Re-purposed Decoupage Boxes

This is just a quick little project that I worked on yesterday.

I had these little boxes set aside with some other Christmas things that I no longer use, so I decoupaged them for my kitchen.

Here is what I started with:

They are nice, sturdy boxes, but I haven't really used them to decorate for the past couple Christmases because although I used to collect and display snowman things, I have since changed the way I decorate, and nothing blue really matches anymore. 

Supplies I used:

Homemade Mod Podge....1 cup Elmer's Glue to 1 cup of water stored in a jar

A couple pages from an old Betty Crocker cookbook I haven't looked at in years

A 1-inch foam brush...actually I used 3 of them

Americana paints: Light Mocha and Calico Red

The first thing I did was to give the boxes and covers a quick coat of Light Mocha. Not enough to coat the boxes, just a sloppy coat to cover some of the blue on the boxes so it wouldn't show through the pieces of pages I applied.

The cookbook pages I used have little red and black illustrations, and the recipe names are printed in red, so I tried to use as many of those pieces as I could, for a little color. I selected a few pages, and just tore them in pieces of different shapes and sizes. 

There was no rhyme or reason to how I glued on the pieces...I just applied them at different angles, overlapped some of them and made sure every surface was covered. I then gave the entire box another coat of glue and let them dry. Each cover took about 3-4 coats of paint to cover.

Here are the finished boxes. I have them sitting on a shelf, and I'm using one to store tea bags in.

For a quick, inexpensive project...I think they turned out cute. I thought of spraying them with a clear spray, but I think I prefer the matte look.

Since I had the boxes, and the Mod Podge...after buying the paint, this project ended up costing less than $5.00 to make.

Comments are always welcome....hope everyone has a great day!  :)

Linked up to:

Between Naps On The Porch

Kammy's Korner

The 36th Avenue ~ Show Me Extraordinary Link Party 45

Thrifty Decor Chick ~ March Before and After Party

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Kitchen Makeover ~ I Picked a Wall Color

After mentioning redoing our kitchen to my husband many times, he has finally agreed to let me loose in there with a paint brush, bless his heart.


We live in a 3-bedroom mobile home, which my husband's mother bought in probably the mid-70's. Not much in the way of updating has been done in most of the home, probably the only thing being the replacement of the orange shag carpet in the living room, so the kitchen cabinets, flooring, walls, light fixtures, etc....are all original. Dark brown cabinets, brown tile, and some kind of Early American wallpaper/paneling. 


Here is what we will be working with:

What I am planning to do first, is to get the cabinets painted white and paint over the patterned wall covering. The fridge is fairly new, and we bought the stove when we moved in, and just recently my husband bought me a dishwasher, so the appliances will be staying.


In the foreground, the island is carpeted on the side facing the living room. What I am planning to do with that is to take off the carpeting, and put up white bead board wainscoting, which I will carry over to the dining area wall.


Here is the opposite side of the kitchen:

Wow, I didn't realize just how much BROWN is everywhere, ha!


On the right side, is a little wall divider. I am planning on covering the bottom with the white wainscoting, and carrying that across the whole wall. Then paint the top half of the wall. 


I will also eventually get rid of the mini blinds, add new curtains, and change the light fixture.


Here is one more shot of the wall divider:

I'm going to keep the divider, I just like it for some reason, and I think with the wainscoting, and painting the spindle and top area, it will look ok. Also, on the left, there is a panel of gold plastic, which I'm planning on taking out, and hanging one of those big colored glass sun-catcher panels.


Also, I would love to eventually redo the floor in a dark mahogany laminate...but I know that probably will not get done for a long time.


So that is our little kitchen, as it sits today.


Like I said, my first priority is to get some paint up, and here is the general look that I envision for this space:

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I absolutely LOVE how this color looks with the crisp white. The color is Spanish Olive by Glidden. Green has a calming effect on me....I can't really put it into words...it just makes me feel good. It feels homey and warm and soothing and clean and fresh. When I look at my kitchen now, I can, in my mind, see this color on the walls, along with splashes of deep red/maroon for contrast, and black. Black for possibly the light fixtures and accent pieces.


Here are some other photos that are sources of inspiration for the vision I have in my mind.



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The green walls, along with the dark red accent pieces...this is what my ultimate goal is. This is such a beautiful color combination. 





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Again, loving the deep red and the addition of black.





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Deep red accent pieces





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Simple hanging light fixture for above the table...love this!





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This is the bead board wainscoting that I want to use.







