Frameless Photos

First of all, how beautiful are my nieces? And how great are these photos (by Small Beginnings Photography)? Really, they need no embellishment. But when I was working on the Magnetic Grocery List yesterday I was left with just the back of a frame and it gave me an idea for displaying these pictures in a unique way.

I started with these supplies:

Flowers, buttons, velcro, ric rac, back of 2 frames, pictures (not shown: ribbon, hot glue gun)

I then began embellishing the outside of the photo. I started with some yellow ric rac and attached it to the corner just by just adding a dab of hot glue. When I got to the next corner I twisted and attached with more glue, continuing on until I had gone around the entire picture.

I then found some flowers and buttons that complimented each other and the colors in the picture {can I just say that I think the pink and yellow combo in the photo is so darling - don't even get me started on the polka dots!}. I hot glued the buttons to the centers of the flowers and then glued the flowers to the corners of the picture.

The last step involved cutting strips of Velcro and gluing them to the back piece of the frame as well as the back of the photo itself. Too simple!

The second photo was the same process only I used ribbon instead of ric rac for the border and just buttons on the corners.

These are probably going to be the inspiration for that empty third shelf in my hutch (see Printing Silhouettes and Glass Jars for what I did on the other two shelves). Couldn't ask for two more beautiful things to display!

Decorating on a dime - Glass Jars

I know it is all the rave right now to create anything and everything with mason jars. But mason jars still cost money and they can be hard to find if you live in a craft savvy area where all the other Pinterest junkies are hoarding mason jars like they are going out of style. I say the truly frugal, green, up-cycle (did I get all the trend words in there?) thing to do is to use glass jars that you already have in your home. The ones that are going to just get put in the recycling bin (or GASP, garbage can) when you are done with them. Spaghetti sauce jars, salsa jars, baby food jars....the list goes on and on. We all have them so why not use them?

I shared the other day the printed silhouette I was using for my teapot shelf in my hutch. The next shelf down I had halfway put together with a wedding picture, some old cameras, and some keepsakes but it was missing something. Totally coincidentally I had just washed out 3 spaghetti jars yesterday not knowing what I wanted to do with them but sure I could find a use. As they sat and dried I remembered that shelf in my hutch and had an idea. In my kitchen above my cupboards are some old jars, milk jugs, wine jars that belonged to my husband's grandparents and great grandparents. Awhile ago I had stuck an old picture of my dad as a kid dressed in cowboy gear on top of a pony (so cute!) into one of the jars and put it back against the other things. I knew I wanted to display it in a more visible place and this is where the hutch shelf came to mind.

Along with the cowboy picture jar I put one of my parent's wedding pictures into a jar to nestle next to my own wedding picture, a black and white picture of my grandma that I treasure into another jar, and was left with one more but knew I didn't want to do any more pictures. I decided to try to put a message into that last jar that could sit sideways on top of one of the old cameras. Here are the supplies I rounded up from what I already had around the house:

grey scrapbook paper, some buttons, cleaned out spaghetti jar, bath salts, scissors and hot glue gun

From that I cut down the scrapbook paper to size and glued on the word LOVE using the buttons. I poured in enough bath salts to fill the bottom of the jar when it was tipped on it's side and slid the love paper into it. I'm not totally in love with this project but it will work for now.

 

This is what my shelf looks like finished:

Ignore the unfinished shelf below it!

Obviously the project itself isn't revolutionary but really more of a reminder to not be afraid to use what you already have. It is a lot of fun coming up with ways to re-purpose items currently in my possession and it is a lot friendlier on the bank account then constantly purchasing brand new pieces. And I think that my Depression-era grandma would be kind of proud that her picture is now on display in such a cost efficient way. Either that or she would wonder why the heck I shoved it into an old spaghetti jar instead of a nice frame...

Button Ornaments

This year I have really been drawn to buttons. They are just so fun for crafting! In recent years we have agreed to stop exchanging gifts with my brother and his wife and instead focus on the kids at Christmas time. So we started a tradition of exchanging ornaments instead. This year we planned to swap ornaments on Thanksgiving so we could enjoy them during the current holiday season. I had planned to make mine so when I came across these button ornaments by Martha Stewart, I knew they were just the thing.
I was extra blessed in this endeavor as one of the followers on my Facebook page generously mailed me a bunch of buttons from her stash for no cost after I inquired about where to buy them in bulk. Thank you so much Jerre Lollman:)

 Here's what I came up with (one each for my brother, sister-in-law, and 2 nieces):

That's a reindeer, a snowman, an elf (or leprechaun as I kept calling it at one point;), and a Santa. I am planning to make some more to attach to gifts and am going to come up with some special ones for my boys so I'll post about those when I finish them. If you are interested in making some yourself click the Martha Stewart link above. The only materials you need are buttons, pipe cleaner, and ornament hooks. These literally take minutes to make and would be a fun project to get your kids involved with as well. Happy Ornament Making!

Using the scraps

It's another bamboo project! Are you ready? So far we have used bamboo place mats to create a wall hanging and a utensil holder. I still have 2 more place mats to go but I wanted to first use the scraps from the last project. Remember how I cut off part of the mat to make it fit the tin?

I knew that this scrap could be put to use so insert Idea #2 1/2: a headband.

Materials are simple: Scrap from the bamboo mat, scissors, ribbon, hot glue gun, buttons.

First I trimmed down the scrap to make a narrower strip of bamboo:

Then I cut two equal sized pieces of ribbon and thread them through each end of the bamboo strip:

I used hot glue to secure the ribbon to the bamboo (do this on each side of the ribbon):

Finally I created a flower out of buttons and secured them to the bamboo using hot glue:

And there you have it, a headband! Cute, huh? Only one problem, it was too wide and stiff to sit comfortably. But no fear, I found another use. I tied it around a plain glass canister to jazz it up a bit:

Wouldn't that make for a cute candy jar? Or something to hold a little girl's hair bows in. You could also put a candle in it and make it a centerpiece. The possibilities are endless!

Now that I have fully used the green mat I can start brainstorming ideas for the last two place mats. In the meantime, my wall hanging is being featured on another blog today so come check it out: