1st Day of School Photo Sign + Printable

Oh my sweet day....how are you all doing? I am way shocked that it was been 2 months since I posted.  But you can't say I didn't warn you! I wanted to soak up my littles this summer and I did!  Still am, in fact.  We don't start school until September 4th!

But we have been having fun swimming, playing, eating ice cream, splashing in sprinklers, baking days, and lots of memory making.  Sigh.  The end of summer is so bittersweet. Both my girls will be in school so I may cry a lot and bury myself into crafting in my empty house. But I am excited to get back into crafting and living to blog about it.  So here is my first one to kind of get myself back on the grid in blog land:

101 Useful Ideas for Wood Tags...OK. Only 4 Ideas. Maybe...5.

I saw these wood tags at Jo Jo's for .99 and I just had to pick some of them up.  Loved them but was not sure what I would do with them. Yet  I felt chalkboard paint was a simple and fun way to find some uses for them.  Here is what I came up with...

Chalkboard on a ring...Maybe flashcards? Or a fun little thing for kids to travel with and doodle on if they don't eat the chalk.
I also thought this would be a great idea to use as paint swatches for all the paint in your house.  Paint each one a color you have used in a room and put a label on the back with all the paint info like where you bought it, color and id number, etc.

Reusable post it notes!  

Just tack them right through the handy hole onto your bulletin board.

Well duh...basket labels.
I label my baskets.  And everything else.  I would label my forehead if possible.

Re-usable gift tags!  

I would love to get this and then pass it on.  How fun!

I had to show you this photo to illustrate my requirement that all my gifts are like Fort Knox and should be taped to the point that heavy machinery is required to remove the paper.

  

 This was fun but I got another package just itching to be experimented with.
I am thinking pretty blues, whites and greens to match the rest of my house and then go label loony.

What would YOU use them for?

Sorry Folks...No Tips. But I Do Have a Before/After Lamp Makeover

Well, not new. Just updated.This old lamp has traveled many places.  It has seen many things. It was my sisters for who knows how long and then I inherited it when I had my first apartment after college. I bought that lampshade when I first got married and I am really not sure why.  I must have loved it then.  And it has stayed with me because you always need a lamp. But it has begged for some updating. Some oomph.  A lampy light face lift.

And here it is....

 

 

So fun, right? Don't you just heart spray paint?  I love the paint color. Avocado.  And the lampshade is from IKEA.  

This lamp is still hanging in there with a fresh coat of paint and a new shade. I am full of complete glee when I shop my house and find new life for old things.

Two Tips Tuesday: Memo Board with Knob Magnets & DIY Body Scrub

Tip #1: Re-Purposed Mirror turned Magnetic Memo Board with Knob Magnets 

This was a craft rescue that saved this little shelf's life. I have been carting around this mirrored shelf since college.  I have, what I still consider, a mystifying attachment to it.  I have no idea why.  I think I found it at Michael's or some other well known place.  It was not some vintage or antique find.  It was a mirror, framed like a window with a little shelf.  A dime a dozen. But I just love it.


One day our well fed (yet sadly, deceased) cat decided to pull it off the wall and broke the mirror.  I was so sad and hubby said we would replace it.  But it never happened.  I was struck with a stroke of genius (actually, it was a horribly misguided choice of decor and I am really not sure what led to this severely flawed decorating maneuver) but I thought I would cut a shirt and frame it where the mirror was.  Yes.  A shirt. I will wait while you digest this information and hover over the backspace button...

This is my genius at work.  I think I was going for a poorly identifiable shabby chic and I just ended up framing a shirt and putting it on my wall.  For years.  Oh, the horror.

So I decided a much needed upgrade was due.  With a little spray paint, sheet metal, frighteningly strong magnets, and drawer pulls and knobs, I made this...

This turned out looking so fresh and I am excited I will actually be able to use it. 

And it will be shirtless. :) 

If you are interested in how I did it, read on...

First, I took off the hardware before spray painting.  This is me actually putting it back on.  Just keeping it real.

Spay paint it.  Cut sheet metal to size.  I needed to use 2 pieces but had the advantage of having the window part hide the separate pieces.

 Ta Da!

Now on to the knobs...forgive the dark photos.  Did this at night...

I chose some inexpensive knobs and even shopped around my house and found the white ones from an old bench I have.

