Thrift store bargain fabrics

So, you've noticed I've dusted off my sewing machine lately. I have a few project ideas up my sleeve, and I've been to a few thrift stores in the last few days. With that in mind, I've been checking out the lonely flat sheets that abound in thrift stores. I found a few lovely ones just today, as you can see from the picture above. (There were lots more, but I was picky and passed over the faded prints and thin sheets you could see through. I would recommend you do the same.)

The bottom two are 100% cotton; the other two are cotton/poly blends (one 50/50, one 60/40). I really liked the prints, so I picked them up. The white one was in excellent condition and a nice, thick fabric, so I picked it up, too. It might come in handy to line something or as a backing.

So, what is the price breakdown?

The lime green and white polka dot is a twin size and costed $2. That comes out to $0.75/yd for 66" fabric.

The white one is a queen size and costed $2 as well. That comes out to $0.72/yd for 90" fabric, or $0.35/yd for 45" fabric, depending on how you like to look at it.

The red and white gingham is queen size and costed $3.50. That comes out to $1.27/yd for 90" fabric, or $0.62/yd for 45" fabric.

The lilac print is queen size and costed $3.50 as well. Again, that's $1.27/yd for 90" fabric, or $0.62/yd for 45" fabric.

Those are some pretty good prices, in case you haven't been in a fabric store since 1950. :)

Not only that, but I also found a fabric I had been eyeing at Hancocks, waiting for it to go on sale. I couldn't have found it at this price, no matter how good a sale it was:



This was originally 44/45" fabric, but whoever bought it cut off 6" from one side of the whole length, making it 38" wide instead. However, there are 3-1/4 yards here, so I was pleased to get it for $1.75! Some fabrics are sold around that width (36", I think), and that would make this $0.54/yd for 38" fabric. No matter how you look at it, that's a great deal!

Since it's a sewing-themed fabric, I'm thinking of making a sewing tote for my niece who is learning to sew. I was thinking of a bag she could use to hold current projects, since she'll probably need to share her mother's sewing machine for awhile.

And in case you've always wondered, as I have, here are the sizes for flat sheets:

Twin - 66 x 96"
Twin XL - 66 x 102"
Full - 81 x 96"
Queen - 90 x 102"
King/California King - 108 x 102"

Nobody ever said you couldn't use fitted sheets, but it's a little more complicated cutting them just right, so I've only been choosing the flat sheets when I buy them. I've used some fitted sheets that were given to me, but I didn't want the hassle if I had to buy them.

If you have any other great ideas for using sheets, I'd love to hear them. Expect to see some sheet projects coming up.

Melon Paisley and Stripes Rag Quilt Purse

You may have seen this one on my sidebar (in my Etsy shop) before today, but I'm just now getting around to sharing it here on my blog.



I stopped by my local Hancocks fabric store two weeks ago, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that flannels and cottons were on sale. Since I wanted to try my hand at some of these purses in more designer-type fabrics, this was the perfect opportunity. If I ruined it, at least I hadn't paid full price, right? :)

Well, as it turned out, I didn't ruin it. In fact, I really, really liked it!



This bag is made from two different cotton flannels. They were so perfect together! I chose a bright yellow fleece to go between the squares, and I extended the fleece to the seams of this one. It makes a huge difference in the fluffiness and looks of the seams!



I even added a pocket inside, since I had a few inches of leftover fabric that I didn't want to store or throw away. :)

Just a quick tip about fleece: I had been using the dollar store blankets for the purses I made for my nieces. It isn't very thick, but it worked okay.

Then I discovered that Hancocks has a table of fleece remnants that cost only $2.99/yard (58/60" width). Compared to the flimsy dollar store fleece blankets, the price per inch is something like one one-thousandth of a cent more. (Yes, I did the math per square inch!) Compared to the dollar store blankets, the quality is something like one thousand times better. Needless to say, I'll be checking that remnant table often!

Not only that, but Hancocks is having some pretty good fleece sales this month. I'm sure other fabric stores are doing the same thing, but Hancocks is the only fabric store for about 100 miles around here. (I'm not complaining because they have the friendliest staff and a great selection of fabric, not to mention great sale prices.)

Most women can never have enough purses, so any of these purses would make an excellent Christmas gift! This one is priced at just $15 plus $4.95 Priority Mail shipping, but for today ONLY I'm offering free shipping on this purse only. If the free shipping doesn't show up on your Etsy bill, I'll adjust it. (I'm learning as I go with Etsy, so please bear with me.) :)

Have a look around in my Etsy shop - you may find the perfect bag for a lady on your list. As always, I'm more than happy to mail your gift directly to the recipient (with a personalized note) to save you postage.

