Weekend Inspiration: Light bulbs

If I have to make one more trip to Target in the next week, I will sit down in the dollar section and cry. Now I love me some Target, but going a bajillion days in a row because I keep thinking of something else I need starts to make it feel like a reminder that I still have a long way to go before I will be settled. You know what I keep forgetting every time? LIGHT BULBS. Do you know how important light bulbs are? Probably not, because I didn't think about it until I didn't have them! Maybe if I make it the weekend inspiration theme I won't forget on today's Target adventure...

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS MINIATURE... how adorable is this tiny dress in a light bulb? I don't know why you would want to, but it's nice to know it's possible.

I like that this hanging garden doesn't require you to take the guts out of the light bulbs before you use them. Also, the addition of jars is a fun variety.

I couldn't find the real source of this idea, if anyone knows where it comes from please let us all know! It looks pretty simple and colorful. Experimental DIY time?



Make your own salt and pepper shakers from old light bulbs!

Vintage Christmas lights would be an easy light bulb Christmas decoration.

I wish I'd seen this when a friend was trying to make snow globes a while back!

This would be the cutest theme for a baby's room; light bulb hot air balloons. Hung well out of reach of course!

A classic. Make an oil lamp from a light bulb and a screw top. You could use citronella oil and make it a mosquito repelling assistant as well.

My Mom is driving up from Florida  for the long weekend so I'm pretty excited. We'll be doing some exploring of my new city. What are you up to for Labor day? One last beach trip before the weather starts to turn? I'd love to know!

Sheila

DIY Paper Towel Holder

Happy Monday! I hope your weekend was as lovely as mine. I spent lots of time getting things unpacked and watching some of my favorite movies at the same time. I've stayed a list of all the projects I want to make in the next few weeks. This little guy was at the top of my list since I expected it to be pretty easy. Surprisingly, it worked out just the way I planned. 

I love the way the paper towel holder turned out. It matches my kitchen perfectly, looks cute, and was at least $5 cheaper to make than it would have been to buy a brand new one thanks to coupons and sales.

You will need:
2 pre-cut wooden dowels, 1/2" diameter and 12" long
2 decorative knobs with the screws attached to the base (make sure they are small enough for a roll of paper towels to fit over)
2 wood screws, 1" to 1-1/2"
1 precut circle plaque, mine was 6" across
Drill
Wood bit to pre-drill
Normal bit that fits your wood screws



Start by pre-drilling the center of one end of the dowels. It was surprisingly easy to keep the drill straight while doing this. Drill in as far as the bit will allow so you can make sure there is enough space to screw in the knobs all the way.



Once the holes are pre-drilled, hand tighten the knobs into the holes. Also, make sure the knobs you pick are small enough that a paper towel roll can fit around it so you don't have to unscrew it every time you need a new role.



Next, mark out where you want the holder dowel to sit on the circle plaque and where you want the sheet stopper dowel to go. I used a new roll of paper towels to help me figure this out. Pre-drill those holes as well.



Carefully hold the dowel up to the plaque, doing your best to keep it sitting straight. Its very easy for the dowels to become crooked. Drill through the bottom of the plaque into the dowel tight enough that the screw sits flush on the bottom. Repeat for the second dowel.



That's it! It takes a little guess work and about 20 minutes to make. Then you have your own custom paper towel holder.

What do you think? Would you rather just buy something like this and be done with it or do you enjoy knowing you created it yourself? I'd love to know!

Sheila

P.S. my camera cord is currently M.I.A so all the pictures had to be taken on my phone. That's why they are even worse than usual. Growing pains!

Weekend Inspiration: Where am I?

Whoa. This week has been a total whirlwind. I'm all moved in to my new apartment in Greenville,  SC and already started my new job. WHAT?

My apartment is so much bigger than I thought it would be, which is amazing accept my budget for furnishing and whatnot has not expanded accordingly.  The only furniture I have right now is my suitcase coffee table and an air mattress. Sooo... I guess I need to get on that. My kitchen looks like it's in a completely different apartment since I already have most of that stuff. 

I'm typing all of this on my phone at the moment; I haven't had a chance to connect the internet yet. I hope you all can forgive me for the lack of real posts lately and rest assured that many, MANY fun projects are on the way. I just finished one last night I'm excited to share with you.

