Headband Organizer

I had like 16 headbands just stuffed behind our mirror in the bathroom and it was starting to drive both me and my husband crazy! Every time you opened the mirror to get a toothbrush, lotion, comb, etc., a few headbands would fall out. So I decided to do something about it!

Materials:
~ Old silverware box (the one they come in from the store)
~ Scrap fabric
~ Hot Glue Gun

We had two sets of the same silverware and they were still each in their own boxes. I decided to combine them into one box and put the other into good use. So I took the top section where they'll kind of "showcase" what the silverware looks like and cut out some scrap fabric to go on top of it. I tacked down the fabric with my hot glue gun and it made a nice place for me to keep my headbands! Now they're neatly placed in my drawer, they don't fall out of the medicine cabinet, and there's cute fabric behind them! :) You can use any sort of box, just make sure it's shallow. If you get a deep box it will be more likely to become a new place of chaos. Shallow boxes are easier to keep organized. While doing this project I went through all my headbands and realized that I really only wear 5 or 6. So I threw the rest away! I love getting rid of things! It makes me so happy to get rid of clutter! Anyway, here are the pictures...

The old silverware box

My dang cute scrap fabric! Don't you love it? I made an apron out of this

Hurray! A neat, organized, cute headband organizer!

Total Cost:
~ Old silverware box: $0.00
~ Scrap fabric: $0.00

Headband Organizer: Total Cost ~ $0.00!! FREE!

Magazine Rack

One of the things that really bothered me about our old apartment was that we didn't have anywhere to put our magazines. Each month they just got harder and harder to keep organized because they just sat on our entertainment center without anything to keep them looking nice. I finally found a solution! And the best news of all is that it was totally FREE!

My husband and I got a pizza stone for our wedding (which I absolute LOVE by the way!) and it came with a cooling rack. I did use it, but honestly it's kind of a pain; hot pads are much easier! And since I'm working on not cluttering my kitchen I was deciding what to do with it when we moved into our new place. I had the fabulous idea of stacking my magazines on it and then sliding it under my entertainment center. It slides very easily and now the magazines have something to keep them organized and neat. Hurray!

Materials:
~magazines that need organizing
~old pizza stone cooling rack

Stacks of unorganized magazines did not make me a very happy person--clutter really stresses me out.
This pizza stone rack wasn't any good in the kitchen, so why not make it useful somewhere else?!

Ta-da! A neat, organized stack of magazines :)

Cost:
~ old magazines that badly need to be organized $0.00
~ old pizza stone cooling rack $0.00

Magazine Rack: Total Cost~ 0.00!!

Awesome Quote

I just got an email from one of my best friends and she had this quote on the bottom that is just awesome so I thought I'd share with all of you! Here it is...

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

~William Morris

That's hopefully what I'll be accomplishing with this blog. Why would you have something in your house without it being useful and/or beautiful? I mean, I know that life gets busy and things get cluttered, my house definitely gets like that. But I hope that through this project I can get to a point where the things in my home (at least for the most part) are either useful or beautiful. And hey, who says useful things have to be ugly? Let's beautify!

A New Month!

Tomorrow is February 1st which means I get to go spend money again! Hurray! I had 85 cents left from January so I have 10.85 to spend :) I have some new ideas and am so excited to get started! I have some pillows that I want to recover, pictures I want to resize, a bulletin board I want to make and then your average pictures to hang up.

I found an awesome site yesterday that has some way cute crafts on it! You should all check it out

here

Look at her pillows and her adorable shoes! I didn't even know making shoes was an option! I love people who can totally think outside the box!

Well...let's see what February brings :)

Feather and Candle Block Frames

Haha, sorry I don't have cool names for any of these! This one was so much fun though! I found these block frame things at DI and knew they'd make a great craft. So I bought them and went to Hobby Lobby to figure out what to put inside!

Materials:

~2 block frames (do these have an official name?)

~2 feather flowers (again--do these have an official name?)

~candles

~paint

~paintbrush

I wanted to paint these block frames brown but I only had $1.36 left in my budget so I bought some paint for 71 cents and then used a sponge as my paint brush! It actually ended up making it look kind of like a stain which was cool. The original color was pretty, it just had some dings and I wanted it a little darker to match my room better. I think the sponged on paint worked quite nicely :) Next I cut the stems off the feather flowers so they would fit inside the block frames and I even had to trim one to fit inside the smaller frame. The candles I bought were the perfect size but they came in way ugly aluminum covers. So I took them out and threw the cheap aluminum covers away! I decided though, that without the wick (which came out with the aluminum), the candles looked like small bars of soap. I needed to somehow replace the wick. So I cut up the stem that I had taken off the feather flowers and stuck them in the middle for my homemade wicks :) All I had left to do was drill everything in place! So I got my husband's drill bits and started making the holes. I stuck everything in and voila! Beautiful new frames to put on my walls! What do you think?

Don't they look SOO much better painted?!

That cheap aluminum HAD to go!

Aren't they absolutely beautiful! I LOVE them! I hope I'm not bragging, I'm just so excited they turned out so well!!

Cost:

Block frames: $2.00 for large, $1.50 for small

Feather Flowers: $2.12

Candles: $0.77

Paint: $0.71

Feather and Candle Block Frames ~ Total Cost: $7.10

Composition Notebook Journal

Some of you may have seen this craft before. I learned it from my mother-in-law who did it at a church event. It ends up looking really cool! It's a great, cheap present.

Materials:
Composition Notebook (any color, it will all be covered up anyway)
Scrapbook paper
-two pieces 12 in x 6 in each
-one piece 4 in x 6 in
-two pieces 9 in x 7 in each
Ribbon or slim piece of paper
Pre-cut letters (or you could use markers or something to write the name if you wanted)
Glue-stick (this takes anywhere from 1/2 stick to a full stick)

(FYI: This will look better if your 12 x 6 pieces are different than your 4 x 6 piece. The 12 x 6 pieces are your front and back covers and your 4 x 6 piece is your spine). Take the composition notebook and both of the 12 x 6 pieces of scrapbook paper. Line them up so that you have about 1/2 inch or so hanging off the side. You will be folding this onto the inside of the cover. Place the papers so they line up front to back. Glue them onto the front and back covers. Open the notebook and fold the corner of the paper in followed by the top bottom and side edges. Glue it in place. Do this for both the front and back covers. (You may need to let it dry before going on.) Now take the 4 x 6 piece and line it up so that it's even in the front and back. Cut small indentations on the top and bottom so that you can fold the extra paper up inside the front and back covers. Glue this paper in place. You will be left with a small gap between the 4 x 6 piece and the 12 x 6 pieces. This is where you will either glue your ribbon or slim piece of paper. Open the notebook and glue a 9 x 7 piece inside each cover so that you can't see the folded over parts of the paper. Now glue the letters (or write) anywhere you want. Place the book under something heavy while it dries and sets. You are done :)





Here is a picture of the indentation you should cut so that you can fold the "spine" up inside the covers. Sorry it's blurry.

Here's the 9 x 7 piece in place. Now you can't see all the folds that I made before. It looks a lot more professional now.
Cost:
Composition Notebook: $1
Scrapbook paper: I got these from my mother-in-law so they were free for me
Ribbon: same--from my mother-in-law
Letters: same--from my mother-in-law
(none of these things are very expensive at your local craft store)

Composition Notebook Journal: Total Cost ~ $1.00