 I ended up using both the super glue and a glue gun for the magnets.

I first needed to fill this hole where a screw would normally go in this knob.  I hunted through my beads and found two that would work. I used super glue and used a tiny, crystal bead for the center.

I love how it gives the feel of a glass knob.

OK. Here is where my patience wears thin.  

I am not good at watching paint dry or in this case, watching glue dry.  And the superglue needed longer than the 30 seconds it called for.  Also, these super, powerful magnets were scaring the daylights out of me! As in, if they got at least a foot away they would snap together in thin air and I would scream with both girls sleeping. All six of them actually flew and attached to my lamp! Scared 7 years off my life. I kept putting the camera on the floor, petrified they would attach to it and ruin it too. A stressful craft, I tell you.

Another option is to use a glue gun and attach felt circles to the bottom of each knob so it will adhere to the magnet easier and quicker.

Make sure the felt is a smaller circumference than the knob so when it is on the memo board, you can't see it. This worked in a snap.  (But the superglue DID work great.  In like 5 minutes.  Yes,  I am THAT impatient.

 

I am going to have fun shopping for different knobs to add to this.  

I will be linking this project  to:

Get Your Craft On Tuesday

Someday Crafts: Whatever Goes Wednesday

The Thrifty Home: Penny Pinching Party (Wednesday)

 Tip #2:  Yummy Body Scrub (Yes.  You can eat it...if you want to)

Squeeze juice from half a lemon

1 teaspoon of honey

8 tablespoons of brown sugar

This exfoliating scrub was something I found in Cottage Living Magazine about 5 years ago. I love it so much and I actually shared this tip on my very first Two Tips Tuesday EVER. Check it out here.  So I decided to share it again since a lot of you were not visiting me here back then. The recipe that time I adapted for only a few uses since I usually just use it on my face.  The recipe above makes a great body scrub in the shower.  I suggest you test it on small patch of skin before using it in case you are allergic to one of the ingredients.

 Makes a great gift too!

I put the scrub in a washed jelly jar, wrapped it with garden twine (found in the $1 section at Target...yippee!), and attached with printed label and spoon.


Here is how I did the lid wrapped in twine...

Thoroughly wash the lid and grab your trusty glue gun.

Begin to make a spiral circle with your twine.  I did mine to measure the circumference of the white pop top in the middle of the lid.

Once you have your circle formed, hot glue it to the center.  After that just place dabs of hot glue around the outside of the circled twine as you wind it until the whole lid is covered.

Happy Tuesday to all my friends on...

Two Tips Tuesday

I am in MAJOR packing mode.  So this may be my last two tips unless any one of you lovely people will graciously volunteer yourself to guest post for me.  There are a few of you I have in mind to ask for help but I am so busy I don't even think I have time to do that.  So today's tips are born of desperation coupled with a desire to salvage anything even if it is merely to post it here.  None of it is new but may inspire some of you as you embark on Spring Cleaning or an urge to purge!

TIP#1:  Other Uses for a Plastic Placemat

 I had this placemat (bought at Target) for Cati because I found myself scrubbing the table for 5 minutes after one of her many meals turned Frenzied Dining Art. It helped a lot but after cleaning it all the time it was showing some wear and tear.  Not to be one to just throw it away, I figured I could use it for something else. Here are two ways I came up with...

 Mouse Pad

Do you like my retro chic mouse? I so looked for our more current one but I think it broke and we had to go back to this one.  Disregard dusty desk as well.

Coasters

TIP#2:  What to do with Mis-Matched Picture Frames

A lot of these frames are great and I have been trying to figure out which stuff will go in the yard sale, donate, or trash piles.  And pictures frames have always baffled me.  Often, they come as gifts in all shapes, sizes, colors and tastes but the photo is the important part!  But I am always left feeling like I am unsure how to make these  look unified. Other people make it look easy (probably many of you) and it was long time coming for me to finally get it. So I decided to throw some of my frames together and give them some new life.

For me, the key was to not be afraid to work with what I had and just change them.  So a fresh coat of spray paint did just the trick. I think I will carry out the unified theme and just do black and white or sepia toned photos.  I am excited to salvage some picture frames and be able to put them to good use in our new home. Now let me go wrap these up and put them in a box.

Happy Tuesday!