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!

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:

Re-Purposing a Bamboo Place Mat (Part 2)

If you missed my first post on re-purposing the bamboo place mats that I found at Target for only $2.50, you can catch up here. Isn't this wall hanging cute?

It took me a few nights to come up with my next project but once it came to me I was able to whip it out in no time. Idea #2: Utensil Holder.

I recently did some rearranging in my kitchen so I think my mind was naturally drawn to that room. I spent some time just looking around and trying to picture what I could do with the next place mat when my eyes settled on our utensil holder. I thought about a post I recently saw over at Homework that included wrapping a bamboo place mat around a vase and thought I could do something similar in creating a utensil holder. After trying a few different containers, I remembered an old rectangular shaped tin that used to hold tea. I had been hanging onto it convinced that I could use it for something and what do you know...this was that something!

Let me break it down for you:
- Materials were simple. A bamboo place mat, scissors, ribbon, tin (you could use almost any shaped container but the rectangle worked great), and hot glue gun.

- I first tested this out using the place mat in it's entirety but it was way too tall to be functional so I cut it down a bit so that it extended about an inch over the top of the tin.

- I then began attaching the place mat to the tin by hot gluing one side of the tin and then placing it on the mat and rolling it. I continued gluing and rolling until the entire tin was covered. This process was quick and seemed to hold well.

- You could easily end right here and have a perfectly functional and fun utensil holder. But I decided to add a little more color by tying on some red ribbon. First I glued a strip on the back, then I wrapped it around to the front and tied a knot. From here I wrapped the pieces around each side and glued them in place on the back.

 I am thinking about making a piece to hang off the ribbon...maybe a circle that says STIR on it. I don't know, I'll have to play around with that a little. Anyway, here's the finished project as it sits in my kitchen. This morning my three year old son walked into the kitchen and said, "Mommy, what is that present doing on the counter?" I guess it does kind of look like a present!

I hope you all are finding this series interesting. I still have two place mats left as well as the scraps from this trimmed place mat and I am really enjoying coming up with new uses for them. You never know what you'll see next!