Thrift Store Cross Redo

I had been on the lookout for a cross for my guest bathroom to complete a grouping of three on a small wall. You might remember when I made the Crown Plate for this wall. I decided I wanted three of my favorite things there: A Fleur de Lis, a Crown, and a Cross. I bought this metal cross for $1 about a month ago at a thrift store. I knew I could alter it into something I'd like for that space.

BEFORE (front):

BEFORE (back):
I removed the hanger on the top, the metal jump rings on the bottom (that obviously used to dangle something) and the heart from the front of the cross. I just flipped it over to use the back. The blue matches my bathroom really well (unlike in this picture) and I liked the chippy/distressed edges, so no need to paint it!

I did, however use a fleur de lis stamp & randomly stamped chocolate brown scrolly swirls of paint on top of the blue paint.
It still looked plain to me, and a little unfinished, so I decided to trace the scrolls with some copper colored glitter paint. (I love me some glitter!)

I then dug around to find another embellishment & remembered that I had an old crystal off a chandelier. I took it apart & dangled the two smaller glass "crystals" from the bottom holes & (after painting a big blob of the glitter paint in the center to show through) I glued the largest glass "crystal" to the center of the cross. I glued a hanger onto the back & hung it up in the arrangement...
Here she is! A little classy & a little artsy-fartsy. I think I'll keep her!

Mini Framed "Button Owl" Project

I really struggled at what to call this object that I made! It's a redo, a frame, an owl made of buttons, a hair-bow-organizer-topper thing! You'll see...

First, my mom's friend gave her this little metal frame with this red velvet fabric in it that had formerly held a brooch pin. Then my mom gave it to me! (Yea!!!)



I immediately saw the potential & went to work. I keep all of my daughter's hair bows clipped on a french memo board behind her door in her room. They're accessable but out of the way. Well, she has recently been wearing smaller clip-style bows in her fine baby hair & I really needed a way to organize them as well where I could see them all & easily get one. (but alas, the memo board was pretty full already!)

So, I decided to alter the mini frame & use it as a topper for a ribbon that would hold all the little bows. Of course I broke out the Krylon "Watermelon" that I've used to spray many other things in my daughter's room...

Then I cut some chocolate brown knit fabric from an old onesie to cover the red velvet. I thought about removing it, but thought I might like it to just stay under there! I saw that the velvet had just been taped on, so I did the same. If I ever want to change it out, this way it will be easy.

Here's what the back & front looked like at this point:


I then decided to try to make an owl (to match the room's woodland animal theme that happens to be heavy on owls) with buttons. This took a little tweaking to get it to look right. When I was finally happy with it, I hot glued the buttons on. (I don't sew & this was super fast & easy)I then used wide clear tape (classy, I know) to tape a long, wide ribbon onto the back. (Can also be easily changed in the future, if needed.)

I squeezed it in on the wall right next to the French memo board & clipped all the little bows on!
I even sprayed the nail head with paint since it was showing...
Finished!

Rockets & Clothespins (2 quick projects)

Just wanted to share 2 quick projects with you...

My 5 year old and I made these 4th of July rockets a few days before the holiday. I'd seen many other blog posts about them & thought it'd be a good project for us. I won't go into a tutorial but there are many out there floating around the blogosphere if you search. Basic supplies are cardboard toilet paper tubes, scrapbook paper, ribbon & adhesive. I was pleased with how well my son did on these & found it hard to tell which ones were his & which ones were mine! (Can you tell?)

I never ended up getting them hung with clear fishing line, but they sure will look cute for next year! ;)




I use clothespins to clip & organize paperwork, etc. so while watching tv one night, I broke out the glitter pens & went to town glitterizing some for myself...

...and for my Mom. I think they look better in person. I heart glitter!

"Bye-Bye Tree" Scrapbook Layout

I'm scrapbooking out of order these days, which not-so-secretly drives me nuts! I'm just trying to get some layouts done in my "spare" time, so I'll pull out whatever topic inspires me at the time. A few weeks ago, I pulled out these pictures of when my son was 18 months old. (He just turned 5 years!! And yes, his hair is crazy in these pics!) Hope you're in the mood for a Christmas layout!

We were boxing up the Christmas tree after all the holiday festivities were over, and he was a little sad about it--until we put him inside the box, too.



To make this layout I used 4 photos, a piece of 12x12 patterned scrapbook paper, part of a cardboard box that I tore into the shape I needed, some baker's twine, some pearlescent green paper that I hand cut the little trees out of, letter stickers, and a little bit o'bling! It went pretty fast, which is good since I'm several YEARS behind! lol

Personalizing with Vinyl

This "project" (if you can even call it that) literally took 10 minutes from start to finish! I used my Cricut machine to cut the vinyl.

I kept wanting to label my daughter's metal bin that holds her headbands, but wasn't sure what I wanted it to say. I didn't want to limit the use of it in the future, so I finally decided just to make a big "M" for her name. Then of course, I decided the other metal bucket in her room also needed an "M"! I love how they turned out & especially the font.

(BEFORE) Much cuter now, huh?

Tissue Box Cover Redo-Thrifty Find

I posted a few weeks ago how I had found this vintage metal tissue box cover (right) at Helping Hands for $1. It was worn gold and needed some spray paint love to match my bathroom. For a second, I came really close to spraying it Watermelon & adding it to my daughter's room with a ribbon woven through it...but then I've been needing/wanting a tissue box cover in my guest bathroom, so I thought I'd better at least try it in there first! (I can always change it later.)

(I haven't figured out what I'm doing with that wall bucket yet...)

BEFORE
AFTER--I used Hammered Metal in brownTah-Dah! A super cheap & fast project--Done!