Recycled Picture Frame

A few weeks ago while I was at HomeGoods I saw these adorable little magazine picture frames -- they were so cute!  And as much as I loved them and HAD to have them, I just couldn't overlook that $14.99 price tag.  It definitely wasn't a NEED -- so I sadly left without them.  But don't worry-- I'm a problem solver, so I came up with a way to make my own -- so here's the how-to for you thrifty, do-it-yourself, blog-loving gals. :)

First I went to the Dollar Tree and got a two pack of 4x6 frames for $1.00.  

Then I grabbed a stash of old magazines that I hadn't thrown away yet.  (I think I've mentioned before that I have a slight problem throwing things away)

I cut out a good variety of text only pages, colorful ads, and a mix of both.  

 Then I grabbed a handful of skinny drinking straws (not the extra fat ones like McDonald's gives out).


And here's where the project begins .....

 I glued each straw to the BACK of the magazine page I wanted to use.  And here's a tip for you -- you don't have to use the whole page -- and actually I would recommend using a piece of the page.  You aren't going to roll up a lot of paper -- just a little bit.  Now, LET THE GLUE DRY!  Be patient and just make sure it's completely hardened before you decide to roll up the magazine page -- it makes it easier, believe me. :)  I tried the hard way first.

 Now roll up those magazine pages!  You can see above that I don't have a lot rolled up.  I only twisted the page about two times around the straw.  Now take your glue gun and glue the edge almost like you're sealing the roll together.  Wait for it to dry and then cut the excess paper off.

Now keep making rolls of magazine pages until your hands are numb.  No, just kidding. :)  I did these while we were watching TV, and it took no time at all.   It all depends on the size of your frame -- I did four straws per side -- so 16 straws.  You want to make sure they are really squished together so there's no frame showing through.

 Okay -- this is the toughest part.  I cut my straws at a 45 degree angle to make a nice "seam" in the corners -- but I've seen frames that do it differently -- so be creative and make it however you want. :)  And I'm sorry -- but I have no good tips for cutting your straws at a 45 degree angle.  I just used the trial and error method. Probably not the best advice to give -- but it worked for me. :)

I glued first straw on the outside and let it hang over the edge slightly.  Then I glued the remaining straws as close to each other as possible -- you want them to hang over the edge a little so you can't see the dollar store frame.  Even the corners should be squished together.

And once everything is glued on, take some high-luster Mod Podge and paint a light coat on the magazine rolls.  Let it dry, and you should have this:

Definitely not perfect  -- but for $.50, it's not too bad. :)  I'm going to try to make another one with the other frame, so hopefully by then I'll get down how to make a perfect magazine roll.

Linking up to:

Mondays:Between Naps on the Porch ; C.R.A.F.T; Craft-O-Maniac; Keeping it Simple; Mad in Crafts; Making the World Cuter; The DIY Showoff; The Girl Creative Tuesdays:  All Thingz Related; House of Grace; I'm Topsy Turvy; Lucky Star Lane; Sugar Bee Craft Edition; The CSI Project; These Creative Juices; Today's Creative Blog Wednesdays:  Blue Cricket Design; Creations by Kara; Debbiedoos; Domestically Speaking; My Backyard Eden; Night Owl Crafting; Seven Thirty Three; Someday Crafts; The Thrifty Home; Trendy Treehouse Thursdays: Beyond the Picket Fence; Craftastical!; Fireflies & Jellybeans; House of Hepworths; Life as Lori; Somewhat Simple; The Shabby Chic Cottage Fridays:  Chic on a Shoestring; Finding Fabulous; Fingerprints on the Fridge; Frou Frou Decor; Frugal & Fabulous Design; It's a Hodge Podge Life; It's Fun to Craft!: Just a Girl; Remodelaholic; Simply Designing; The Shabby Nest; Tatertots & Jello Weekend:  A  Little Lovely; Be Different Act Normal; Funky Junk Interiors; House of Thrifty Decor; I Heart Naptime; Kuzak's Closet; Under the Table & Dreaming

Round Two of the PB Knock-Offs

Thanks to Leslie at Bargain Shopping Paradise for featuring my the PB chandelier:







And thanks to Allison at House of Hepworths for featuring my PB chandelier today!  Her blog is SO good -- not only is she ultra-crafty but her posts never fail to crack me up too!  So THANK YOU Allison!

And speaking of Pottery Barn Knock Off Lights ....... we're trying another one today.  Should I say that I really pulled out all the stops on my last one and this one is not nearly as exciting?  It's kinda true -- I was so happy with how the first light turned out that none of my other projects around the house are really measuring up.  Oh well, someday I'll get over my love affair with my light (maybe).

I saw this set of lovely lights in my PB catalog a few weeks ago (does anyone else continue to get these even though they never order anything??  Sadly, I'm just too cheap -- but I'm glad I have the catalog to flip through -- it makes me feel sophisticated).

Aren't these lovely?  And I especially the bluish green tinted one.  

So I kept my eyes open at the thrift store for the perfect piece of glass.  I scoured their million and one vases every time I was in.......and I finally found "the one."

The shape was darn-near perfect for my mini version of the PB light.  And I LOVE when you get to the register and it's on sale even MORE than you thought.  Cost for this little lovely?  $1.49 -- SCORE!

I was a little bummed that it wasn't colored -- but oh well I'll take what I can get.

Oh, wait -- it gets better - I found Pam's blog, Gingerbread & Snowflakes with a WONDERFUL tutorial on how to "tint" glass!  OMG -- could not even tell you how excited I was when I found this -- visit her tutorial -- it's awesome!



So the trick was to use Mod Podge and food coloring.  Well first, let me say that I have NEVER used Mod Podge before -- but I've heard AMAZING things about it and how addicting it is.  So I went out and bought some (did you know Joann's has a 50% off coupon this week?) with my coupon of course -- and I L-O-V-E this stuff! 






So I happened to find some Neon Food Coloring in my cupboard (no idea what I would have used this for -- but it came in handy this time!).  I put a few drops of the neon blue and mixed it with the Mod Podge like Pam did and painted it on.  After I painted it I stippled it with a paper towel -- real technical using paper towels and all, I know.

I know it looks quite electric-blue in the picture -- but as it dried it mellowed out. 









Next step was the lighting portion of it.  If you look at the PB light, there isn't a cord going through the glass -- it simply gets pushed out the top.  So I used the wires and switch from this light:

It's not too hard to get the wires out -- just unscrew the bottom wing-nut:

The bottom of the lamp just comes right off and the wires can be pulled out, but first you need to detach them from the switch part at the top of the light near where the bulb goes.












Unscrew the top by the actual switch and pull that bottom cover off.

**NOTE -- You could just as easily buy a lamp kit at the hardware store instead of reusing an old lamp.  It would probably be easier. :)

I unscrewed the screws that were holding the wires to the switch of the light.  Once the wires are unscrewed they can slide through the base of the lamp.  Now all you should have are the switch part and a black plug-in cord. 

Then put everything back together without the base or the glass part (I'll be using the base for another project).

What you should end up with is the top part of the lamp where the light bulb goes and the black cord that you plug into an outlet.

This part will sit in the top of the vase.


For the final part of my light I had really wanted a simple round lamp shade -- but I couldn't find one in the size I wanted or in the price range I wanted.  So I decided to makeover a lampshade that I had lying around the house.

I LOVED Amy's tutorial over at The Idea Room for a Rosette Lamp Shade.  She did an adorable lamp for her daughter that had a TON of the cutest little flowers on it.  I didn't do as many as she did but I did take her idea in using one of my hubby's old t-shirts he was going to throw away.

I cut it up into strips and rolled away!

I only did five and put buttons in the middle of each one.

The buttons were ones I found at Joann's for $1.50.

I think they turned out pretty good for my first try.

And are you ready for our lamp reveal!?!

I'm in love with how the glass turned out.  Pam is an absolute genius! 

I'm definitely going to be using the glass-Mod Podge-food coloring on other pieces.

Total for my lamp:

Vase:  $1.50
Light:  $2.99 (plus I can reuse the base for another project)
Buttons:  $1.50
Mod Podge:  $3.49 (and I'll be reusing this - a lot!)
TOTAL:  $9.48 (compared to $99.00 for the PB one!) 

I'll be linking up to these parties today.

It's a Knock-Off

We have a room in our house that is referred to as the "Man Cave".  And that's exactly what it is .... a cave.  It's in our basement, in a room with no windows and my man resides there....to watch TV, catch up with his X-Box, you know, "man" stuff.  Although it's mostly just for guys, it is the coolest (uh...coldest) room in our house during the summer -- so I frequent the room for movies or an evening of TV.  Well with summer here I've been in our TV room much more and I could see it was in dire need of an update.

