Teacher's Cork Board

I never make crafty things for my classroom, but I've got a new name and a new class mascot. We're the Monkeys this year, so I made myself a cork board ($3.99 from goodwill).







Also, I'd just like to add that the glass bead tacks are incredibly easy to make. I made about 100 of them this evening. I was curious how other people were attaching the tacks to the back so I did a google search and found an online shop selling them for $1.00 - $2.00 a piece! WOW! So, I figure I will be able to retire from teaching if I just keep making these cute little guys.




If you'd like some, let me know, I promise I'll give you a better rate than $1 each :)

A vessel sink stand from an old sewing table

It was really very simple. I bought a vessel sink and I needed to find something to put it on. I searched the internet and everything I liked was around $300, so I went to Craiglist. I love Craigslist.

I found a perfectly lovely sewing table ($30!) and took out the guts.


Sanded it down.


Re-stained it. Drilled a hole for the drain and another for the faucet (crappy pic, I swear it's gorgeous).

Viola! And I would also like to point out (like to do to every person that enters my house) that I tiled and grouted that floor myself.

Deal of the Day

I’m a bargain hunter. I really enjoy the excitement of getting a good deal. I can’t help it, it is in my blood. My Nana was a coupon extraordinaire. My dad is a known dumpster diver. So, I check the online ads each Sunday morning (or at 2 am on Saturday night if I’m still awake) for the deals of the week. I was elated to find ribbon half off this week at Hobby Lobby, so I went in to pick up a few (dozen) spools of ribbon and came out with the “Deal of the Day.”

I was heading to the checkout line, I swear I was, but then I saw this 900 year old man carting a cool looking hutch to the back of the store and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a “sale” tag swinging in the breeze. So, I stalked the guy and right after I saw him take the hutch off of the dolly, I strolled over to take a peek. Original price $499.99 Holy Smokes! Oh but there was that sweet loving red tag.... “Now marked $100.00” It had to be mine! He was probably less than happy to load it back up and cart it back to the front of the store but whatever.

And just so you know, I did get the ribbon that I originally went into the store for. And to the cashier – no, sir, I do NOT have a shortage of ribbon at my house, thank you for asking.

Here’s the hutch with nothing on it:

And here she is, all dressed up.

Check out that ribbon holder at the top, just ran a dowel rod through the iron and ta-da! Perfect fit! I’m going to get another dowel and put in another level... so I can get more ribbon!

And just because, there’s nothing cuter than a jar full of buttons!

Another board

Here is another board I made. I found it at goodwill for a whopping $3. It had this beauty of a picture in the top section.

I know, I love me some crackle painted roses too. But, I mod podged over it with some fancy looking scrapbook paper. It already had a cork board in the bottom, so that was helpful.

Spray painted the frame, then the wind blew my newspaper on top of the frame and I cursed a bit, then AJ dropped his tennis ball in the wet paint, again with the language... At this point I decided Ah-ha! I will "distress" the frame - code, I'm not going to repaint this bad boy, I will just sand off the spots that look like crap.

So here it is... in our bathroom
don't pay attention to the water spot stains on the wall - we still have builder's flat paint in there.




Now you may ask, why would you put a bulletin board in your bathroom - well, I'm the most forgetful person in the world. So I tend to forget things like "go to work in the morning" or "it is awards day for your kindergarteners, so don't dress like a slob and for god's sake, brush your hair."

Bulletin Boards

Well, while cleaning out our garage for the third time in the year that we have lived here, I found an old cork board that I had gotten from Big Lots for $2. I have almost gotten rid of this thing at least 100 times, but I finally found a use for it. Covered it in cute material, painted the frame, added some ribbon and viola! Well damn if I didn't get inspired then! John's company just got a new office and I thought the only woman of the company needed something cute like this in her life. I went to Goodwill, found a $3 frame, sanded and spray painted it etc. I just spray painted some upholstery tacks for mine, but wanted to spice it up a bit this time around. I got some of those flat bottom glass marbles (the ones you put in your beta vase) used a 1/2 inch round hole punch and cut some cute papers out. Then mod podged them to the bottoms, and gorilla glued on a tack. I ended up making about 65 of these tacks because it was just too freakin' cute when you put the marble over the image it magnifies it and makes everything look cuter! What can I say? I'm easily impressed.


Anyway... after all the tacks, I went back to the project at hand and finished up the board I was working on. I'm going to add some 1 1/2 inch red ribbon to the back and tie it in a bow for hanging purposes, but I haven't found the right shade of red just yet. Tomorrow will be another trip to Joann's, Michael's and the devil itself: Hobby Lobby...

The overall board.

details...

A good craft gone bad, and then back to good!

As I mentioned in our first post, I bought some letters to make my son's name. It's pretty standard baby room decor and I thought it was a good idea. I wanted something simple and small, so I naturally chose the 9 1/2" mdf serif letters (<--- this is sarcasm). It was a moment of ridiculousness and I regret it, but they were on sale and I had put this project off long enough. I get home and start my project. That's when I realize my paints are crap (stupid Texas heat). The ones that aren't crap are still crap because they are ugly. I forge ahead...for some reason. Then this happens:
They were ugly and I knew it and I threw them in a closet and forgot about them until yesterday. Yesterday I had the sudden and insatiable urge to make cute letters for Daniel's room. I remembered the ones I had murdered and decided to dig them out and perform CPR.

I began by painting them white. I figured I start new. Three coats of paint later, the closet was looking really good again. Those giant, alphabetic bastards were taunting me with those putrid colors. They bled through time and again.

That's when my genius struck.

Ok, so I am sure that 1 million crafters before me have had this idea, but it was a new one for me. And I think it's awesome. So as the craft elitists collectively roll their eyes, let me show you what I came up with!

(Click me, I get bigger. Or not, no pressure.)

Scrapbook paper! It was sitting right on the ground (where it belongs, right?) and I thought why not? I sponged adhesive glue onto the letter, plopped the letter on paper and used my exacto knife to slice all around them. This picture honestly looks like crap, but I finished at about 9 and the little dude was fast asleep. I wasn't about to put them on his wall and snap some photos, so you all get my kitchen table with horrid lighting. I'll work on a better pic tomorrow. Maybe.

Now it's all hung up. A bit of wire and some nails did the trick.

A beautiful way to start off!

I got the craft bug tonight. I decided to paint my son's name letters that I started almost a year ago. I have no idea what I was thinking and painted them some hideous colors.

Well, I can't actually find them. Ripped the house apart and everything. So here we are starting out with our first craft fail. Awesome.