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Love the rich mahogany flooring




So there we have it....quite the project ahead of me. So while I sit here watching the blizzard that we are getting right now...I am more anxious than ever for spring to get here, so that I can get started painting and begin this very big project. It's so exciting, and very intimidating, ha....but we'll take it one step at a time, and enjoy seeing the transformation. Because half the fun is getting there, right? ;)


I welcome any comments, advice, ideas or thoughts that you may have....and I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week.  :)


Linking to:
Vintage Revivals


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Monday Music Shuffle #3

Happy Monday...here is some music to start off the week!

1. Lonely Teardrops by Jackie Wilson

2. I'm Sorry by The Platters

3. This Is My Song by Montovani

4. Any Color You Like by Pink Floyd

5. Lucille by Little Richard

Have a great week!  :)

Framed Kitchen Print

I've had these 2 framed pieces for years. I bought the frames at some discount store, and framed 2 greeting cards that I thought were cute at the time. When we moved back in July, as I was unpacking, I came across them, and hung them on one of my living room walls to just temporarily fill the space. Well I never found anything else to hang there...so these gaudy, grimy things have been staring at me all these months every time I sat on my couch.

Yesterday, I got tired of looking at them.

As I was unframing them, I looked on the back of the greeting cards.....1997. Oh my, it has been a while.

First thing I did was to take one of the frames into the garage and spray it will matte black.

I bought the cheapest can of spray paint just for crafty projects...hopefully this will stick. I didn't prep the frame by sanding or anything, just gave it a good cleaning. I paid less than $1.50 for this can of paint, and figure I can get quite a few small projects done with it.

It took 2 coats to completely cover, and it let it dry about a half hour in between. 

I didn't want to use the maroon mat again, so I had a nice cream color one from another frame that I had bought, so I used that....so no cost for the mat.

The 'EAT' print....all I did was go into Paint to make it, and printed it out on plain old printer paper...so no cost again.

Here is the finished project:

(My next project...is to replace and update the shelf on which it sits...ha!)

So again...here is a a before an after shot. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I made it for practically nothing. I still have one more to redo, but don't have any ideas for it at the moment.

Thanks so much for looking, and please leave a comment if you'd like.

Have a great day!

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Linking to these parties:

Thrifty Decor Chick

My Girlish Whims

My World - Made By Hand

I Heart Nap Time

Positively Splendid

it's overflowing

The Blackberry Vine
Crafty Confessions
Handy Man, Crafty Woman
Sugar and Dots
Southern Lovely
Fireflies and Jellybeans
A Glimpse Inside
Thrifty 101
The 36th Avenue
Five Days... 5 Ways
{aka}|design
Here Comes The Sun
Whipperberry
Remodelaholic
Serenity Now
Young and Crafty
deborah jean's DANDELION HOUSE
Thirty Handmade Days
Metamorphosis Monday

Monday Music Shuffle #2

Happy Monday!

Here's a little music to start the week.

1. Love Is On The Way by Saigon Kick

2. My Oh My by Slade

3. Bark At The Moon by Ozzy Osbourne

4. Enchanted by The Platters

5. Winter's Love by Animal Collective

6. Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson

7. Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley

8. Primrose Lane by Jerry Wallace

9. Unchain My Heart by Ray Charles

10. The Ghost Song by The Doors

I hope everyone has a great week!!  :)

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Simple Jar Candle Craft

I've been seeing a lot of crafts on Pinterest for jar candles that people make, so I wanted to make a quick, easy one.

I need to get into the habit of taking more photos at different stages in whatever project I'm working on, but for this here are the things I used:

An empty pickle jar with cover

Homemade Mod Podge made from half Elmer's glue & half water

A few book pages

A 1-inch foam brush

Scissors

Ruler

Matte black spray paint

Wet paper towel

Small bit of raffia

Glue dot

Votive candle

I already had the jar in my cabinet, so that was already clean and ready to use. I spray painted the lid black (and forgot to take a photo)

Then I found 3 book pages I wanted to use, and just kind of eyeballed how wide the pieces needed to be. I used the side of a ruler to tear all 4 sides of each piece of paper so the edge was sort of straight but still had the torn edge look.

I glued down the pieces of paper and painted another coat over the pages to seal them. I used a wet paper towel to wipe up any excess glue that was on the jar, then let it dry for about 30 minutes.

Using a glue dot, I attached a small raffia bow to the top of the jar.

A little votive candle that I had laying around the house was added...and that was it! This was a quick, simple fun little project, and it looks so cute on my shelf.

I will be making more of these...I'm thinking for the kitchen with some old pages out of a cookbook, I could used 3 different size jars and corral them with some cording or raffia, and it would make a nice centerpiece on the table.