First step -- get some furniture!  I'm currently OBSESSED with Knock-Off Wood -- so why not MAKE my shelf?!?  I saw this cute little shelf on Ana's site.  Perfect!  Unfortunately I don't think the pink would go over too well in our "cave."  But I loved the shelves.  Luckily I could paint them any old color I wanted and fill the shelves with anything we wanted too.  The beauty of furniture building!

So off to the garage I went for some serious bonding with the air nailer and miter saw.

I painted the whole shelf white and it was finished -- well, almost.  Not that I don't love the idea of all white shelves, it just looked funny in our TV room (sorry no pics).  Well the shelf sat for the next month and a half, completely white -- if it's usable and not absolutely hideous, sometimes I push the redo project to the bottom of my list.  I still needed to paint it a different color ...  I was just cringing at the idea of buying a special can of paint for one measly project.


Get ready -- there's a bargain tip coming up!
But as I was looking through the mail the other day I stumbled across a GOLD MINE!  Okay, not really -- but if paint were gold -- then I did.  I was skimming through the County Newsletter where I live and there on the back was the ad to visit their Environmental Center Free Resource Room.  What's so exciting about this???  The Free Resource room is like the Mecca of left over paint.  It's where all the paint, auto supplies, cleaning supplies and other "toxic materials" that aren't supposed to go in the trash end up.

Well I had to take a trip out there (okay, like a 15 minute drive) and see for myself.  And sure enough -- there was plenty of beautiful paint that people didn't want but couldn't throw away.  You definitely have to do some scouring to make sure you're getting an okay can of it -- but most of it was at least half full and pretty nice, normally expensive, paint and wood stains.

I don't know if every County does this -- but it's worth checking into seeing if your county has an Environmental Center where they house all the "toxic" stuff you can't throw away.  And what's better is that now I have a place to bring the paint I have no use for and someone else can use it!

Here's the little can I picked out for the top of our shelf:

Can you see that it's like completely full?!?  This is a can of Sherwin Williams -- free?  YES please!  The nice thing is I didn't have a specific color I wanted to use for the shelf.

(If were going to paint something large or a room I probably would just go order my own paint -- but for this project the Resource Room was perfect!!)





  Okay, well are you ready to see the final product??

There it is, bare and ready for some "boy" details. 

DONE!  I put all my hubby's guy movies and his guy books on the shelf.  No girlie stuff here!  I also made a trip to my Home Goods to buy some baskets for the bottom to hold all of the remotes and XBox goodies.  (I did manage to sneak a picture of us on the new shelf too -- but in a non-girlie frame).  And yes, that is a matchbox car you see -- it's an exact replica of his beloved car -- and what can I say....it must be a guy thing?!?

More updates to the Man Cave are coming soon!

I want to say THANKS!! to Kara at Kara's Creations -- her blog is absolutely wonderful and I was ecstatic today when she featured my little PB chandelier -- too sweet!  Thanks so much Kara -- now go visit her blog -- she's got TONS of adorable ideas and projects!

Buffet Revealed!

Remember way back to last week when we talked about my secretary desk faux pas? (you can catch up here).

Well, as promised I am sharing what is now in my bare space.....my exciting reveal is that I made my new buffet -- and we love it!

I had been eying the buffet plans on Knock-Off Wood for a while -- wondering if I could do it, planning what I would need, calling hardware stores, researching prices and generally over-analyzing my urge to build it.

I summoned the courage to just go to Home Depot and get what I needed (although I LOVE Menards, Home Depot had much more wood, better quality wood plus they have an awesome cutting station).

I knocked (pun intended!) this beauty out in only a week.  I never realized just how rewarding wood-working is.  I love seeing everything come together -- it's like the ultimate makeover!

Check out the awesome transformation:

Here's "the box" plus legs (note I had already made a little flub -- the top is supposed to be one big piece across with no edges showing -- don't worry I fixed it with an additional piece!)

Trimmed out! Can you see that the top is a little different from Ana's plans?  I added another piece of wood to the top and made the trim around it flush with the base.  I wish I hadn't messed up -- but I think it's a pretty good job of covering up the mishap!

Okay -- I got passed the hardest part -- the drawers.  I love Ana's trick of running Vaseline along the inside to make them slide better -- worked like a charm!

Almost finished here......

Can't believe how well it fits in our house!

Here's some close ups of my details on tops:

And the baskets below?  An extra blanket for the couch, newspapers and magazines and Ruby's toy box!

Can I just say again how much I love Ana's plans??!?  Just amazing!