Shades of Denim Rag Quilt Purse

For this purse, I used two shades of denim. It was a little harder on my sewing machine, but I really like how the denim gets fuzzy.

I also changed this one a bit by using just one shoulder strap. I used the waistband from my husband's old jeans.

Sheets-Turned-Rag-Quilt-Purse

I made this one entirely from the sheet fabric. I also used twill tape for the closure, and it worked pretty good.

My daughter begged to play with this one as soon as it was finished, so that's why the bag is so full. I borrowed it back from her to get my picture! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm so excited that we get to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families this year!

When we moved here to pastor, my son was only two years old. Since we haven't gotten to go back for Thanksgiving since we moved, neither of my children have experienced our traditional family Thanksgivings. It's not that we haven't tried to make our own traditions. It's just that nothing can replace the grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and tons of food that come with having that many people together at once.

So I'm especially thankful for our families this year -- and the privilege to get to celebrate with them!

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

I hope you all are enjoying getting everything ready for Thanksgiving.

I was planning to have a post up today, but it just didn't work out. However, I will have something up on Friday, so stay tuned.

Monochromatic Blues Rag Quilt Purse

For this purse, I used some of my denim and added fabric from two sheets someone had given me.

These sheets aren't 100% cotton, but they turned out about the same as the cotton fabrics I used. You get a LOT of yardage out of a sheet, so I recommend you pick some up at thrift shops when you find pretty ones. They're useful for all kinds of sewing projects.

Brown and Denim Rag Quilt Purse

Here is purse #3, done exactly the same way as the second purse, just with different scrap fabric. It even has the matching back pocket inside:



My son even liked this one!

Pink and Denim Rag Quilt Purse

This is the second rag quilt purse I made, all from my scrap bin again.

This time, I added a button and closure. I used one of those button pins that look like a real jeans button. (I got a pack of 8 from Dollar Tree.) For the closure, I used the tab from the waistline of a pair of my son's worn-out designer jeans (that were given to us).

I also added a pocket inside, since I like to have at least one pocket in each of my purses:



It was the back pocket from the pair of jeans I cut up to make the purse in the first place. Cute, huh? And no waste, either! I have a huge stash of these pockets from all the jeans I've cut up previously. Now I just need to find them! :)

Apples and Denim Rag Quilt Purse

This is what I've been up to for the last several days - rag quilt purses! These are so easy and cute that I've made nine so far (averaging 1 or more a day). I'd have more done, but I need to run to the store to replenish my thread and fleece/batting supplies first!

This was my very first bag, and I used rag bag jeans and leftover fabric from my scrap bin. 100% cotton fabric works best. If you're working with boys' jeans, it will probably take both legs (front and back) to complete one of these purses, along with a coordinating fabric, of course. If you're using men's jeans, you should be able to get what you need from one leg (front and back).

Since jeans "rag" so well, I chose to use the seams of the pants for the actual purse handles. I thought it was a cute effect, since the purse handles can now "rag" with the rest of the purse.

In case you're looking for an excellent tutorial, check out this youtube series.
I don't have the die she used, and I didn't want to have to buy it. So I just used regular old scissors and cut my squares to 4" square.

I also didn't add a closure to this first one because I didn't think it needed it.

Just a tip if you've never made a rag quilt before: get a pair of spring action scissors to do the last snipping step, or you'll have blisters before long!

I'll show you some more purses I've made in the next few days. I have to pace myself because I still want to have time to make more! ;)

These are excellent, low-cost gifts. Since I used fabrics from my recycling/scrap bin, the only cost I have in this one is the thread (which I already had on hand) and the fleece that I used instead of batting, as well as about an hour and a half of my time (from cutting out squares to snipping the finished seams).

For the fleece, I just bought a 28" square baby fleece blanket from Dollar Tree and cut it into 3" squares. You should be able to get 4 purses out of one blanket, bringing the fleece cost to $0.25. I know several nieces that would love to get these as gifts - and they probably will!

Busy, busy, busy!

My mom is visiting this week, and we've been busy shopping for Christmas gifts (and brainstorming some homemade ones).

I didn't get a chance to post my latest project(s) today, but I'll try to get one posted tomorrow. They're easy, fun and quite addictive! :)

Craft Room Organization Part 4

Today I'm finishing my craft room organizational redo series. To start with, here is my shelving unit that my husband made for me:



I was totally inspired by my friend's shelving unit. I had the shelves custom-sized so I could fit some of my larger stamps on the shelves. I went through all my wood-mounted stamps and ruthlessly got rid of stamps that I knew I would never use (they usually came from thrift store lots with a bunch of other stamps I do use). You're looking at my entire collection of wood-mounted stamps. I didn't realize I had so many!

After this shelving unit was all put together and sitting here to be filled, I discovered that my punches fit perfectly onto these shelves, too. I was thrilled because I have a bit of an investment in MS punches, and now I can easily find which one I want without knocking three of them onto the floor in the process!



See? Isn't that perfect for the punches??

I think I said at the outset of this blog series that I probably spent less than $10 on my whole redo. Well, I forgot about this shelving unit. I put about $18 of wood into it. I consider it one of my best-ever investments!



I've been collecting these spice rack shelves for a little while now, but they've been housing miscellaneous things on my walls. I decided to take the items that had been in my revolving spice racks and move them to these wall-mounted racks. I like it a lot better now!



Three of these shelves are exactly the same. I was pretty pleased to find them at different thrift shops over the course of several months. I think I paid about $1 for each of them, and most of those even had some glass spice jars included with them.



Lastly, here is what's left of my hanging ribbon. I used to have most of my ribbon collection crammed onto this cafe curtain rod, but it just wasn't working. It was too crowded and I couldn't fit another roll onto it. As a result, I had a stack of ribbon waiting to be "filed".

I didn't take any pictures of my other ribbon storage, but I did it basically like Becca did here. Only my drawers are 8.5 x 11" (I had the organizer on hand), and my ribbon collection only took up one drawer (so far). It works so much better, and I love to look at my ribbon drawer now! :)

Just in case you're wondering, the spools that are left have 10+ yards of ribbon on them, so they wouldn't work very well rolled up in a drawer!

Well, that's it for my reorganization, at least for now. I can finally breathe in my craft room again, and it's inspired me to start back into my scrapbooks. I didn't realize that I haven't updated my family album in about four years!! It's a good thing I've been keeping up (mostly) with the kids' albums!

Craft Room Reorganization Part 3

Last time, I showed you my work table. Today I'm going to go to the right of that. I have a small room, but that comes in handy because I don't have far to "travel" to get to any of my supplies.



This bookcase is on the wall that connects to the one where my worktable is stationed. Althought it might not look like it, everything here is completely reorganized by album type (strap-hinge, postbound) and which album it goes to (family, son's, daughter's). I should have done this ages ago because it finally inspired me to work on some scrapbook pages!



At the top of the bookcase, I used to have tons of magazines sorted into magazine holders. The problem was that I never looked at them, so it was wasted space. I donated them to the thrift store and am now using this spot for my finished albums, since 12x12" albums are taller than most bookcases allow.



Here is my paper scraps solution. I'm not sure if I've shared this before, but I've been using it for awhile now and it works great for me. I used to store all my scraps in with my regular un-cut paper. But the scraps all went to the bottom of the files, and my good paper was getting bent and wrinkled looking for scraps. Instead, I dedicated a magazine file to each rainbow color and file my scraps accordingly. Basically, if it's less than 8.5 x 11" (once it's cut into), it goes in here.



Lastly (for today), I had an awful time trying to figure out what to do with my TONS of 12x12" paper. I've had them in hanging files for years and this works best for me. However, I had collected so many 25-sheet packs from Tuesday Morning (for $1.99 each, BTW), that I had outgrown the hanging file capacity of my organizer. I had as much paper stacked beside my organizer as I had filed in my organizer. [I love paper. Can you tell?]

12x12" paper organizers are not cheap! A few years ago, I splurged and bought this $50 cart at Staples when it was on sale. I was disappointed later when I realized that it wasn't designed to hold the same size paper on the bottom.

See, there was originally a bit of a platform at the base of this, and it interfered with the bottom inch or so of my 12x12" hanging paper. After researching my options for hanging 12x12" files and deciding they were all out of my price range, I consulted with my husband on my options for this rolling cart.

I had measured and discovered that I could fit an entire row underneath if I somehow managed to get rid of that platform, but I had no idea how to go about doing that. I'm glad I asked my husband, though, since he's the one that put the cart together. That "platform" slid right off! I was a little worried that it might compromise the strength of the cart by doing that, but my husband pointed out that there's still plenty of support -- and besides, I'm not yanking this thing around my room a lot.