Here are a couple photos of the finished project:

 Thanks for looking...and I hope everyone has a great day.
Please feel free to leave me a comment! :)

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Linking to these parties:


A Little TIpsy ~ DIY Under $5
At Home With K ~ Terrific Under 10 Tuesday #53
Craft-O-Maniac ~ CraftOManiac Monday
Funky Junk Interiors ~ Saturday Nite Special
The Charm of Home

Friday Favorites

Happy (late) Friday!

I don't know where the day goes sometimes. I woke up at 6 with my husband to have coffee with him and see him off to work, and before I knew it, it was time to start supper for when he came home.

I got a little housecleaning done, but mostly just relaxed around the house re-cooperating from the terrible cold I've had for the past 4 days.

I am getting so tired of this winter weather. Not the cold so much as the day after day of overcast skies. It's so depressing to me...I miss the sunshine. I can't wait for spring! Since spring makes me think of grass sprouting up, and new leaves showing themselves....here are some of my favorite green things I've came across on Pinterest lately.

If only I could float around by a heart all day...

Via

This is just the cutest doorstop...

Via

I love spring/summer mornings when I wake up to birds singing in the trees...

Via

I bet this smells sooo good...

Via

Buttons of all shapes, sizes and colors...there's so much you can do with them. I love these green ones.

Via

ADORABLE fabric....for a throw pillow maybe?

Via

So many shades of green. Would love to have a set of dishes in a deep green some day.

Via

I have an old desk that would look so great in this shade of green.

Via

This is just like something out of a fairytale...

Via

Such organization....love the pops of green, and that MIXER!

Via

So those are some of my favorites for this Friday.

If you want to see the rest of my Green with Envy board, or any of my other boards...click HERE, and follow me if you would like.

I am very new to blogging, and have been trying to learn by reading and looking at other people's blogs, but it is a little overwhelming so if I have done something that is bad etiquette or against the rules regarding linking the photos to their original source, please do not hesitate to let me know.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! :) 

Pin It

25 Random Things About Me

Shaunna over at Perfectly Imperfect is having a link party for 25 random things and I thought it would be fun to participate!

1. I've never been to any other states except for Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois.

2. I love Guinea pigs.

3. I love to take a walk when there's a snow storm or blizzard.

4. I'm scared of thunder and lightning.

5. I don't drive.

6. I wish I could sew.

7. Most of the things that I've never done in my life was because I was afraid.

8. I would love to design a beautiful garden in my backyard with stone paths, trees, flower gardens, bird baths, benches and a brick patio right in the center of it.

9. I think red hair is attractive, on both males and females.

10. I love green.

11. I'm so happy that my daughter is living with us, and I can enjoy my 4-month old grandson.

12. Packing up the car and just driving around the country stopping at all the interesting places and staying at bed and breakfasts would be my idea of a perfect vacation.

13. I cry when someone sings our national anthem.

14. If I ever won the lottery, I wouldn't buy a big fancy new house...I would fix up our cute little 3-bedroom mobile home. I would have a new garage built for my husband, have a giant deck put on, remodel the kitchen, paint, have new wood floors, have the yard landscaped....because while some people might not think it's much...I absolutely LOVE it here.

15. Autumn is my favorite season.

16. I'm left-handed.

17. I have tried many times to teach myself to knit, but I just can't get the hang of it.

18. I have always wanted a tattoo, but could never decide on anything that I wanted on my body for the rest of my life.

19. I make AWESOME crepes!

20. I love doing laundry, I hate doing dishes.

21. I love to get up before everyone else and just sit and have a cup of coffee and read or go online.

22. My favorite tv show is The Office. I dvr the shows and watch the repeats constantly.

23. I love rummage sales and secondhand stores.

24. I drink too much coffee.

25. I want to plant a small vegetable garden this summer.

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Eucerin & Orange Glo

My 4-month old grandson started developing a red rash recently. It was mostly on his back and the back of his neck. It was raised red blotches, and looked very dry. Since my daughter and I hadn't changed anything we were using for him like laundry soap or any kind of bath time stuff, she asked about it when he went in to his doctor for shots. He told her it was eczema, and said to used baby oil on it twice a day, or baby lotion. 

Well we tried the baby oil, but no matter how little we used, he ended up a slippery mess and it was getting all over his clothes...not to mention that it didn't seem to be helping his skin at all.

Then we tried Johnson's Baby Lotion. His skin must have been very irritated, because he would cry when we put it on his back....I'm guessing something in the lotion was burning when we applied it. Again, it really did nothing to help the rash.

A day or so later she went back for a follow-up to the doctor, and this time he suggested using Eucerin and also prescribed something if that didn't work. He also mentioned that if we filled the prescription, to not used much of it, because of some of the ingredients it contained. Well that put me off right away.

