For the Nerd or the Crazy Cat Lady - the book clutch ♥

My latest recycled creation.  I have been buying old books to make flowers out of and was trying to think of something to do with the covers and I came up with a book clutch.  Some of the covers are so beautiful, and have such rich colors that they needed to be used.  I linked it with some heavy blue seersucker fabric, that I had leftover from a previous project. I try to only buy books that no one will probably read, this one was title "The Science and the Mystery of the Cat".  So all you nerds and crazy cat ladies ENJOY!

Don't forget craft show in Canton this Saturday at the Canton Day Care Center 9 am - 3pm.

Happy Friday! "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi - A Great Upcycled Treasury

Took a break yesterday from blogging because I have a really great project to share next week that has really changed the direction of my bedspring wreaths.  Earlier this week I created a wonderful treasury on Etsy to featured other great shops that create using upcycled/recycled/repurposed materials.

The treasury list is titled: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi

60" Flower Garden Rug Made from Recycled T-Shrits in a fellow NYers shop: greenatheart

Happy Friday! Recycled Jar w/ Chalkboard Label and Upcoming Events!

TGIF!  This is the first weekend in a long time I haven't had something to do!  Unfortunately the BF has to work all weekend so I will be on my own.  I think I might try to re-organize my spare bedroom/shop b/c honestly there is no way anyone could possibly sleep in this room right now :).  I have already warned my little sister if she is coming to stay she needs to give me a weeks notice.   I totally destroy it every time I have a show to do, so I think its time for some organizing and hopefully a little creating as well.

What I have to share today is actually what I used to display my fabric/soda can/sheet music roses last weekend at the FFA Craft Sale.  I have been saving jars from food for awhile now and finally came up with a use for them that is rather easy, but cute.  Using the same idea as my upcycled mail holder I taped off a square section on to each jar, painted it with a layer of white paint and then several layers of chalkboard paint.  I then let it sit overnight and voila cute reusable jars.  

Upcoming Shows

I just recently joined the Holiday Shopping Kick-off Fair which is a travelling fair that visits a different town each month and includes some of your favorite vendors, such as Avon, Scentsy, Pampered Chef, Gold Canyon Candles and so many other great local vendors.   The next fair is Saturday, March 12th from 3 pm - 8 pm at the Massena American Legion.  Become a fan on Facebook to know when we will be in your town!

I also signed up for another craft sale to benefit the Canton Day Care Center.  This should be a rather large one b/c they have 4000 square feet for vendors to set up.   This show is Saturday, March 19th from 9 am - 3 pm at the Canton Day Care Center at 205 State Street Road in Canton.  There will also be several raffles to win items so check it out!

TGIF - Happy Weekend - Recycled Can Rose Magnets

I am now always on the lookout for interesting cans that I could make into roses.  I found some Diet Cranberry Sierra Mist cans and loved the look of them as roses, so I made them into magnets, by coiling up the stem and hotglueing a round magnet to the back.  Check them out!

Adorable Fabric Scrap Rag Bow

While working on some of my craft show projects I was trying to figure out a bow for my wreaths that I thought matched them well.  It needed to be something ragged and unfinished, so I took a bunch of scraps i had left and cut them into small strips at different lengths in coordinating colors and then tied them with a solid color the wreath.  I think it is a perfect bow for the style of the wreath!

Come check out my items at my first craft show, Saturday, Feb 5th from 11 - 3 at the Massena Winter Carnival!  Hope to see you there!

Springs n' Thing has a sign - First Craft Show Countdown - 2 days to go

Since my first craft show at Massena Winter Carnival is quickly approaching I decided my little shop needs a sign.  While at my father's this weekend, I went up into the old barn and found a piece to a cupboard or something and decided to paint my sign on it.  I handpainted all the letters and then glittered them red.  Totally love it!

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation" ~ Herman Melville - Upcycled Soda Can Rose Tutorial

I love a good recycling project, the only problem with this one is I live in NY and we can return our cans for 5 cents but when you can create something so cute out of them, who worries about 5 cents.  This is truly upcycling at its best from a 5 cent can, 2 - 3 soda can roses can be made, which in turn is creating something better out of something that could be thrown away!