You probably noticed the smaller hanging files on the top. They are a necessary evil (old 10x12" CM paper that I wanted to keep separate), but I can still easily get to the bottom row of paper.

I don't know if you can see it very well, but I attached another one of those closet belt organizers to the side of the cart. I hung my clipboards from it. Perfect!

I'll share more tomorrow!

Craft Room Reorganization Part 2

Today let's look at my main workspace. Here's the basics of what I have "taking up space" on my work table:



My 8.5 x 11" cardstock (sorted by rainbow color in a step-up file) and a Pampered Chef tool turnabout that houses all my must-have tools.

I used to have two tool turnabouts, two revolving spice racks, and a few more odds and ends taking up space. Now I can find my tabletop!



We've had this decorator shelf for ages now. When I was going over some of my problem areas with my husband, he suggested mounting this one just above the table, creating a "center" for my most-used adhesives (and a nook for my markers underneath). It's perfect, and it came from a thrift store (probably less than $1, but it's been awhile so I can't remember exactly). :)



Directly in front of where I sit is this table lamp (with a daylight bulb) - with "office supplies" (binder clips, tacks) sorted into the compartments, my pretty apothecary jar with dew drops, and my ATG gun. I've seen all the fancy ATG gun holders and thought about making one, but this pretty cup does the trick until I find someone with a router that can make me a stand.



This was perhaps one of my two favorite re-dos. The way I had been storing my clear stamp sets and Sizzix dies wasn't very easy to get to ... and I had to unstack five dies to get to the one I wanted.

When I put the old storage out for the thrift store, my husband saw it and claimed it for his CDs. Then he asked what I was doing with the items I had taken from it. When I told him I had no idea, he suggested this organizer. The best we can figure is that it used to be a CD organizer. We got it at a thrift store with no labels on it ($2, I think), so I'm not completely sure.

So my husband got my worthless-to-me organizer that was perfect for him, and I took his worthless-to-him organizer that was perfect for me. It was a win-win situation! :)



Lastly, here is my large trimmer, small trimmer, Cuttlebug and index card boxes (filled with embossing folders and large CB dies, as well as preprinted digi stamps).

Stay tuned ... there's more to come!

Craft Room Reorganization Part 1

I recently went on an organizing binge in my craft room. I didn't get many cards or scrapbook pages made for a week, but I got my space organized! I'll share pictures in the next few posts.

First of all, a little disclaimer: This is not the world's most eye-pleasing craft room because I don't want to spend my craft money on organizational products. I love to craft and I have to be organized to do it effectively, but I didn't spend thousands of dollars redoing my room. (In fact, if I spent even $10, I'd be surprised.) I just used what I had on hand and could repurpose.

With that in mind, let's check out my wire storage tower:



This might still look like a jumbled mess to someone who didn't see it beforehand, but trust me - it's greatly improved! I grouped everything by category now and purged all my glass bottles that were sitting around to be altered "sometime," and now I know where everything is.



This is the top of the organizer. This is where I put a few stamp sets that I like enough to keep, but I rarely use (which is why they're on the bottom of a stack). On top of those is a box of homemade envelopes that I'm always reaching for. Also on top: chalks, CM cutting templates, small baggies, embossing powders and a few embossing/cleaning helpers.



Here's a better view of those embossing powders. I had them all stored in the nice little compact jars they come in. I would use them with the blue tray that's sold for this type of thing, and then try to get the remainder back into the jar. I'd even use a foam brush to get as much as I could out of the tray.

Well, that blue tray has the worst static cling of anything I've ever seen, so remnants of every color I ever used would cling to it - until I used my clear embossing powder. Then they'd decide to come loose, so that my "clear" embossing powder wasn't so clear any more.

I had enough of that and went back to an idea I learned from my very first PSX consultant - emptying them into these little Rubbermaid containers, including a plastic spoon in each one. (I got the containers, Rubbermaid brand, at my Dollar Tree. They were 4/$1.) This works so much better!

You'll notice I still have that blue tray, but I honestly feel like throwing it away. It was a complete waste of money.

Now, on to the different compartments in my tower ...



I grouped all of my adhesives together here (with the exception of a few liquid adhesives that you'll see in a different post).



Here are some extra printed card fronts and envelopes. As I need more envelopes, I'll be moving them to the box on top of the tower. It's so much easier to get to them there!