Any advice on the Greenville Area? Or on the overwhelming process that is furnishing an entire apartment? Words of encouragement? I'd love to know!

Sheila

Business Card Holders

It is possible to be simultaneously crafty and professional?

I found this wonderful tutorial to sew business card holders, which seemed like the perfect thing to make as I prepare to start my first big girl job this week. I changed mine from the original ever so slightly; Melanie from The Crafty Cupboard made a super helpful and thorough tutorial that you should definitely check out if you plan to make one. Ready to make your own?

You Will Need:

2 pieces of fabric 5-1/2” X 4-1/2”, one for the cover and one for liner

2 fabric pieces cut 2-1/2” X 4-1/2”

small hair tie

small button

sewing machine, or needle, thread, and perseverance
Mod Podge or thin cardboard (optional)

Start by sewing a double hem on one 4-1/2" side of each of the 2-1/2" X 4-1/2" pieces. Pin the 2 smaller pieces to the front of one 5-1/2" X 4-1/2" pieces. The hemmed sides should go towards the center. The larger piece used here will becoming the lining. You can use the same fabric for all of them, or whatever combination you'd like. Baste stitch around as close to the edges as you can (the original tutorial recommends 1/8" seam allowance) to tack the pockets onto the lining. You could skip this step, but I feel like it makes them a lot easier to work with.

Pin the other 5-1/2" X 4-1/2" piece that will be your outside cover, right side towards the stitched pockets. In the center of one 4-1/2" edge, feed the hair tie through. Leave about a third of the tie outside of the fabric; the part you just fed through will become the button hole.

Stitch around the edges with a 1/4" seam allowance, leaving just enough space to turn everything right side out. The original tutorial used interfacing to add stability. I didn't have interfacing... I didn't want to go buy interfacing... So I didn't. Instead, I used a mixture of methods to add stability. One method was to cut a thin cardboard box into two rectangles that were just a little smaller than the card holder when measured together. After the fabric was turned right side out, I used the turning space to insert the cardboard inside the fabric and move it into each half. A stitch down the center kept them in place. The other option was to use a light coat of Mod Podge over the cover. Both worked well. Also, one time I totally forgot to do either and it still turned out pretty cute. There's really no way to lose.

Whatever stability method you choose, after you finish it stitch around the edges of the entire piece to close the turning hole and make a nice clean finish. Add a button to the opposite cover side from the hair tie. DO NOT make the same mistake I did and accidentally sew through the pocket when adding the button like a goof. I've had finer moments. A stitch down the center between the pockets finishes everything off.



It's a fun gift and a good way to use up scraps as well. I may have gotten a little carried away. Each one took less than an hour.





As soon as I press "publish," I'm getting in the car and heading out to start the moving process! Here's to the eight hour drive ahead *raises coffee in a toast-like gesture* Can't believe it's already time to say goodbye to my family again and hello to this next chapter of life.

Do you use business cards? What do you keep them in? Any fun suggestions? I'd love to know!

Sheila

P.S. Happy first day of school for so many! My Mom's kindergarten class starts today. I'm not sure if the kids could possibly be any more excited than she is.

Weekend Inspiration: Cardboard Boxes

Guess what blogland? I GOT A JOB. As in, a full-time, long term, no longer on a poverty living stipend job. And I'm crazy excited about it. This means that next week I'll be moving all of my stuff into a new apartment all by myself in a new city. Which also means you can be expecting lots of renter friendly homey projects. It seemed only fitting that with this big event on the horizon, the WI theme be cardboard boxes.



Cover sturdy boxes to turn them into pretty storage boxes. I would imagine this would help make them more durable as well.

This lighting fixture made from recycled cardboard is for sale at Folklore. The crafty ambitious among us could totally DIY it though.

How stinkin' cute is this kitchen set for kids? You can find instructions on each piece here.

These hanging files were made with cardboard lids as a base.

This blog has so many cool ideas for cardboard. I may have gotten a little distracted from writing this post looking through all of them. What I found most handy are her tips for working for cardboard (with a round up of her different projects down at the bottom).

Because everyone needs a cardboard plane in their lives.

An Instructable for a cardboard Christmas tree! Keep an eye out in December, you better believe this will be making an appearance again.

A little, simple cardboard doll bed.