Anyway...she bought a bottle of Eucerin on the way home...and she used it twice a day for about 2 or 3 days. His skin cleared right up. The raised splotches went away and his back is smooth and clear now and does not look dry in the least. He has his baby smooth skin back! We're still using it once a day, or every other day, but the difference is amazing.

I will definitely be buying this from now on for myself. Not getting paid by their company for this review...I just like to let others know when I find a product I love!

http://www.eucerinus.com/

Another product that I have recently been using again is Orange Glo. This is a wood cleaner and polisher. I have used this for a while on wood tables, etc...and really love how it polishes and shines the wood, not to mention how great it smells.

Around Christmas time...I also discovered another use for this product that I don't know if people are aware of. I know I wasn't.

Around the same time that Christmas cards were arriving in our mailbox, I discovered the wonderful product know as glue dots. Yea...the little round sticky things used for crafting and scrapbooking and whatnot. Well I ran out of surface space for displaying the cards, so I decided...hey, won't these cards look cute if I stick them to my mirrors. Well they stuck. And they looked cute. And were impossible to get off. Oh I got the cards off the mirrors after Christmas, but each place I had a glue dot, it stayed in place on the mirror, along with part of the card. Ugh. I tried to pull it off. I tried to scrape it with my nail. I tried to scrape it off with a razor. I tried glass cleaner, all-purpose cleaner and holding hot, wet rags on the glue. The glue just spread. I left the mess for a couple days, debating whether I should just throw out the mirrors and hang other stuff on the wall.

Then, as I was looking thru my cleaning supplies...there sat the Orange Glo. I grabbed the bottle and sprayed a little bit on a dry cleaning rag, and rubbed over one of the glue globs. Oh saints be praised....it completely removed the glue within seconds!!! It left an oily film on the mirror, but that too came right off with glass cleaner and paper towel. Every trace of glue was gone and the mirrors were like new!

Now, if there is a sticky label on a jar or glass or whatever, I remove what I can with hot water, and use the Orange Glo and the sticky actually slides right off of the surface. Speaking of slide...the one thing that I don't suggest using Orange Glo on is kitchen tile. I accidentally got some overspray on the floor one day, and we could have charged admission to skate in our kitchen...VERY slippery!

Again..not getting paid for this review...just another product I love!

http://www.orangeglo.com/

Linking to:

Be Different Act Normal ~ Show and Tell Saturday

Monday Music Shuffle #1

Happy Monday morning!

I put my Ipod on shuffle this morning, and these are the first 5 songs that I listened to:

1. Ironic by Alanis Morissette

2. Jamming by Grover Washington, Jr.

3. If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body (Would You Hold It Against Me) by The Bellamy Brothers

4. Prayer by Secret Garden

5. Charade by Henry Mancini

Laundry Area Organize ~ Before and After

I got up extra early the other morning, so I decided to clean and organize my laundry area and cabinets. Here are the before shots:

I've always folded my towels before putting them away, and as you can see they start to become a cluttered mess and tend to take up a lot of space. So I decided to take everything out, and roll them rather than refold. I wanted to see how much less space, if any, they would take up. I was pleasantly surprised when, after having them all rolled, they took up way less space. It freed up another shelf and a half for other items.

Here are the after shots:

Now all my towels fit on the two shelves. I used another shelf and rolled a few hand towels, then brought in a small basket to hold extra washcloths. I found a small clear, plastic box laying around the house, so that now holds dryer sheets, packets of soap samples, a lint brush, stain stick, etc. Now it's all contained instead of trying to shove everything in and shut the door quickly haha! The top shelf holds my iron a couple cans of sprays. Since I had a whole extra shelf empty, I decided to keep my mop bucket there for now, but in the summer I will most likely keep clothespins up there....if I can remember where in the heck I put them.

Nothing fancy, but it's what I have and I make it work for me. 

Also, since we have no porch or entry hall to speak of, and the laundry area is actually in the hall as we come in the house...the washer and dryer have become a catch-all for hats, gloves, my husbands tools and a multitude of other things. I also cleaned that off (no before photo of that catastrophe) and put a basket on the dryer. Now things can be put in there and can be carried around the house or garage every couple days so things can be put back where they belong.

The next thing I need to do in this area is get some things up on the walls to brighten it up and make it feel more homey, since I keep 'mentioning' painting the dark paneling to my husband and he just gives me a blank stare...haha! I'm thinking some laundry-themed framed word art or prints and maybe some knick-knacky things. I'll post an update when I have it looking all cute!