I had previously been storing all my little bits and pieces (like brads, beads and buttons) in revolving spice racks on my work surface. Well, it was taking up way too much of my work space, so I decided to change that.

I had a DMC floss organizer on hand, and I sorted all of my buttons into that (by color). I bought another floss organizer and sorted most of my beads into that (by type). Underneath those floss organizers is a large box of silk flowers I tore apart to use on cards. These are the largest of the flowers, ones that wouldn't fit in my bags that you'll see in a minute.

The flattish tin on the left is holding my homemade mini roses. In front of that, you'll see a few clamshell boxes with my flocking and superfine glitters. I bought those little organizer "jars" at Dollar Tree (6-8/$1), and the clamshell boxes were left from separating a few Stampin Up stamp sets that I had.

Finally, you'll see two Making Memories embellishment boxes in the front. Those are storing my metal embellishments.



These are my Bind It All accessories, which includes the actual BIA (and instructions), chipboard albums, coasters, and wires (in the KJV Bible box). I love having it all together so I don't have to go hunting all over my craft room when I want to do a BIA project!



This compartment holds my sizable sticker collection. I used to do all-CM scrapbooks, and I still have a ton of their stickers left in that organizer on the right. I'm trying to remember to use them up! The smaller organizers in the back are holding my mini ABC stickers and a few small page kits I have from my CM days. In front are the rolls of stickers I got at Tuesday Morning last year sometime. I put them in front so I'd remember that I have them! :)

I shoved my one pack of chipboard letters in this shelf, too, because I wanted to remember to use them. If I have them there, maybe I'll remember them when I reach for my ABC stickers.



And here is the side of the tower, with various hanging items. The wire things they're hanging from used to be belt racks for a wire closet system. I'm not sure where I ever found them (probably in a closet somewhere), but they came in handy here.

I have some small punches in the tin buckets on top. This is also where I've hung my sizable collection of wall stickers from Dollar Tree (for future projects). On the end, you can catch a glimpse of my baggies of flowers for cards. I sorted them by color and put them on a binder ring so I can easily flip through them.



Last, but not least, is my ink pad organizer. It used to be a cassette holder, but it's perfect for my ink pads! (I think this one was $1 at a thrift store.) This is hanging on the wall right above my wire tower.

I hope you've enjoyed this peek into my craft room. Stay tuned for more pictures to come!

I Challenge You Wednesday: Lattice Cards

Supplies: stamp (Stampendous); paper (G-P, gold metallic foil); ink (BIC Mark-Its, Versamark with gold embossing powder, copper metallic marker); Nestabilities Labels 8; silk flowers; gold leaves; homemade mini roses, office brad.

The challenge today was to make a lattice card like Valita has posted several times on her blog. I thought they were so pretty that I really wanted to try my hand at one (or two). This first one is my favorite.

I had a bit of a time photographing these because they sort of "peek a boo" to the inside, so I wanted to show that, too. I ended up having to lay them flat to get a good enough picture.

Here is the inside of the first one:



Are you like me, always searching for the perfect sentiments? I've been hunting for my personal "perfect" birthday sentiment ever since I began stamping. I was thrilled to finally find it in a clear stamp set by Stampendous, along with quite a few other "perfect for me" sentiments!



Supplies: stamp (free digital image from Digital Two for Tuesday blog); paper (G-P, unknown); ink (Colorbox red, BIC Mark-Its); Nestabilities Labels 1; CB vine die; homemade mini roses; Chef Duff brick fondant embossing plate (used with my CB).

This didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned it, but it's okay. I wanted to try creating a scene effect, and I guess I accomplished my goal. :)



This was my last attempt (which was actually my first experiment). I wanted to create a cherry pie effect. So far, so good, I guess. But now I have no idea at all what to do with it. Oh well, I'll post the finished product if I ever figure it out! :)

Now you can go see what my friend came up with this week. Enjoy!

A few October classroom decorations

We just started on a new math theme in 2nd grade. The first theme was the pond, and this theme is transportation. I happened to find quite a few transportation-themed goodies at Dollar Tree, so it worked out quite well.

For this first board, I had purchased the "Learning Zone" border a few years ago. I used a black party tablecloth for the bottom of the board, blue wrapping paper for the top, green crepe paper for the grass, and large pre-cut die cuts for the various vehicles. I need to make a few cars to go on my train yet, but I decided to share this with you anyway.