Welp, I'm off to help my Mom get her kindergarten classroom ready for the first day of school and enjoy my last few days of family time before the big move. More details on that to come :)

What are you up to this weekend? Have you made many things out of carboard? I'd love to know!

Sheila

Children's Book Decorations

One of my favorite things to do is make something new with something old.

I hate to throw something away that might be useful, as you may remember. And I love making things for parties or decorations. These flowers (and the banner down below) satisfied all my re-using, re-purposing, fancifying needs.  Plus, they added some cuteness factor for a work event celebrating the service of some of our VISTAs. They were much easier to make than you might expect.

You Will Need:

-Book pages from something your children no longer read (or that have very few words on them so they serve little education purpose to a tutoring program like these)

-scissors

-buttons

-hot glue and sticks

-bamboo skewers

Cut a strip of the page at least 2 inches wide and 8 inches long. Cut fringe in roughly quarter inch increments down one short side about 1-1/2" into the strip. These pages had a little weight to them. For thinner pages, you may want to leave more area uncut so it doesn't tear easily. 

Once all the fringe has been cut, hot glue the uncut end of the strip to the top 1/2" of the skewer. I cut my skewers to different lengths for a little variety. Wrap the strip tightly around the skewer and hot glue the end. It will look a bit like a tassel. Fold down the fringe and hot glue a button to the center. Done! Each flower takes about 5 minutes start to finish.

I also made bunting for the same event but I forgot to take pictures of the finished product :( For that, I cut the pages in triangles. Printed out individual letters that spelled out "Thank You" which I cut into circles. Glue the circles to the center of the triangle and thread some string (I used twine) through them. For fun, you can add a button between each triangle so they more closely match the flowers.



This might also be fun to do with a thrifted version of your favorite children's book. Mine would be "The Oak Inside the Acorn" by Max Lucado. Or anything Dr. Seuss. Or the "Giving Tree." Oh children's books, how I love you all...

Would you be able to use these for a work party? What would your favorite children's book be? I'd love to know!

Sheila

Weekend Inspiration: Cars

Happy Friday! As of yesterday, I'm officially in Florida for at least a few days visiting my family. It's just as hot as I always remembered, but also just as pretty. And of course it's wonderful to see the fam. Dad already made his big eggs and hash browns breakfast and Mom is putting me to work in her kindergarten classroom. Should be fun! With the road trip down here, plus the anniversary of Life Day on Monday, I feel the only truly appropriate theme for this Weekend Inspiration is cars. Eh?

This blog is written in Hungarian, so you might have to translate it (by you, I mean Google) but these little tp roll cars were too cute to pass up.

Now that you've made your own cars, put them to use on this little track made from a cardboard box.

Trick kids into eating healthier! Apple and grape fruit cars.

Turn your little guy or girl's foot print into a little hotrod.

Cut a pool noodle in half to make this race car track. http://makezine.com/craft/car_craft_caddy/

My favorite part of this washi tape race track is definitely the shadow buildings up on the wall. Details.

Easy, quick clothespin cars would be a great impromptu rainy day activity.

These car cupcakes are gorgeous. They are like baby works of art.

I have a project I've roped my Mom into helping me with so I'm excited to share that with you soon. What are you up to this weekend? Anything exciting? I'd love to know!

Sheila :)

LIFE DAY! What a difference a year makes.

Warning: If car accidents or pictures of them upset you, you will not enjoy this post :/ 

Weekend Inspiration: Marshmallows

Happy Friday! What a crazy week this has been. First, how you checked out the guest post this week from One House One Couple? The painted spanish tile looks amazing. Second, I had a few interviews this week for Big Girl jobs, which is pretty exciting. In celebration, I invested (yes, invested) in mint chocolate marshmallows. The investment was more in calories and sugar than cost but still. As I enjoy  my sugary-marshmallow treat, I've complied the Weekend Inspiration list according: marshmallows!

I used to be obsessed with this stuff in middle school.

This table runner would be so cute for a picnic. 

These marshmallow treat cups look easy and delicious. Two of my favorite things.

Someone, please put this on your child.

Is it just me, or do recipes taste better when they're written like this?

I can't find the original website for this but the recipe looks delicious. 

A crochet s'more!

What are you up to this weekend? We're going to check out Arts and Draughts at the Museum of Art. Should be fun :)

Sheila