DIY Christmas Ornaments

I store our Christmas ornaments in one of those divided ornament protecting boxes. It turns out it will protect them as long as they don’t fall from a tower of boxes five feet off the ground. Eek! Sooo… I broke the majority of our glass ornaments shortly before we moved when they fell off a tower of storage boxes. Now I’ve got to make some ornaments!

I found these whimsical wooden “frames” at Michael’s ages ago on clearance. I had no idea what I’d do with them at the time but they were around 30 cents each so I couldn’t resist. Using some recycled ribbon from my baby shower and some photos of my favorite guy, I turned these frames into cute ornaments in just minutes.

These were plain wood. I painted them Silver.

Sorry for the grainy pictures. I miss my camera. 😦

I used my heavy duty stapler to staple the photos to the back. Easy Peasy!

I think these turned out pretty darn cute! An idea like this would make great gift tags as well! Personalize presents by making ornaments to use as tags instead of purchasing those sticker labels and such!

Last Minute Thanksgiving Decor

Check out this FREE E-Book with 30 DIY Thanksgiving crafts from Fave Crafts. Print it out or print only the crafts you want to try. Several can be accomplished using supplies you already have!

Redesign some of those boring white dishes with some glass paint and creativity! If you don’t have any, think about picking up some inexpensive ones at a yard sale. You could create some as beautiful as these:

Use toilet paper/paper towel rolls and felt to create cute napkin rings like these:

Use old holiday cards to create a collage with the kids. (Christmas or Thanksgiving) Glue them onto poster board and cut to place mat size. Laminate, and you have your own custom, festive holiday placemats! Think about using photos, decopauge papers, and recycled mail as well!

Disney Family Fun has DIY crafts and printables.  I love these doilies:

And these adorable turkey chair covers:

Laurie at Tip Junkie has also compiled 16 frugal ideas for you here.

 

Inspired Gifts Review and Giveaway

Personalized Photo posters make one-of-a-kind artwork!

Who doesn’t love photo gifts? Personalized photo gifts are one of the best way to preserve memories! I love to give photo gifts and create personalized photo books of Brayden. I am definitely an addicted Scrapbooker, but sometimes I like to create phtobooks for a cleaner looking memory. We recently took a trip to Georgia in which I found the best way to preserve all the photos was with a photobook. Not only is it cheaper to print the photobook, but I can include 100’s of pictures in a small, convenient hard back book that would be easy to put in a diaperbag or purse.

Inspired Gifts  offers many eco-friendly options for photo gifts that I didn’t realize existed! I typically purchase from another well known site that doesn’t offer eco-friendly options. I’m excited to have found Inspired Gifts. Furthermore, I’m really excited to share FIVE FREE photo posters with my readers! I was able to create a few of my own. The process was quick and easy and there are several different styles of posters. I used just one picture for each, but you do have the option to tile, add a border, etc. My suggestion: use a high resolution, large image. The clarity wasn’t the best on these prints, but that was because of the pictures that I used.  Below is one of the prints. It’s actually a picture of a picture that is inspiration from one of my favorite artists. It’s displayed to inspire me with color.

Turn favorite pictures into personalized posters for a dorm room, kid’s bedroom or cubicle. Photo posters are also great decorations for birthday parties or for advertising a yard sale or community event.

Make a Photo Poster

• Choose from a variety of backgrounds.
• Add your own text to make personalized posters.
• Our photo posters are printed on glossy, premium paper stock.

All Inspired Gifts press-printed photo books, calendars, cards and Earthtru™ Prints are produced by a Kodak NexPress.

Recyclable

Our Earthtru recyclable photo prints can be ordered on paper that is composed partially of recycled material. Even some elements of the NexPress are made from reclaimed materials and designed for future remanufacturing. Dry inks used by the press are packaged in recyclable containers, and printed sheets generated by it can easily be de-inked.

Chemical Free and Cleaner

Nontoxic dry inks used by the NexPress eliminate the use and production of harmful compounds during printing, cleanup or disposal of the inks. Worried about volatile organic compounds (VOCs)? You don’t have to be with these prints. The press produces virtually no emissions. Even the high-gloss finish is nontoxic and easily removed for recycling.

Pop Art - Andy Warhol Style!

Less Wasteful

Print-on-demand technology eliminates the need for the plates that must be switched for each job on a traditional press. Because the NexPress does not use plates, operators can easily and quickly switch from one print job to the next. Small quantities that would never have been practical or economical in the past now make sense. Customers can avoid placing unnecessarily large orders only to find themselves discarding pallets of brochures or other printed pieces that were never used for one reason or another. Accurate registration and reliable paper handling ensure less wasted paper and decreased consumption of natural resources.

Other eco-friendly options?

Playing cards for your Poker player…

Greeting Cards for all ocassions

WIN IT!

FIVE readers will get to design their own photo poster!

Mandatory Entries: Visit Inspired Gifts  and tell me what product you would like to personalize.

Each entry must be a separate comment! (Only one entry will be counted if you do not leave each completed entry in a separate comment.)

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RULES: Open to U.S. Residents. Giveaway Ends September 30th, 2010 at 11:59 pm EST.

The winner will be selected using Random.org. You will have 24 hours to respond. If no response prize will be forfeited and a new winner selected.

I received this product free of charge and all opinions expressed are my own.

Fabric Scraps Thursday

I have an ever growing abundance of scraps from various DIY projects. I can’t seem to part with anything. Need some ideas for what to do with those scraps? Here are my Thursday projects:

A throw pillow cover, a t-shirt pocket, & a reusable swiffer dry cloth

I fell in love with a funky pocket tee, but I don’t see it necessary to pay $26 for a basic tee when I just got some great finds from Freecycle. I took one of the plain striped tees and an extra piece of flannel. I created a pocket from scraps and sewed it on. Now I have a new pocketed tee for the grand price of FREE.

A reusable swiffer cloth is simple. For this, I used a leftover piece of flannel. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. You can see that I left some obvious rough edges. Measure your Swiffer/dry duster for dimensions and cut your flannel (if needed) and leave approximately 2 extra inches to the sides for your “pockets.” Fold and sew your pockets. Slip the piece over the Swiffer and start cleaning.

A DIY camera/accessory pocket:

I have small strips of this great fabric and wanted something cute to put my camera in. I measured my camera and a sewed a pocket to slip the camera in.

I sewed a loop with a small piece of felt to add a caribener clip.

You can use a zipper closure, velcro, or snaps if you have a snap press. I have snap pliers and added a snap for easy access.

I love clips! I use one for my keys and this handy pouch can be used in several different ways. Clip one on to keep up with a pacifier, cellphone, or eyeglasses.

*Note: For extra protection, sew some plastic on the inside of the pouch for waterproof protection if you’re using the bag for a camera. For timesaving purposes, I didn’t do that this time.

Happy Sewing!

Mixed Media Art

I’m obsessed with Mixed Media Art… scrap jackets, shoes, prints, jewelry, etc, etc.

Well…….. I found the perfect print for our Master bed. wall…

I’m so excited! I can’t wait to get it! It’s by Harmony at Creative Therapy.  Check her out and stay tuned for how it turns out!

The Master Plan

The Master Bedroom is coming along…

Two awesome nightstands from Craigslist for a steal and not an eco-friendly buy of some lamps from Target, and I am more sure of my choices. I could resist the lamps. I’ve been on a hard lookout for something that fit my taste at a yard sale or one of the thrift shops, but I can never find  a matching pair (or a pair that un-matches perfectly). I had to compromise. Lamps really do make a room feel more warm and inviting. I’ve been otherwise avoiding the Master bedroom because it was so bare and bland.  Sooo…. thank you Target for your back-to-school deals. My $16 lamps are quite cute and give off a lot of light!

My throw pillows in all my complementary fabrics are still in the sewing process and my pillowcases aren’t finished either. I’m in the process of getting some fabulous eco-friendly poster prints from Inspired Gifts. Stay tuned for how those turn out. I’m excited to get some eco-friendly art on the walls. ALSO, Inspired Gifts is sponsoring a big giveaway! Definitely stay tuned to get your own eco-friendly poster prints!

Rooms

To give you guys and update on the home rennovations…

Here are some of the completed rooms:

Brayden’s room –

 

Hand-dyed breathable bumper and sheets. My custom valances and the emphamus wall art.

Brayden’s BEAUTIFUL armoire. Probably my favorite piece in the whole house.

This is a mess at the moment, but I love Brayden’s room. It’s a mixture of repainted and custom sewn pieces. I love all the animals as well. I think it’s fun. Lots of recycled items and the Freshaire paint colors are awesome.

The completed dining room thanks to Harmony at Harmony Art. To see the before and after of my dining room makeover, visit this  post. PS – Yes, that is paper shreads in the centerpiece.

Another Harmony Art creation:

I have to give thanks to Harmony again for this amazing organic fabric. I created the valence for our master bath using her organic cotton. The picture in the background is Schimmel Art from this post. The walls haven’t been painted at all and are quite rough. I worked backwards on both bathrooms with picking my accessories before choosing paint colors. I can’t make up my mind so they are both white at the moment. I hand-dyed towels to work in my master bath as well.

There will be more to come!

Wallart or DIY headboard

Inspired by a design at Fave Crafts, I created wall art to act as a headboard in our Master Bedroom using foam board and fabric. It took less than 30 minutes and I love the results!

I purchased four of these at around $2.50 each. (I only used 3, but it gave me an extra for mistakes)

I cut into panels using a fingertip knife

I wrapped and stapled my fabric and added these brackets to hang them by. These are so incredibly lightweight that you can use just about anything to attach them. I wanted them to be easily removable as I tend to move things around a lot so I added these and then used painter’s tape to keep them in place.

The end result?

Ignore the fact that the bedding doesn’t match. I do have bedding that matches and you see a hint of the fabric that will be curtains at the bottom. The Master is still a work in progress.

Overall, this project cost me roughly $15.00 to complete with the cost of fabric ($2 per yard) and foam board. It was really simple to do!

– Happy Decorating!

Coupon Alert!

For all you EcoMom fans, EcoMom is offering a 15% off discount to Journey to “Green” readers! Simply copy and paste the following code  to receive 15% off any purchase at checkout:

SB004740

EcoMom  features a daily deal for extra savings, and right now they are offering a chance to win a $200 shopping spree!

Visit EcoMom for lots of great savings on eco-friendly products! Everything from apparel – food – health and beauty products.

Yard Sales – shop ’em!

Yard sales are a great place to find unbelievable deals! You will find clothes a lot of times for no more than $1 a piece. Bedding for next to nothing, fabrics, home decor, furniture, etc. etc. Yard sales are cheaper to shop than even the thrift stores! The only catch is that you will have to be an early bird to catch the best deals! Yard sales can start at 6 or 7 am and usually end by lunch time.

Tips for yard saling:

Leave the designer bags and wallets AT HOME! Let’s be real….. if you’re carrying a Coach purse, people are going to assume that you’ve got money. If you want to be able to bargain and haggle, don’t expect to be taken seriously when you’re carrying a $200 purse. That being said, ditch the purse all together and come packed with small bills and reusable bags. Leave the larger bills tucked away if you’re trying to haggle for a cheaper price. If an item is marked $15 and you want it for $10, don’t show them a $20 bill!

A yard saler’s best friend:

The Yard Sale Treasure Map  is an AMAZING site! It logs all the yard sales from Craigslist into one site. You input your address and see all the yard sales in your area. You can select the radius in miles and even pick yard sales based on what items you are looking for. It will search them for you! When you’re done, you can print out a map of yard sales and it gives you step by step directions from one to the other including a description of what’s at each sale! It’s FANTASTIC! If you take the time to do this the night before, it will save you time and hopefully point you towards the best deals!

If you’re skeptical, let me show you what $23 and two hours of hunting can find:

A vintage Hungry Jack pancake tin and a brand new roll of baby drawer liner (perfect for his old dresser that needs liner)

Fabric. A handquilted piece that will make great pillows, cute pants for B, or whatever else! I’m really excited about these two faux furs. They are PERFECT photo props! For my husband the photographer, these 50 cent fabrics will wield some great pictures of B I think.

Two brand new pairs of flats with not a scratch on them. ($6)

17 Women’s tops (name brands!) for me and my sister-in-law, 1 pair of jeans, 1 short, 1 skirt, 3 dresses (2 NWT), 1 yoga pant.

6 tops for B, 1 hoodie, and 1 pair of pants…

A new mobile for B with animals on it:

My favorite purchase was a $2 bumper set made of chenille and cloth. It’s white, yellow, green and blue and matches perfectly with his room.

Other finds: A new three ring binder for school, 2 free reusable bags, and a coupon for a free burger from Hardees.

Love yard sales yet? Happy shopping!