I've had this door topper ($1 from Dollar Tree) for a few years, but I recently purchased the border and door sign from Dollar Tree. My son loves space and astronauts, so he loves these decorations!



I decorated our "reading nook" for fall. It's been done for awhile now, but I'm just now getting around to sharing it. The fence, sunflowers and pumpkins (and owl and baskets) came from old bulletin board decorations that were lying around in the church basement.

I made the tree from a cardboard box and used Dollar Tree leaf doilies as the leaves.

The crow was a Halloween decoration from Dollar Tree, but he didn't look scary, so I was happy to pick him up for this display.

The scarecrow turned out a lot bigger than I intended. I was originally thinking of putting him on a bulletin board, but I enlarged him a bit bigger than I intended. He's almost as tall as my kids! :) Oh well, he makes a nice addition to this corner of the room. I made his arms jointed (with paper fasteners).

I hope you've enjoyed the peek into our school room!

Tis the Season ... for Bargains!

I had to make a quick run to Wal-Mart on Saturday for a few grocery items. I haven't done much grocery shopping lately because our freezer is full and so are our cabinets! My husband and I decided that we really need to use up what we have before we get any more, regardless of how good of a bargain something is. I can't fit any more in my freezer, and it's HUGE! It's a good "problem" to have! :)

Anyway, I made a quick run for toilet paper and special bar soap that my husband's hands require in the winter. When I got there, I discovered that all Halloween merchandise (except candy) had been marked down to 90% off!

I can hear you now, "Wait a minute! I didn't think you celebrated Halloween." No, we don't. I have no time for a holiday that celebrates evil, even if not everyone celebrates it that way. However, I'm not above going through all the costumes for dress-up gifts for my kids! (And let me tell you, my kids LOVE to dress up!)

Here's what I got for my daughter (I hit the jackpot for her size):

I plan to discard most of the inserts (I might keep the pictures) since she doesn't need to know that an otherwise-princess-looking outfit was supposedly a sorceress or gothic vampiress (neither of which I would ever allow her to play). I got:

• a black and purple princess (aka the sorceress costume)


• nurse


• Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz (We read the books.)


• Red Riding Hood


• rainbow princess (surprisingly modest and pretty with no alterations)


• black/gold/red princess (aka the gothic vampiress; this will need a higher neckline put in, but that's easy enough)

These were all either $1.40 or $1.90 each on clearance!

For my son I got these:

knight warrior

Zorro (because it looks a bit western - he has no idea who Zorro is)

ninja fighter

ninja accessories

Again, these ranged anywhere from $0.50 - $1.90. Not bad!

Now for the homeschool stuff I've been eyeing for months ...



I saw these castle decorations quite by accident a few months ago on my way past the Halloween section to the pharmacy. I took a look at them, but the room wraps were $10 each and the accessory packs were $4 each. I could handle $4, but I wasn't going to pay $10. So I decided to wait and see if they were still there when the Halloween merchandise was clearanced.

I really didn't expect to get them for 90% off. I would have been happy with 50 or 75% off, but I somehow forgot about Halloween clearance last week. (Maybe because I had one of my main teeth pulled?) That's okay, though, because they were still there! :)

Let me show you a closer peek:



Here is a picture of the wall wrap, 4' knight, coat of arms, axe and bookshelf. If I can't cut the rat off the bookshelf, I'll just eliminate it. Other than the rat (munching on a bone - YUCK!), nothing here looks frightening. It just looks like it came from a castle.



Here's a better picture of those accessories. This was from the fronts of the packaging. They're a LOT bigger than the picture. (Remember, the knight is 4' tall.) Yes, I got two packs. You can't argue with $0.40, and I figured I'd regret it if I didn't buy two.



Here are the doors and windows. The door is 6' tall! Yes, they do look a little bit like a dungeon (with the barred windows), but castles had that look to them, too. So I'm not the slightest bit worried that my kids will think I've created a dungeon scene in our schoolroom. They'll definitely love the castle!

Um ... did I mention that I bought three wall wraps? I wanted to be sure I had enough, and $1 is dirt cheap, so I got them all. Well, I did the math on the size when I came home. They are each 360" wide x 48" high. I could probably wallpaper my entire schoolroom with them! :)

When we're done with them in the schoolroom, I can put them up in their toy room. Who knows? We may even do a knights/princesses theme for a future Cousin Camp. We're pretty careful with things around here, so they should last for awhile.

Let's see ... I spent $4.60 to outfit an entire room as a castle. That's a great deal!!