Working at my normal workspace, our "coffee table" trunk in the living room, you will need:

- Clean, dry soda cans - preferably empty :), if not drink the soda first!
- Tin snips
- Scissors
- A Hammer
- A Nail
- A flower or round shape punch ( I'm using a seal punch b/c i like the scalloped edges and no shops around here had a flower, if you don't want to buy a punch you can always make a stencil out of cardboard, trace it and cut it out, this is a much longer process though)
- floral wire
- a scrap board

Step 1:  using the tin snips, cut the can in half

Step 2: Cut the top and the bottom off leaving a flat rectangular piece

Step 3: Using your punch, cut out the shapes from the rectangle (with my punch I can get anywhere from 5 - 8 cutouts per can)

Step 5: If you are using a non-flower punch, you will need to cut petals into it, so cut 5 or 6 cuts towards the center but do not disconnect.  Take the hammer and nail and on your scrap board put two holes in the center of each cut out.  

Step 5:  Cut a length of the floral wire, twice as long as you want your stem to be and run it through the 2 holes of 2 or 3 cutouts (depending on how big you want your rose), color side up works best too and then twist the wire tightly.  

Step 6:  Using the nail or a rounded pair of pliers, bring the first layer of petals up and round them to make the center of the flower

3.  For the next layer(s), bring every other petal to the top and round the edges using the nail or pliers, then round the remaining layers as well and you should be done!

Here are some of the decorations I have created with the soda can roses:

A banner created using the bottoms of larger bedsprings with a rose in every other small spring. 

I attached some roses to this bedspring wreath and painted the whole thing white.  If you do not like the look of the soda cans this method is wonderful b/c you would never know they were soda cans!

Upcycled Lace Tablecloth Hearts &heart;

I am still working with my huge lace tablecloth, but I have been creating so many cute things I just wanted to share more.  Last week I created some great rustic lace hearts.  

To make this, the first step is to create a small wire frame to stretch the lace around.  I used some old fence wire, but you could use coat hanger or whatever you have handy.   Cut a square of lace or whatever you want to stiffen around the wire shape, just a big enough to wrap around the wire shape.   Have a square of parchment paper ready to put it on.  

 Put the square in the glue/water mixture, used in the Lace Basket tutorial (glue with a little water)

Ring out the square place it on the parchment paper, then place the wire shape on top of it and stretch the lace around it. 

Wait for it to try then peel it apart a little to get the frame out, it should still hold its shape, if you want you can trim the back up a little bit too.  I ran a piece of twine through a hole in it to create the above decoration.    I also made another curly corned basket. 

After making a couple hearts and 2 baskets, I still have all this tablecloth left, so I think I'm going to make a rustic lace heart garland :).

Flea Market Finds: Primitive, Rustic Strainer

On another visit to North Country Neighbors I found some more great finds and things for upcycling, but one of my happiest finds was an antique strainer for $5.  I'm using it as a bowl on my coffee table, I put a bunch of springs that I have for future projects around it and put a jar candle in the center.  It has a great rustic vibe, and I just love the springs :). At least they don't have to be stored in a drawer until I find a use for them!

Happy Friday! Time in a Bottle Charm Necklace and an Upcycled Angel

I have found lately that I have a real love for mechanical looking things, gears, springs, pulleys etc.  I decided to take apart a broken watch to check out the insides, you can buy neat watch movements on Etsy, but why buy when most people have a broken watch kicking around.  It took some doing, but I got the back off and loved what I found inside.  I decided to put it together into a charm necklace since I love them too.  I added a watchmaker's bottle I had and a few smaller lockets I also had to a chunky antique brass chain.  I think it is really cute.

I have to share this quote again b/c I think it describes my first soldering project wonderfully:

“The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person." - Frank Barron

I am not sure I like this, but there is something interesting about it.  I figured I should share it anyway.  I think with more work it could be cute, right now it's too simple.  Basically it is made of  a bedspring I cut the top off, I soldered together smaller springs to make the wings and used the top of a spoon I flattened for a head (I had left over from my first spoon ring project to be shared next week).  I think if I made the wings bigger, by layering more small springs it would look cuter, and lose the spoon?!?!  All I can say is it is definitely interesting ....... :)

 Happy Weekend :)

Upcycled Lace Tablecloth Basket - Failure and Success!

I got this old lace tablecloth from the North Country Neighbors Flea Market for $5.00 b/c it has a small stain on it.  It was not worth throwing out this huge tablecloth for a small little stain.  So I wanted to try making a basket out of it.  

I found somewhere on the internet that a good replacement for fabric starch/stiffener was 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to 1 cup of water.  That is a big FAIL it did not stiffen the fabric at all.  So I went to the old standby of mostly glue (I used Aleene's Tacky Glue, but I'm going to try Elmer's next time its cheaper) with a little bit of water and mixed it until it was well combined.   I dunked my round piece of the tablecloth into the glue mixture and stirred it around a little and then layed it over and upside down bowl to give it shape.  Make sure you place wax paper or parchment paper underneath b/c it will drip a little bit.  As it dries you may want to adjust it so that it ends up in the proper shape. It took overnight and the next day to dry but I think it turned out lovely.

It is now on the coffee table in our living room and I have but the hearts I crochet in it.  I will be trying other projects with whats left of the tablecloth!

Playing with Springs :)

I have cold, so I am not really creating anything to great until it eases up a bit, but I did work with some bedsprings last night and created several new round wreath sizes.

20 spring wreath - 25 inch diameter

6 spring wreath - 10 inch diameter

15 spring wreath - 20 inch diameter

Side View - 15 spring wreath - 20 inch diameter

The only hard part is once you get over 10 springs the wreaths start to lose their shape due to the weight and have to be individually coiled together, which is really rough on the hands (I have more than one cut on my fingers today) but the results are worth it!  It's sad when you have to get a tetanus shot just to do your crafts!

Upcycled Letterpress Drawer Jewelry Organizer

I found several of these in my travels on Etsy and already had a letterpress drawer at home that was not being used for anything so I decided to try it myself.  It is a really great way to store jewelry so you can see all of it.   I wanted to dress mine up a bit more than the ones on Etsy so I added rectangles of 2 different patterned letterpress paper in some of the spaces.

I used 2-sided tape to put the paper on b/c I didn't want to ruin the drawer by using glue.  To hang the jewelry I took really small nails and hammered them into the open spaces, some of the bigger spaces have 2 nails.  All in all i think it is a great piece for the bedroom if you have room on a wall and also allows you to see all the jewelry without having to dig through a jewelry box!  Happy Monday!

Flea Market Find: Upcycled Door Headboard

Remember the old wood door I got for $5 at the antique shop?  Well I finally have it almost finished.  After having to use Formsby's Paint and Poly Remover on it twice and having the BF pressure wash it, most of the 3 layers of paint finally came off.  And then it just had to be sanded to get the green hue out of the wood.  The pictures below are with one coat of cherry stain.  There is still some work to be done in corners and what not, but I am very happy with how it turned out. 

As you can see it still needs some sanding on the ends as well as in the panels, but I think the panels will have to wait until I get my Dremel Rotary tool for Christmas, until then I will hang it up as is, which I am still figuring that part out!  Now all I need to find is an old door knob and some skeleton keys to complete the look!

♥ Upcycled Vintage Jewelry ♥

Remember the rhinestone jewelry I got at the flea market awhile back?  I finally created something out of it.  I have a wedding to attend this weekend and needed a little bling.  Big chunky rhinestone jewelry seems to be making a comeback, so what better than to find some old vintage jewelry and re-use it. 

So I created the rosette headband, using an old headband I had hanging around as well as some satin and some black netting.  I used the vintage earrings, just took the backs off them and hot glued them to the headband.  I didn't have the heart to tear them apart and they look very nice whole.  So total cost of the headband was $3.

I also created an elastic ruffled bracelet out of the brooch, again out of scraps, I am not sure how crazy I am about this but we'll see if I actually wear it.  The cost of the bracelet was $3.  

Lastly since it is only going to be in the 30s this weekend.  I made this ruffled scarf out of velvet and satin.  It is so soft and very luxurious looking and will definitely help keep me warm!  Have a good weekend everyone, I know I will!

A True Upcycling Artist: Paul Villinksi

I found Paul Villinksi's art through Gossip Girl.  If any of you watch Gossip Girl, the butterfly wall art in Serena's bedroom that Blair setup for her is by Paul Villinksi.

Picture from CW

The butterflies above were created out of recycled cans.

Check out his other creations at http://www.paulvillinski.com/artwork/beercan.html.