Funky Find Friday: This used to be what?

For this week's Funky Find Friday, I thought I would showcase some reduce, recycle and reuse principles I reflected on in a post earlier this week. All of today's finds are from Etsy and are things that take something already in existence and use it for a new and/or totally different purpose.

First up is a beautiful bracelet made from recycled plastic bottles found in Artwork by KD's shop.
Or how about a bird feeder made from old streetlights by Red Yellow and Blue Ink.

I love the colors the two lenses make together! Simply beautiful.

I've always love glasses like these from YAVA Glass.

I located a vintage glass bottle cutter from the seventies, and I'm practicing with it, but man does it take patience. Plus I love these because they are Fresca! (I have an unnatural obsession with Fresca at the moment.)

There is nothing better by recycling using vintage objects! How about using this great wooden crate from Bird In Hand for organizing all your stuff!

It never ceases to amaze me the things people can make out of something completely different. I love the entire principles of recycle, reduce, and reuse simply because of the beautiful transformations that can happen. (Oh yeah, and it's good for the environment too!) ;)

Happy Crafting!

Ugly to Cute...It just needs some spray paint.

I love what a can of black spray paint can do. It can take something that looks like this:

To this:

Isn't that cute! I found it at the thrift store for a steal and deer are so in right now. I love quick easy projects like this.

Happy Crafting!

One man's trash...

My 7 yr. old niece asked me several weeks ago to "please sew my net back together." The net in question is a cute green butterfly net that lives at their lake cabin. The same lake cabin where she catches frogs, moths, worms, fish, and every other imaginable creature she can and then tries to keep them. Of course, being the good auntie that I am, I said I would fix it and bring it back to her next week. This was four weeks ago. She asked me again last week if I had fixed it yet. I had forgotten all about it. I forgot about it as soon as I got home again, too. I thought of it today only because hubby and I are going up to see our nieces and nephew tonight. I realized I better get cracking if I am to get this "sewn back together." So I pulled out my needle and thanked the lucky stars even though I don't embroider and I haven't cross stictched in years, I have embroidery floss. I pick green to match the net. (Although one of my other nieces (8 yr. old) would tell me that it doesn't match because it's not exactly the same shade of green.) So, I managed to get the net all sewn up over lunch break.

During these last few weeks, I thought about telling my niece I couldn't fix the net, and then buy her a new one. But I realized two things. First, that it wouldn't be the same to her. Second, that maybe it's good to teach kids that not everything needs to be thrown away the second it gets broken. That maybe things can be fixed or reused in a different purpose. It's never too early to teach "reduce, recycle, reuse." Especially if you're teaching it in a practical way that's easily understood by all ages.

Happy Crafting!

Inspiration Tuesday: Baseball!

Last night, hubby and I went to the Twins game against the White Sox (Twins win 4-3 wooo who!) :) So for today's Inspiration Tuesday, I thought I would show some fun baseball themed rooms and decorations.

This bedroom is great for a little boy:

Head on over to HGTV.com for instructions on how to make this headboard!

How bout a great magnetic message board from TheSpottedZebra on Etsy?

Here's another cute bedroom from over at Design Dazzle.

I love the ball stitch marks on the walls!

Or how about getting a baseball mural from Just Murals.

That mural would look great it a basement behind a bar area too.


Or how about a recliner that showcases your favorite team:

Okay, so maybe that last one is a bit much! The real point I was trying to make today, is that sometimes (in certain rooms and very sparingly throughout the house!) it's okay to be whimsical in decorating. Hubby and I haven't been married quite a year yet, but we've lived together for over four years. In that, I've learned that he needs his own space too. He also needs to have a say in what decorates that space. Accordingly, I've learned to put up with Nascar models, Twins pennants, Vikings helmet string lights (okay, so I drew the lines at those). The funny thing is, I actually like seeing these things around the house because it means my husband is happier, which in turn makes me happier. Plus I'm soothed by the fact that someday when we finally buy our own house, his stuff will all be relegated to the finished basement bar/game room. ;)

Happy Crafting!

Funky Find Friday: Personal Finds

For this week's Funky Find Friday, I want to show you funky stuff I've found and what I did with it in my own house. Some things I refinished, others I just used in different ways and some things I use exactly as they are meant to be. On with the show and tell:

I found this neat vintage blue shelf at an auction. I knew it would work great in my blue and yellow bedroom, but it needed a little something. So, I painted the outside of the frame a grayish white and distressed it a little. Now it holds my cobalt glass collection and a few yellow accents above our bed. (Please ignore the awful wallpaper behind it. We rent this house and the paper in the bedroom is very dated.)

This has to be my favorite find ever. The town I went to college in has "spring cleaning week" every year. You can throw whatever you want on the curb and it will be picked up for free. I used to relish that week! I would spend hours driving around with my friends scouring for "upgrades" to our collage furniture. (My Mom and I actually still like to go curb shopping here if we can make it!) This is the front off an old piano that was smashed to bits. It made me sad to see the piano in that state, but on the other hand, I took this front and ran with it. I screwed in four ordinary coat hooks and TaDa! Instant alternative to a full hall tree. Other notable finds from spring cleaning week include(don't have pics right now, will get soon): a stained glass window (that's right!) with only one tiny broken piece of glass, antique dressers, blue mason jars...the list goes on! Incidentally, my Mom and I went to spring cleaning this year and found no less that three piano's thrown out!

I guess I find my entire setting above the kitchen cupboards fun and funky, but the best find has to be the tea kettles. One is copper and the other aluminum. I got a whole box of these babies at an auction for $1 and split them with my Mom.

I made this funky find (formerly a vintage pillowcase) into a great over the shoulder bag. This bag works great for a green shopping bag or library books. It's hard to tell in the pic, but there is a tabbed pocket on the front. The straps are simply the sides tied in knot and it's lined with yellow and white gingham.

These cute owl bookends I found in a thrift store. They are plaster and were formerly painted 70's gaudy gold (you know the one I'm talking about, they put that color on everything from mirror frames to wall sconces. Blech!) I spray painted them black and now they hang out on the bookshelf in my office.

That's all my funky finds for this week. Have you had any funky finds lately? What did you do with them?

Happy Crafting!

Ask and You Shall Receive: Refinished Chest of Drawers

I had planned on doing this project for awhile now to put in my new office and finally decided to get it done last night while hubby was at softball. I noticed today that Kelly from Tearing up Houses left a comment on my last post to "show her the furniture" (okay that's not exactly what she said, but it's funny, right?) ;) So that's where the title of today's post comes from. But enough yapping and on to the refinishing!

I had this black chest of drawers that's really cute from Target's Global Bazaar line a few years ago. The finish on the top started chipping quite badly. The rest is in good shape, so I thought I'd just refinish the top somehow. Of course I forgot to take a picture before I started sanding, but this is what it looked like after sanding:

All those wood colored spots were what was chipping originally, so you get a pretty good idea of what it looked like. I thought I could try and paint the edges and then decoupage a 12 x 12 piece of black and white scrapbooking paper onto it. So I started painting with Apple Barrel Brand "Barn Red" and it looked like this:

Hmmm....the paint isn't really covering the wood spots where the finish chipped off very well. But, I decide to plow ahead anyway. I take a mustardy (yes, I think it should be a word) yellow paint (also Apple Barrel, but can't remember the exact color) and wet brush it over the red while it's still wet and I get this:

The effect would be perfect and exactly as I wanted...if those wood spots weren't there. So I decide I'm going to have to decoupage the whole top, but of course, the top is approximately 16 1/2 inches square, so one scrapbooking sheet isn't going to cut it. My office also has yellow in it, so I figure I'll do a border of mustard yellow paper and then put on my black and white piece in the middle. So, I start measuring and cutting the yellow and arrange it like so:

Hmm..this pic is a little blurry, but you get the idea. I used Mod Podge mixed with a little water and a foam brush to apply it. (Also, ignore the uneven edges, that part gets covered up anyway.) Next I put on the black and white paper:

Then I sealed it with two separate layers of the watery Mod Podge letting it dry between each layer. Finally, I sealed it with a layer of full strength Mod Podge and let it dry overnight. Then, today, I put it in my office:

This pic shows the wall color nicely, but the next one shows the cute leaf drawer pulls better:

Whew! My quick and easy project took me a lot longer than I planned, but then again it seems they always do! ;) I hope you enjoyed this post. Tomorrow for Funky Find Friday I actually plan on showing everyone some of my personal funky finds and what I did with them.

Happy Crafting!

Inspiration Tuesday: Before and After

So I decided that I need my inspiration earlier in the week. Hence forth Inspiration Tuesday! For this week's inspiring stuff, I thought I would show you all some before and after transformations.

First up is from Becki over at Infarrantly Creative. She redid her kitchen awhile back and I think it turned out fabulous!

Before:
After:For more pics of this great makeover and other great stuff like refinishing bargain finds, go check out Becki's blog.

Next, from Laure at At Home At Home, comes a great before and after of the WestEnd Lofts she has worked on.

Before:

After:

There are more great photos of this transformation over at her blog as well as some other great inspiration for modern, clean line decorating.

From Country Living (one of my favorite magazines) there is this living room makeover from a nasty 70's color to a relaxing blue and white.

Before:

After:

I love that they painted the back of the book shelves blue. It adds a pop of color without going overboard.

That's it for this week's inspiration. Have a great make-over you'd like to share? email me at ehinders [at] gmail.com

Happy Crafting!

Funky Find Friday

Okay, so I decided the more weekly post options the better. In that light, I present to you Funky Find Friday. I scoured the internet for some fun, funky stuff that I thought everyone would enjoy.

First up: This art photo print set from Artsy on Etsy.

I love this robot! He's super cute and the print would look awesome in a retro inspired kitchen or craft room.

Second: Recycled magnets, jewelry and other stuff made from pop cans from Funky Recycling on Etsy.

This squirrel magnet is one of my favorites!

Third: Silk and Shell Facinator from Hatastic .

I don't think I could pull off this hat, but it's gorgeous!

Fourth: This super cute bag made by RaraAvis over on Craftster.org

Love it! I think she actually hand-sewed all those scales on! Amazing.

Finally: A Dr. Seuss inspired nursery painted by Chronicdoodler on Craftster.org for her brother and his fiance.

There are a bunch more pics of the wall paintings over on the Craftser post. What a great auntie! I wish I had such talent.

Happy Crafting!

*All pics are property of their owners. I do not own the rights to them and only reproduce them here for the purpose of exposing them to a wider audience.

Inspiration Wednesday

Okay, so I decided I need some sort of weekly post that will keep me on a schedule! ;) So this week, I decided to do Inspiration Wednesday! I love the lake (any lake really) and am inspired by all that is lake cabin/cottage living. While my hubby and I would love a lake cabin of our own someday (we are from Minnesota after all!), we have to settle for visiting family and friends that own them. If I were to decorate a cabin, here's what I would pull some inspiration from:

*Images from Coastal Living Magazine*

I just love the look of red, white and blue for a cottage/cabin feel. Both of above pics show that look, but subtly and without being overly patriotic.

A great customizable vintage sign to hang on the wall from the Cottage Surroundings online store would be great!

A little whimsy could be added with this pillow from Landl Designs on Etsy.

Or this great pillow made from a recycled sail from Reiter8 on Etsy!

I hope I provided some great inspiration to add the cabin/cottage feel to your home!

Happy Crafting!