Saturday, May 29, 2021

Treasure Hunting & Thrifting Spring 2021

 

Garage Sale

With Memorial day weekend here in the states, spring is officially coming to a close and
I thought I'd share a quick wrap-up of some of the fabulous finds I've managed to snag this season!

First up - the adorable tiny ceramic houses in the photo above.  At $4 each these were a great buy at one of my local Goodwill thrift stores.  I've had my eye on this exact type of mini house (in plain white) for a couple of years now, but haven't been able to find any at a good price.  I was super excited to see them on a thrift shelf!

Read on for more:


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Disclosure - This post may contain affiliate links.  If a purchase is made through an affiliate link then (at no additional cost to you) I will receive a commission.  You can read more about affiliate links here


Garage Sale
Fisher Price Dollhouse

Another project that has been floating around in my mind is to take dollhouses and transform them into holiday decor.  This one has already been turned into a spooky Halloween house, but you'll have to wait until fall for that post 😉

And what was the price?  Free my friends, totally free!  Husby gave me a call one morning to tell me that a neighbor had a large pile of household goods at the side of their driveway with a nice big 'FREE' sign.  I ran to check it out and found this nice dollhouse for my decorating experiment.

Speaking of decorative houses:
Here is a post where I show you how to make them from foam board,
and here is one with another Halloween house that I did.


Garage Sale
Seek & Find Toy

So this toy is full of tiny plastic pellets and miniature toys.  The point is to slowly turn the tube around trying to find each item from the list on top.  But I saw a jar full of faux sprinkles for my fake bake crafting 😄  For $2 at the thrift store I brought it home and busted it open.  My kids had fun pulling out all of the toys and I transferred the little sprinkles into another container.  Bonus, a couple of weeks later I found another one (same price) in a slightly different color scheme at a yard sale.  Without the blue or black and the addition of brown, the sprinkles in the second container have a fall look to them.

(Here is a post where I used mini foam balls as sprinkles for my fake bakes)



Garage Sale
Picture Frames & Wall Art

Remember that free by the driveway score that I mentioned?  All of this came from their as well.  Not even kidding.  Most of the items still had Hobby Lobby tags and collectively were worth about $200 retail.  I guess the neighbors were moving and just didn't want to deal with any more stuff.  Works for me 😎

I've already repainted most of the frames to fit my taste and recycled the wall art blocks into art of my own.  I'll share a post on those soon.



Garage Sale
Toy Dishes

One last freebie from that very same house, these toy dishes and cookies.  The cookies are what caught my eye, I figured that with a little puffy paint they would add nicely to my collection of fake bakes.  The little dishes are for the same thing, I've gotten to the point where I keep a collection of cute containers on hand now 😂

(Here is a post where I used another batch of toy dishes)

Speaking of fake bakes, I've also been picking up a lot of faux fruits and vegetables.  I figure I might try my hand at some fake garden plants as well.


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And those were some of my best goodies of spring.
I hope you enjoyed this treasure hunting and thrifting, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer




Saturday, May 22, 2021

Customize A Globe For Home Decor

Yard Sale Recycle


So part of being a blogger is keeping track of your stats right?  Views, referring URLs, most often used operating systems...those values call all help a blogger to understand his or her audience and what drives them.  For me personally though, my favorite statistics to look are the reader locations.  This is simply because I think it's cool that I can sit here in the Midwest portion of the United States and connect with people all around the world!

For awhile now I've had the idea that it would be fun to make some sort of visual display of reader traffic for my office area.  I kept going back and forth between a large world map or a globe and settled on the globe idea because it would take up less space.

Read on to see how easy it is to customize a globe for your own decor:


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Disclosure - This post may contain affiliate links.  If a purchase is made through an affiliate link then (at no additional cost to you) I will receive a commission.  You can read more about affiliate links here



Yard Sale Recycle

Here is my globe as I purchased it for $2 at a yard sale.
Nothing wrong with it really, but I did prefer to repaint the hardware in gold of course 😉



Yard Sale Recycle


The first thing that I did was to cover the map portion in paper.  I saw that the bottom could be removed with a screw, but I wasn't sure how to get the globe itself away from the arm.  Since I didn't want to risk not being able to get it back together, paper it was!



Yard Sale Recycle

And here it is after a coat of shiny gold spray paint.  
I love how the soft pastel colors of the map really pop now!



Yard Sale Recycle

With the paint dry I pulled out some gold thumbtacks and a small hammer, 
then consulted my reader stats and started hammering away.

Other options include stickers, outlining countries with marker or even painting them in.  This is the perfect chance to get creative!



Yard Sale Recycle

In no time at all I had a little marking for each country that has come up on my stat list.
I realize that it's not as much as some bloggers out there, but I'm proud of it just the same 😍  The best part is that having it around helps to motivate my writing.


Yard Sale Recycle

Now just because my globe design centers around blog traffic doesn't mean that your globe has to be the same.  There are all kinds of ideas that could be implemented such as; vacations, ancestry, job travels, languages learned... you name it!  The point is to craft a visual piece that is personally meaningful 😘



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And that's how easy it is to customize your own globe.
I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer





Saturday, May 15, 2021

Strawberry Lemonade - A Faux Display

 

Kitchen Decor

I got the right kind of resin for making faux drinks and could not wait to get started!
(Here is a post where I had the wrong kind of resin 😉)

Read on to see how easy it is to make your own:


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Disclosure - This post may contain affiliate links.  If a purchase is made through an affiliate link then (at no additional cost to you) I will receive a commission.  You can read more about affiliate links here



Kitchen Decor
Supplies
  
My pitcher and glasses I picked up at the thrift store, while the strawberrieslemon sliceslemon wedges and crushed Ice were Amazon purchases.



