Upcycled Plastic Jar

My friend Shelly, who is a 10th grade English teacher at the school where I work, has a clear plastic jar that she uses for her "Weekly Wisdom" project in her classes each Friday. A while back she brought the jar to the library during the week that she and her classes were were doing research and I asked her if I could decorate her jar because, well, it was just so darn plain - LOL! Shelly, (who is an AMAZING teacher and one of the absolute nicest ladies that you will ever meet!), was happy to let me borrow her jar this past weekend to work some magic on it! Above is a photo of the finished project, but below is a photo of the "Plain Jane" jar and information on how I transformed it.

See...it started out as just a plain 'ole plastic jar that cookies came in:

I started out by removing the cookie label and then attaching a strip of torn denim around the jar using spray adhesive:

I then proceeded to add a layer of burlap, some lace and a torn strip of gingham. I used another strip of the torn gingham to decorate the rim of the jar, attaching it securely to the rim using Mod Podge. I stitched up a felt flower and attached it and some buttons to the front of the jar. Lastly, I tied on a tag which has a quote by Longfellow that reads: "The secret of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well and doing well whatever you do." Here is another look at the finished jar...I'm really pleased at how it turned out! I am giving it back to Shelly today, and I hope she likes it too!

I am entering this project in Scrap-It-Girl's February Challenge, which is to use fabric in a crafty creation. I think that my upcycled jar fits the bill nicely, since I used denim, burlap, lace, gingham and felt! LOTS of fabric types in this crafty creation!!

On a final note, in case you didn't know, this week is Random Acts of Kindness Week. Below you'll find a link to the RAK website, which gives lots and lots of simple ideas on how to spread a little kindness everyday to help make the world a better place. I hope you'll take a moment to check out the RAK website, and that you'll take their ideas/suggestions to heart to spread a little kindness this week!

 

Wishing you a blessed week!

Scrap-It-Girl's December Challenge: Tick Tock...Let's See a Clock!

Happy Monday, Friends! This month's challenge over at Scrap-It-Girl is to create a project with a clock. You can use an actual clock, a photo of a clock, paper with clocks, clock charms...you get the idea!

The winner of this month's challenge will receive this fun prize package:

Contents of this package include the following items:

• Cosmo Cricket 8×8 Art Angel paper pad; matching element deck and chip board stickers
• Mini chip board flower book
• Snow flake grommets
• Scrap perfect glue
• Twine
• Buttons
• Tickets
• Webster’s Pages trim and mini petals
• Tim Holtz mask

The challenge is open through December 31st, and you can link up your project HERE. I can hardly wait to see your terrific clock projects!!

 

Have a great week!!

Scrap-It-Girl November Challenge: Use a Tree in Your Project

Hello, friends! Don't miss the opportunity to win this TERRIFIC prize package over at Scrap-It-Girl's website! Here's an itemized list of what the prize package contains:

• 6×6 Carta Bella Merry and Bright paper pad
• CTMH acrylic fall stamp set
• Heidi Swapp Color Magic Note Cards
• Heidi Swapp Color Shine Tinsel Spritz
• Ducktape
• Craft Buttons
• The Rubber Cafe Sheer Glue
• Set of cards/envelopes
• Cosmo Cricket Art Angel Element Deck
• American Crafts Tags
• Queen and Co. Twine
• Black Clothes Pins
• Ink Daubers
• Stars
• Blank Tags
• Photo frames

All you have to do to be eligible to win this spectacular prize package is create a project using a tree, (diecut, photo, stickers, etc.); link your challenge photo(s) to the Scrap-It-Girl website; post it on your site, and share the love…tell your other crafty friends about our new challenge. Click HERE for challenge details and don’t forget to subscribe to the Scrap-It-Girl site and to the SIG Facebook page too.

Good luck!! I can hardly wait to see the great projects you create and link up!

Happy Scrappin'!!

