Some "new" skirts for my little girl

We were recently given six HUGE garbage bags full of clothing. A lot of it was women's shorts and pants, which we don't wear. I was going to donate them to a local thrift shop, but my husband suggested trying to make something we could wear out of them. And since my little girl is growing taller (but not wider, it seems) every day, I need some denim skirts for her. So here's what I made out of two pant legs:



(She's wearing it a little funny. It really is sewn straight!) And here's the second one:



They turned out very well, and my daughter is thrilled to pieces with them! They were really easy, too! The hardest part was threading the elastic through the waistband, since it kept slipping off my bodkin. I made them nice and long so they'd last for awhile. If she keeps up this "tall and thin" build, I'll be able to use them for quite awhile! :)

I'll be sharing more projects from those pants in the days to come, since I have several projects going that involve them.

This is the kind of recycling that I enjoy! :)

In the spirit of Thanksgiving ...

Let me share a few of our great "finds" this last week. Of course, we can't take credit for any of our "finds" - God definitely orchestrates these things!

First of all, my husband loves foosball. I never understood the attraction until I played against him and then a family friend - and WON BOTH TIMES! It's not something I'd play all the time, but it is fun every now and then.

We had seen a pretty beat-up one at our favorite local thrift store for $10, but it was very beat-up, and so we waited. While he was out visiting last week, my husband stopped in at a thrift store we don't get to as often. Look what he got for $2:



Yes, you read that right: $2. I was expecting it to be broken or missing something vital that they didn't know about (it had "missing ball" marked on the box), but everything - including the ball - was there and in good shape. It's not necessarily the deluxe version, but we really like it and it works great for us!

Last Monday we ventured south for our friends' daughter's birthday party (she's almost exactly a year older than our son). On the way, my husband noticed a sign outside of a consignment shop we had been to once. That day was their last day in business, and they were having a sale.

Of course, things are cheap the last day someone is in business, so we stopped. (The prices hadn't been too great before, but this was worth looking at!) Everything in the store was 75% off, and a lot of it she was just asking $0.25 for. We also got two shopping bags full of clothes for $0.25 each.

And then my husband asked if the beautiful bookcases out front were 75% off, too. As it turns out, they were. They were originally asking $100 for both, but that day they would be $25 for both. My husband was thrilled, since he has been looking for a few bookshelves for his smaller study at the church!

So he went out to see if he could load them into our van. He got one inside, but the other would not fit inside. We have a roof rack, but he wasn't sure he wanted to try it, so he went back inside the store and told her it just wasn't going to work.

"That's too bad," she said, "because if you can take it, they're both free."

Needless to say, my husband quickly changed his mind about getting the second one up on the roof rack! It took a little effort, but it was so worth it! Check it out:



It's beautiful dark wood, made in the USA. The other one looks exactly like it, but the camera batteries died after I took this picture.

Isn't God good?

Starbucks Chocolates Gift

My Secret Sister loves coffee, so I was thrilled to find four boxes of Starbucks chocolates reduced to $0.50 each simply because the packaging was mangled!

I decorated a tin bucket and filled it with the candy. It was a perfect fit!



I got this bucket at Target's $1 Spot last year sometime. I've been using it to store the caps to the glass bottles I'm saving to recycle into gift packaging. It was a perfect fit for the chocolates, though, so I gave it up. :)

The image is from Nina May, who has done an entire series of gorgeous fall-themed digi stamps and offered them for free on her blog over the last few weeks. (Each image is free for one week.) You can subscribe to her blog to see when she opens her store so you can buy them!

I colored it with oil pastels and baby oil. I used my scallop circle Nesties to frame it and a bunch of miscellaneous ribbon tied around the handle.

I was able to rescue the front flap of one of the boxes, so I made it into a tag so she would know what flavor the chocolates are.

Customized Dry Erase Tile

Someone on Splitcoaststampers first gave me this idea, but I don't remember who to give credit to. Did you know that you can use a glazed ceramic tile as a dry erase board? I certainly didn't!

Since I found this out, I picked up all the dry erase board markers I could when they were cheap (or free) during the back-to-school sales. And now I've finally gotten around to making a decorated one.

I decided to make the first one for myself, just to see how it would turn out. You always learn from the first one, and I didn't want to make a mistake on a gift. So here is what I made:



This is an 8x10" ceramic tile from Home Depot. It cost a few pennies more than $1, so it's quite inexpensive. Add the easel from Dollar Tree, and you have a cute gift for $2.

It's very easy to make. All you need are:

• a tile
• rub-ons, stamps (use StaZon ink and permanent markers), stickers, or other decorations
• Paper Glaze (or other similar product like Crystal Effects, Jewelry Glaze, Glossy Accents, etc.)

I used a Pfaltzgraff Tea Rose Wallie I bought years ago. My kitchen is decorated to match my Pfaltzgraff Tea Rose dishes, so this matches perfectly! Then I used a set of clear stamps to spell out "MENU" and an Inkadinkado decorative swirlie to accent it, stamped it with black StazOn ink, and then sealed everything with Paper Glaze.

Actually, I used a combination of Paper Glaze and Jewelry Glaze (I've had it for over 10 years, so I'm not sure if they still make it). I had the best success with the Jewelry Glaze, but I think that's because you apply it with a brush so it doesn't end up so thick.

You probably noticed there's a spot that looks frosted. Every now and then I get that when I use Paper Glaze. I'm assuming I put it on too heavily, but I'm not sure. Does anyone know what causes that?

I'm thrilled with how this turned out, and I'm planning to make one for each of my Secret Sisters as part of their Christmas gift. I'll share them when I make them.

Just a final note: Whatever you do, don't write on the Paper Glaze, even with dry erase markers. If you do accidentally, wipe it off immediately. If you don't, it won't come off after about five minutes.

Make-your-own marker storage

I've been dealing with little aggravation spots in my craft room this week. One of my biggest aggravations is marker storage. I love my BIC markers and use them on almost every project, but they were shoved into cans lying on my craft table and very hard to get at.

So I checked Splitcoaststampers to see how everyone else was organizing their markers, and I found a lot of ladies were using clear acrylic x-shaped containers. I loved them! But after I put it on my shopping list, I got to thinking ... Couldn't I make something myself and spend that money on craft supplies instead? So here's what I made:



I've had this box for awhile now. I think it originally came from Michaels' $1 spot, but I picked it up at a thrift store for $0.25. I cut cardboard dividers to fit inside and form the "x" that nicely separates the markers.

So there you have it - a "use what I have" alternative that looks very pretty sitting on my craft desk! :)

Blossom Nestabilities Flowers

My friend brought her Blossom Nestabilities along the other day, and I cut a few shapes to play around with. I thought I'd share some of the flower combinations I came up with. There are lots more possible combinations, and I have several more ideas running through my head. When I get the chance to try them, I'll post them.



First of all, I cut the largest Blossom Nestie and embossed it with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. I cut the shape so the petals are separated. Then I punched two daisies (Marvy Uchida daisy punch) from brown patterned paper. Then I cut the circle using my Scallop Nestie and embossed it with Swiss Dots. I ran an orange inkpad over the embossing to highlight it.



Then I thought of my homemade glue gun pearls* and thought to add a few to the center. [*I used this idea and simply painted the resulting glue gun drippings with pearlized nail polish I had purchased just for this purpose, since I don't paint my nails.]



And lastly, here is one I made by layering three different Blossom Nesties (each 2 steps apart) that had been embossed and cut apart. If you bend the petals around, it can look more realistic.

These flowers would make a lovely alternative to a gift bow!

Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page!

Our good friends came today to help celebrate my son's 6th birthday. We carved out a few minutes to run to Michaels, since I had been hearing so much about the new Martha Stewart items and hadn't seen any yet.

Have you seen them? There's a scoring board, Punch Around the Page punch sets, deeper-designed border punches (about 2x a deep as a regular one), punch and stamp sets ... Not all of it was there at my Michaels yet, but I saw plenty of hang tags. They will finally be getting that darling heart lace punch that came out last Valentine's Day!

Anyway, I had a 50% off coupon from AC Moore that was good for today, and of course they take competitor's coupons. So I got this Punch Around the Page set:



It retails for $24.99 and includes a coordinating corner punch and border punch. It's pure genius, if you want my opinion! The instructions tell you what sizes will create a perfect all-around border (3.25", 5", 6.75", 8.5", 10.25" and 12"), and it's so easy my kids could probably do it. Not only that, but I was very impressed with how well they punched. So for $12.50 (with my coupon), I can make unlimited lace-edged paper!

Are you curious how it works? Let me show you ...



First of all, you punch the corners. I'm using a 3.25" square here. As you can see, the corner punch can stand alone. It's so pretty! But wait until you see it combined with the border punch ...



Tada! Isn't that gorgeous? It only looks like it took a long time. I might have spent an entire minute punching these edges.
So how will these preset sizes fit onto standard cards and scrapbook pages?



Here is the 3.25" square on an A2 card (4.25x5.5") ...



... a 3.25x5" rectangle on an A2 card (4.25x5.5") ...



... a 5x6.75" rectangle on a 5x7" card ...



... a 4x6" photo on top of a 5x6.75" rectangle ...



... a lacy 6.75" frame ...



... and a 6.75" square layered onto an 8" square scrapbook page.

I haven't done a 12x12" page yet, but it should look just like the 8x8" page, only bigger. I'm looking forward to playing with these some more. It's quite addicting!