Kitchen Decor

Another Amazon buy was my craft resin that I mixed with a bit of acrylic paint.



Kitchen Decor

The resin comes in two containers marked A and B.  I mixed the paint with the A container first before adding the B portion.  Once the B portion is added, the mixture is ready to pour.  

(As long as you don't mix the two bottles, the resin can be stored, but once mixed it has to be used)



Kitchen Decor

Here is what the colored resin looked like before adding any of my faux items.
You'll want to pour carefully to avoid getting resin on the sides of your glass.



Kitchen Decor

I found that it only takes a small amount of acrylic paint to color the resin and that it quickly becomes opaque when adding too much.  Because of this my faux ice cubes that sank to the bottom couldn't be seen as well.

Not wanting my fruits to also sink, I let the resin set up just a bit before adding them in.



Kitchen Decor

And here is how the arrangement turned out!
I love how fresh and fruity it is.

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I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer







Saturday, May 8, 2021

Cake Stand Upgrade & Faux Doughnut Treats

Thrift Store Up-Cycle

It's time for another thrift store up-cycle, this time a cake plate that I made over with a pretty spring color.
Though I have a ton of clear glass cake stands and domes, I have very few in color.  I thought it would be fun to transform a few with paint, read on to see how easy it was to do:

 

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Disclosure - This post may contain affiliate links.  If a purchase is made through an affiliate link then (at no additional cost to you) I will receive a commission.  You can read more about affiliate links here



Thrift Store Up-Cycle

Here is my cake plate as I found it in plain, clear glass and only $4.  The paint that I went with was Krylon Fusion in a shade of pretty pink.  Bonus - I picked it up on clearance for only $3.20!  



Thrift Store Up-Cycle

And here you can see how well it turned out, especially when paired with this adorable doughnut themed fake bake series.  The mugs were picked up at the thrift store and Walmart clearance aisle, the large plastic doughnuts are kids toys that I snazzed up with some joint compound and foam sprinkles and the mini doughnuts were made with clay.

You can click here for my fake bake drink tutorial or here for my fake bake cupcake tutorial.

The foam sprinkles and paper straws I picked up at Dollar Tree
the mini doughnut mold was an Amazon purchase.

The paint covered really well and has held up nicely.  I am careful to avoid the dishwasher and I also use it for non-edible items exclusively.  I'm not sure how safe it is to put food onto spray painted surfaces so I thought I'd better not 😉

(Since I had paint left over I also put some to good use  here with these faux plant containers)



Thrift Store Up-Cycle

And that's how easy it is to swap your plain glassware out for something more colorful.
I hope you enjoyed this thrifting & fake bake post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer









Saturday, May 1, 2021

Thrift Store Toys Turned Home Decor

 

Toy Recycle

When I saw this collection of children's food toys at the thrift store, I decided that the $5 price tag was worth the potential.  Read on to see how I up-cycled old toys into cute home decor:

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Disclosure - This post may contain affiliate links.  If a purchase is made through an affiliate link then (at no additional cost to you) I will receive a commission.  You can read more about affiliate links here



Toy Recycle
First Up - Refrigerator Magnets

I really enjoy the nostalgia of kitchen/ food toys, they remind me of fun times playing as a child.  I thought a good way to display some of these colorful toys would be to make them into magnets.  This was super easy to do: just grab some mini magnets and a bit of hot glue and you are ready to go!

(You can find both the magnets and glue sticks at Dollar Tree)

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Here are some photos of how the magnets turned out:

Toy Recycle

Toy Recycle

Toy Recycle

Super cute!



Toy Recycle
Second Up - Fake Bake Mugs

For these little mugs I simply took a couple of my faux miniature cupcakes and dropped them in.  Though you could certainly make these into fake bake drinks as well.  I liked how the playful pop of color and tiny size went along with my Easter decor.

Want to make your own?
Here is a post about faux cupcakes and here is another about making faux drinks.



Toy Recycle
More Fake Bakes

So I went ahead and made a couple of the mugs into actual fake bake drinks too!  I also used the lavender bowl to make an artificial carrot dessert.  This was done the exact same way as the mug (link to my cupcake tutorial above), it just isn't a mug container 😉

Once you realize that almost any container can be used for fake baking, the possibilities are endless!



Toy Recycle
Serving Plates

Some of the dishes, like these green plates, I left to use as colorful display pieces.  These plain cakes could be romantic, elegant or fun depending on how they are displayed.  By combining the cakes with the bright green plates and arranging some colorful faux chocolates on top, I was able to incorporate them into a spring themed cabinet.

You can click here to read about the chocolates.

But what about those cakes?  I don't have a faux cake tutorial but I can describe them to you.  I hot glued foam rounds together to the height that I wanted and then 'iced' the cakes using light weight joint compound.  For the flat cake I used a spatula and for the floral cakes an icing tip with the joint compound in an icing bag.  Each of the cakes were colored by mixing acrylic paint into the joint compound before applying.



Toy Recycle
And Lastly - Acorn Stir-fry 😄

I thought the orange color of this frying pan was perfect for fall, so I glued in a bit of moss and artificial acorns.  It will be adorable this fall displayed with some faux acorn hot cocoas that I also put together!



Toy Recycle
Recap
So there you have it- for five dollars I was able to make magnets, fake bakes, display ware and still have items left over.  Some of the leftover food pieces I added to my toy food collection (I have a big bin), while others (like the strawberries) I used as toppings on other fake bakes.  The stainless steel pots and pans are sitting in my 'miscellaneous' supply drawer, I'm just waiting for inspiration!  Who knew that old toys could go so far?

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I hope you enjoyed this thrift store up-cycle post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer