my bag

This is my new favorite bag.  It's a wall calendar from 1982, you know the ones that grandma had hanging on her wall?  I got it at a thrift store for 50 cents.  The strap is one of my grandpa's ties.  My sister and I raided his closet when we visited this summer!  It's lined and is basically reversible.  There are also 2 pockets on the inside.

It just so happens that I found 8 more of these calendars at the Junk Bonanza! score!  A special one was for a friend, and the rest are waiting to be turned into all sorts of things.  

decoupaged shoes

This is something I've wanted to try for quite awhile.  I was at my friends house the other night and somehow it came up again and reminded me that I should go for it!  My family had a family photo shoot last night and the colors we wore were a variety of blues and this lime green.  I was wearing jean, white, and gray and "needed" some cool shoes.  So,  this is the outcome of about an hours worth of work.  I grabbed my paint brush and glue, scissors and fabric and came up with this!  I was surprised at how easy this actually was to do.  Whenever I am decoupaging I always use lots of glue (mod podge, decoupage, or my secret: a mixture of elmer's glue and water!  shhhh...) and get it all over my fingers.  Seriously, I do recommend using a lot of glue and using the brush to apply the mixture onto both surfaces but then using your fingers to do the sticking and rub out any bubbles/ air pockets that might be there.  For the shoes I pretty much saturated the fabric while I went along.  I made sure there was a straight edge around the edge of the sole, but otherwise I just glued and cut as I went along.  I've been asked for some sort of tutorial, but there's really nothing to it.  Don't be afraid to try!  That's my advice.  These shoes were $1.98 two years ago at Goodwill and I enjoying them over the past 2 years, and now they're "new" again when covered with this vintage fabric I scored at a yard sale.  If you have any questions I'll try to answer them in the comments.  Oh, a friend did wonder how they would hold up.  I wouldn't be afraid to wear these in the rain, but I probably won't go puddle jumping in them. :)  The glue dries hard and clear. They are stiff and durable feeling to me.  You can apply several coats of decoupage over the outside if you want to seal them.

kitchen clock

When we moved to this house 2 1/2 years ago there was an old (50's) clock hanging up in the kitchen above the door leading into the girls room. I took it down to discard it and found that it was covering a large hole in the wall where an old doorbell was. For awhile I tried to find something different to cover the hole, but the truth is this ugly clock was perfect- and perfectly affordable! I recently found the time to decoupage it with these old adds (a project that's been on my "to do" list for 2 years!) and now it's just right.

Another map for Jo's room

This project is SLOW going! I've had stuff out for 2 weeks. I could be totally consumed it and work for hours everyday- FUN, but that's just not possible. So, yesterday I decoupaged this map onto a 11"x13" canvas I had picked up for 50 cents at a yard sale this summer. I painted the edges brown. I like the antiqued look of this map. I didn't think it looked good in a frame. I really like it on the canvas though!

Magnetic Tray

Have I posted about this already? I can't remember. I'm not going to look it up. I have found an abundance of these vintage metal trays at places like the Buffalo Nickle, Annie's Attic Antiques, and a few yard sales. The one below hangs in my kitchen. I've made several as gifts.

These magnets are made with clear stones used for floral arrangements. You can buy bags of them at Michaels. There are similar ones at Walmart; however, they're round and not as uniquely shaped as these below. Just use any craft glue to adhere them to any picture cut to the same size as the stone. Hot glue a small round magnet (also purchased at good ol' Walmart) to the back of the stone. I've also made magnets out of marbles, buttons, dice, dominos, scrabble game pieces, brooches, and old foreign coins.

This strawberry tray is one of my favorites and is displayed on the high shelf in my kitchen.

Here is a tray waiting to be used! It's actually black. I'm not sure why it looks silver. I have made one on a silver tray before and loved how it turned out.

The board below with ribbon is an old picture I didn't care for. I used spray adhesive and cut a piece of fabric to the size of the board (with spray adhesive on the edges of the fabric there's no need to hem the edges) and stick it on! Then in several places I used hot glue to attach the ribbon to the board. On the places the ribbon crosses each other I glued foreign coins.