part of the altered box of chocolates swap.  The box came from salvation army.  I got three boxes for $0.99.  I painted it black and put some copper paint on the edges.  This looks a lot better in person.



I bought the box at an estate sale for $0.25.  I really like the box so I didn't want to cover up the pictures.  I glued pearls (an old necklace from the same sale, $0.50) over the strings of pearls printed on the box.  I also put some lace around the lid.  The lid overlapped two much of the pictures on the side of the box so I added foam core blocks inside of the lid.  I covered the inside of the box with sheet music.


I bought this plastic frame at a garage sale for $0.05.  My Dad and step-Mom bought me a Harper's Bazar book for Christmas.  It has 1000 illustrations from Harper's Bazar (1867-1898).  So, I made a copy of one of the pages and glued it on to a cardboard backing.  Then I inked the paper with brown and green ink.  I also rubbed some white paint here and there.  I glued postcards from Charlton Park onto the paper after cutting the oval, distressing, and inking the cards.  I watched a few projects on You Tube lately where ladies have melted bees wax onto canvas projects.  Bees wax is expensive so I decided to use paraffin wax.  I already have some wax.  We made candles for Christmas gifts last year.  I colored the wax with old broken crayons.  I had some brown wax left over.  So, I melted that over the paper and cards.  Then I made the flowers using a Deed to Statue of Liberty I bought at the Charlton Park gift shop at least five years ago.  I cut the flowers on my Aunt's cricut.  I layered and waxed the flowers then glued them on with buttons glued on the center.  I LOVE the flowers.  The project as a whole is lacking something but it was my first try.  I will try again.  I already know a few things that I will do differently.

I have two other projects that I recently finished.  When I remember to take pictures I will share those too.  They turned out much better.  Why didn't I take pictures of those?  I don't know. :)

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Garage sale!

Hi everyone,

My town is having city wide garage sales this weekend.  We are having one at my house.  While my husband watched the sale today I went to several garage sales with one of my cousins.

We drove and walked alot today.  I had a great time!  Here are some of my finds:


I paid $0.50 for all three of these metal swags.  I will take them apart and maybe alcohol ink them.  They will make great additions to an altered box or frame.



I bought this jewelry box and a gift for my youngest sister at the same sale.  The two items together were $2.


The foam stickers were only $0.25 brand new.  My son and I can make some projects together.  The book was $0.10.  I like the illustrations.  My plan is to either scan some of the pages or take the book apart and use some of the pages.  Several of the pages having drawing on them.  Still work 10 cents I think.


There was a $0.25 sticker on this bead tie.  So I snatched it up.  Then the lady claimed that she didn't know how that sticker got on that item and said she needed $1 for it.  I asked her if she would take $0.50.  It is broken, of course, that doesn't matter to me.  I'm going to take it apart anyway.  She said she shouldn't.  She was just selling those for a sick friend.  She said, "I guess it doesn't matter.  It's not like she will know.  She's really sick and I'm just trying to help her out."  I don't know if she was telling the truth or just trying to make me feel guilty.  She ended up taking $0.50.  It's an interesting item.  My husband thinks I should keep it together.  We'll see.


This was one of my best finds.  The three drawers are divided containers with adjustable dividers.  The three containers and the holder was $3 total!  I was totally happy with that.  It is in perfect shape and very clean.  The tub sitting on top is one of about 15 containers of varying sizes.  I bought all 15 for $1.  They will be great for organizing my supplies.  I sorted all of my buttons in the divided containers by color.  That will really help me find what I need.  So excited!

I also bought my husband several letter stencils for his scroll saw projects along with a couple of project patterns.  Those were $2.25 all together.  I bought a sweater for myself.  One of my sisters is moving soon.  She asked me to watch for dishes and silverware.  I already bought her dishes from Goodwill.  Today I found a set of silverware with red handles in a silver organizer for $1! I sent her a picture message.  It turns out she is going to decorate her kitchen with a lot of red stuff.  So, that worked out well.  I just took a chance and bought them.  Then at another sale I found a red organizer that turns like a lazy susan.  It has several red kitchen utensils with it for $0.50

I had a great day!  Tomorrow I am staying home to work my own sale.  We only sold $16 worth of stuff today.  We live on a dead end so it is difficult to get a lot of people.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Garage sale finds and craft projects

Hi everyone!

I went to some garage sales again yesterday.  I also received a package from an E-Bay seller.


There is a couple that had a sale last summer and again this spring.  They used to own a craft store and they still have lots of stuff including fabric, crochet thread, patterns etc etc.  I was looking at the packages of hankies and the man told me that there were 12 hankies in the package for $1.  I bought one package because I like to embroider hankies and crochet edges on them.  When I got home and opened the package it turned out that there are 24 in the package!  Not bad.  I got the towel hanger for 10 cents.


Friday I went to an estate sale and bought the box for $3 etc.  I went back yesterday with my Aunt.  They had a bunch of stuff marked down.  I bought these four necklaces for $0.50 each.  I will use these for all sorts of projects!


I was looking around and happened to look down and see this tin.  I never saw it Friday.  They had it marked $5 but had reduced it to $3.  My Aunt whispered, "Ask if she will take $2".  So, I asked and the lady was more than happy to sell the tin of buttons to me for $2!!  I was soooo excited.  There are some great buttons in there!




I bought this on E-bay during the week and received it yesterday.  I love the box and things I can fix the hole in the top.  There are fabulous buttons in this box.

Projects made from garage sale and Goodwill finds




This is the tin that I bought at Goodwill for $0.99.  I used:
Eyelet trim from Goodwill
Gold cord from Goodwill
Pearls from $0.50 garage sale necklace
Flowers from $3 garage sale box of goodies
Leaves from Goodwill flowers

I used perfect pearls on the flowers and leaves.


If you look at my garage sale haul pics from Friday you will see a shiny gold framed mirror.  I painted the frame and added flowers etc.



These flowers came from a garage sale on Friday.  It was a pin or brooch.  My brother took the pin back apart for me.


This flower is made from the same flowers I used on the tin above.  They came from the estate sale on Friday.  I used gold perfect pearls and some watered down paint.  I mixed red and white paint with a little water to color the edges of these flowers and the flowers on the frame.  The center of the flower is a bead that was mixed into a huge container of rocks and flat marbles from Goodwill.  I made the stick pins with beads from my stash.  Some of those came from Goodwill as well.

I hope you like my projects!!!  PLEASE leave a comment!

Thanks everyone and I hope you are having a fabulous Mother's Day and weekend!

Amazing giveaway!

http://jannbdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/05/nsd-give-way.html



Check it out!  She is having the best giveaway!

Garage sale finds!

This is the second day this spring that I have been able to go to garage sales!!!

I was so excited.

At the first sale I spent $5 on this:


Jewelry, $1




All of this was in a zip lock bag for $0.50






 All of the things in the last three pics were in a box for $3.  The book is The Popular Medical Encylopedia, copyright 1946.  I looked it up online and think it might be worth $5 - $10, maybe.


The frame/candle holder was in the $3 box also.  The two boxes were $0.25 each.


These two things came from the second sale for $0.15.  The thing with the gingerbread men is a magnetic board.




All of this came from the 3rd sale for $4.
The jewelry will look really good on altered boxes.  The beads will be fun to play with too.


I bought this tin at Goodwill this week for $1.  I have started to alter it.

Those are my finds.  I think I did pretty well.

Distressing tool

I took the rubber stamp part of one of the stamps.  Then I cleaned the handle with rubbing alcohol.  I cut a piece of black velcro to size and hot glued it onto the bottom where the stamp was.  My brother in law gave me some felt bags last year.  I used one to make a Halloween costume for my son.  Since he will not wear that costume again I started cutting it up to use for pads on my new homemade distressing tool.

I tried it out tonight.  It works great!

If anyone wants to see pics let me know.

The Tim Holtz distressing tool costs something like $6 or $7. I made this one for maybe 10 cents!