Washer Button Brooch Tutorial/Scrap-It-Girl October Challenge

This month's challenge over at Scrap-It-Girl is to use at least 12 buttons on a project, so I decided to make a button brooch using a metal washer as the base. Here's how I made it:

Begin with a metal washer that you can purchase at any hardware or home improvement store; several buttons, a pin back, some charms and liquid adhesive of your choice. (I like/used Liquid Fusion, which I purchased at Hobby Lobby.)

Apply a dab of adhesive to each button and attach to the washer base. Once the first layer of buttons has been attached, stack/adhere additional buttons to the first layer to cover any gaps where the metal from the washer is showing:

Once I got all of the buttons glued onto the washer, I decided that a few charms would look nice, so I attached those using Liquid Fusion as well:

Once the front of the brooch dries, flip it over and glue on the pin back, and allow to completely dry:

For a different look, a ribbon can be tied to the pin back to turn the brooch into a pendant for a necklace. Here's another photo of the completed brooch...I love the way it looks with my fall scarves and jackets:

Now for a sneak peek at another button project that I whipped up...I'll share the tutorial next week on how I made this fun bracelet:

Hop on over to Scrap-It-Girl for all of the details for this month's "Button Challenge", and while you're there why not enter a project or two? Here is a photo and list of the terrific prize package, donated by my fellow S-I-G design team member Dawn Lineberry, which will be given away to the button challenge winner:

Tim Holtz Alterations Die Elegant Flourishes
EK Success Thank You Stamp Set (six wood mounted stamps)
Recollections Autumn Brads (112 pieces)
Colorbox Pigment Cats Eye Ink (Rich Rustics 6 inks)
Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink (chocolate and blueberries 6 inks)
Making Memories Metal Label Holders (6 holders)
Heidi Swapp Clear Stamp (family)
Cloud 9 Designs Epoxy Brads (15 brads)
Cloud 9 Designs Epoxy Stickers (10 stickers)
Stampin Up Buttons 6 (2 each yellow, brown, orange)
Stampin Up Ribbon 4 yards (1 yard each of tangerine tango, old olive, chocolate chip stripe, chocolate chip solid)

Have a SUPER week, friends!

September Scrap-It-Girl Challenge

Do you remember back in July when I shared with you a photo of an old cabinet door with windows that I purchased at a thrift store for $10.00? Well, here's what I ended up creating with it...a wall display to commemorate the 25th wedding anniversary that my hubby and I celebrated in July:

If you remember, here is what the cabinet door started out looking like:

I began by cutting out corrugated cardboard to fit in the window panes, and then covered the cardboard with burlap:

I then placed one of our wedding invitations in the first window pane:

In the second window pane, I recycled an embossed heart that was originally the cover of a wedding invitation that Mike and I received a while back. I covered the front of the heart with pearl paint, so it would match the pearly looking embossed doves on our wedding invitation. I then cut slits in the heart for the ribbon and felt arrow to go through, added a "Love" sticker and stickers to say "25 Years":

The third window pane has two felt birds on a branch, as well as a quote sticker that I attached to white cardstock before mounting to the burlap. I purchased the felt birds and quote sticker from Hobby Lobby, as well as the wooden letter "B". I covered the "B" with red swirly paper; sanding and inking the edges to give it an aged look. The flower is made with deconstructed silk flowers/leaves, a button and some twine. The "B" worked perfectly to cover the unsightly hole left from the original cabinet knob:

In the fourth and final window pane, I added a photo of Mike and I on our anniversary. I mounted the photo on white cardstock before attaching it to the burlap. I found the black felt scroll at Hobby Lobby, and it worked perfectly as a topper for our photo:

How's that for a "Trash-to-Treasure" project? My project is displayed over at Scrap-It-Girl for the September Recipe Challenge. Now, you may be wondering, "What on earth is a recipe challenge?" Well...it's where you have to use a set of specific craft ingredients to create a project. This recipe required using twine, arrows, circles, birds and the color red; and here is how I applied those ingredients to my project:

• Twine: used in the button on the flower center on the letter "B"
• Arrow: used in the center of the embossed heart
• Circle: the button used as the flower center on the letter "B"
• Birds: the felt birds on a branch in window pane 3
• Red: the paper chosen for the letter "B" 

Why not try your hand at creating a project using this recipe? You can enter up to 2 projects in this fun Scrap-It-Girl challenge during the month of September to be eligible to win this FANTASTIC prize package:

The prize package is being given away by my fellow Design Team Member, Laura Cox from Scrapaddict {4} Life, and includes the following products:

•  Making Memories Halloween foam stamp set
• Inkadinkado acrylic Halloween stamp set
• Making Memories Paper Reverie bling and brad set
• Halloween Stickles set with Purple/Orange Peel/Black Diamond colors
• Really Reasonable Ribbon pumpkin and bat border ribbons
• Orange and black jute string
• Black & orange Halloween twine
• A huge piece of black burlap

I hope you will enter a project or two in the challenge...I look forward to seeing your great crafty creations!

Wishing you a fun and safe Labor Day weekend!

Friendship Beyond Measure...

Happy Monday! I just wanted to post a quick reminder about the Scrap-It-Girl Challenge for this month...simply use numbers in your project and link it HERE to be eligible for the awesome prize, which is shown in my sidebar on the right. Pictured above is a little gift that I made this weekend for my best bud Jamie. As you can see, there are numbers on the little ruler at the top of the tag that reads Friendship Beyond Measure. (Jamie and I dubbed our summer break "The Summer of Jamie and Becky", since it was the first time that we were both off on break at the same time!)

Just for fun, I thought I'd share the photo below of my little dog Tony giving me a hand yesterday afternoon while I was sorting some scrapbook paper...isn't he so helpful??? Hee! Hee! ;)

Have a TERRIFIC week!!

Scrap-It-Girl's August Challenge: Use Numbers in Your Project

WOW! Is it just me, or did the month of July fly by??? A new month brings a new challenge from Scrap-It-Girl, which is to use numbers on a project. Your project can be cards, scrapbook layouts, altered art, etc. - as long as it has a number on it, it qualifies! Click HERE for all the details and to link up your project(s).

The samples that I submitted are shown below. The first project is the card that I made for my hubby for our 25th wedding anniversary:

The second project is a scrapbook layout that I made to commemmorate when I turned 40...which was 5 years ago - LOL!

I'd love to see some of your number projects linked up the the challenge at Scrap-It-Girl! Here's the prize package that will be given away to the person whose project receives the most votes from the design team:

• 3 yards of trims
• Embellie Gellie
• American Crafts Stamp set
• Webster’s Pages Florettes
• Pink Paislee Rhinesone Chains
• Tags
• Journal Sheets
• Word Tickets
• Twine
• Pink Paislee black #’s
• Assortment of wood #’s
• Ribbon Sliders
• Arrow clips

Have a SUPER day!

Mini Altered Tin Scrapbook Tutorial and Scrap-It-Girl's July Challenge: "Good Things Come in Small Packages"

WOW! The month of June just flew by, don't you think so too? With a new month comes a new challenge from Scrap-It-Girl; and as a member of her Design Team, I am excited to announce that I am hosting this month's challenge: "Good Things Come in Small Packages". Below are the photos of the project that I created for this challenge...it is a mini altered tin that I turned into a friendship scrapbook for my best bud, Jamie. Inside are a few fun photos of us, as well as little pockets that hold tags with friendship quotes...some of them serious, and some of them just down-right funny! (There is a step-by-step tutorial below so that you can make one of these cuties too!) Here's the first photo, which is a view of the lid:

The next photo is a side view:

And here are a couple of photos of the inside:

Here is a photo and list of the prize package that the winning entry will receive for this month's Scrap-It-Girl Challenge:

*Small square tag board flip album
*Candy tin
*3" x 3" kraft album with jute tie
*1" x 1" CTMH acrylic block
*3 CTMH mini ink pads in Sunflower, Garden Green and Hollyhock
*2 CTMH Petite Perks stamp sets: "Bee Yourself" and "Deck the Halls"
*1 sheet CTMH textured stickers
*1 CTMH Mini-Medley embellishments pack in black
*3 packs of Charmed I'm Sure stainless steel charms: "Camping", "Baby", and
"Harvest"
*1 varity pack of CTMH clear shapes
*1 bobbin of ribbon with "Memories" wording
*3 Tim Holtz clips
*1 pack mini mosaic tiles
*6 yellow vellum metal rimmed tags with yellow twine
*1 pack CTMH Foundry Tabs
*1 pack CTMH decorative metal tokens
*1 pack CTMH metal charms
*1 pack CTMH Blush/Chocolate Embellishments
*1 pack CTMH Tulip/White Daisey Embellishments
*1 pack CTMH Sweet Leaf/Colonial White Embellishments
*1 pack misc. embellishments

I'd LOVE to see what you come up with for this challenge...I'm always on the lookout for inspiration to make fun little crafty projects! The challenge rules are simple: create a project using a small package of some type - you could use tins, boxes, bottles, baskets, cans...whatever creative small package idea you may have!! You can link up to two projects HERE to be entered in this month's challenge...so why not make something and submit a project or two for a chance to win??

Alrighty...here's how I made Jamie's friendship mini tin album:

Begin by tracing around the top and bottom of your tin on a piece of fabric, (I chose denim chambray), and then cut the pieces out:

Put a coat of Mod-Podge on the top and bottom of the tin and place your fabric on top of it. Add a coat of Mod-Podge to the top of the fabric as well, and set tin aside to dry:

While the outside of the tin is drying, you can begin to work on the contents of the inside. Cut a piece of double-sided cardstock to fit the inside of your tin. My cardstock measures 11" long by 4 1/4" wide.

Score the cardstock, (on the long side), in 2" increments. This will leave a 1" tab at the end, which is what you will adhere to the inside back of your tin. Now turn the cardstock lengthwise and make a 3" score line all the way down from the short side. Cut notches from the edge to the short score mark...these flaps will form the pockets in your mini album and look like this:

Embellish your pocket fronts the way you want, and then adhere the sides down to form the pockets where the quote tags will be placed:

Once you've got your pockets embellished/in place, set accordion album aside and return to decorating the outside of your tin. I adhered a piece of twill ribbon to the edge of the bottom part of the tin. Once it dried, I added a narrow piece of red ric-rac on top of that for a little extra detail:

I then cut a piece of ruffled gingham ribbon and adhered it to the top edge of the lid portion of the tin:

Decorate the top of your tin as desired. I created a felt flower, (click HERE for my instructions for the flower), and then cut out fabric leaves as well. I added beads that spelled "friend", which I strung on a piece of knotted jute; and a brass tag that says "best", accenting the tag with coordinating ribbon:

When the top has dried, flip the tin over and use craft glue to attach 4 wooden beads to the bottom of the tin to create "legs":

Once you're tin is completely dry, and the legs are firmly set, you can attach the album to the inside. Begin by accordion folding your mini-album, leaving the 1" tab at the end. Using a strong adhesive, (I used Teriffically Tacky Tape), attach the 1" flap to the inside back of the tin:

Cut a 2 pieces of burlap...one to fit on the inside of the lid, and one for the inside of the bottom, and adhere using liquid glue. The 1" cardstock flap in the back will be covered up by the burlap. Set tin aside to allow the burlap to dry. While this is drying, prepare/cut out photos and print/cut out friendship quotes. (I Googled "friendship quotes" to find the ones that I used.)

That's it! Now your little tin is ready to give away or keep as a gift to yourself!

Have a blessed day!