Music That Melts

Jun 152012
 

Today I’m shar­ing my lat­est repur­pos­ing project that’s per­fect for your next party! Take old records and melt them down to bowls. They not only look groovy, but are very func­tional. My sis­ter made these for her son’s grad­u­a­tion party recently. His party theme was the Bea­t­les, so these were the per­fect acces­sory. The process to make them is very easy too!

INSTRUCTIONS HERE

 

How to get your groove on:

  • fill them with snacks and candy (be sure they’re wrapped food items for safety)
  • a great stor­age for t.v. remotes
  • loose change anyone?
  • “where did I put my keys?”…a thing of the past
  •  place your small gift or gift card (think iTunes) in the bowl and wrap with cellophane

If you don’t have any unwanted records lay­ing around in your attic, you can pick them up for next to noth­ing at a garage sale or thrift store. Have fun and don’t for­get to crank your tunes!



Share
 3 Responses »

Magnetic Wine Cork Planters

Mar 262012
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This lat­est cre­ation has been made by a mod­ern day Martha, my sis­ter, Colleen. Well, she’s a lot more hip than her, but you get the idea.

It all started when she gave a friend of ours a bot­tle of wine for their 25th wed­ding anniver­sary. She wanted them to be able to have a lit­tle memento from the evening. After the bot­tle was empty, I sneaked the cork in my purse(it’s not steal­ing, because she got it back!). From there my sis­ter worked her bril­liance! The cou­ple she was mak­ing it for love two things in life, wine and gar­den­ing. (yes in that order, jk!) That’s when she remem­bered being inspired by a photo from Piccsy. A mini cork suc­cu­lent planter mag­net. Does it get any cuter? I don’t think so! It’s sen­ti­men­tal, com­pact, prac­ti­cal, green and stylish.


Needed:

  • Corks made from cork not plastic
  • Mag­nets
  • Pot­ting soil
  • Very small suc­cu­lent cuttings
  • Puncher
  • Par­ing knife
  • Glue gun

How to:

  1. CAREFULLY, hol­low out the cen­ter of a wine cork with the puncher and knife until you’ve hol­lowed it out halfway.
  2.  Glue mag­net onto cork.
  3.  Fill the hole with pot­ting soil and add the succulent.
  4.  Use an eye­drop­per to water.
  5. Put on your fridge and enjoy!

WARNING: This might not be a craft for a child or a clumsy adult!

   

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Per­fect For:

  • Host­ess gifts
  • Spe­cial occasions
  • Wine lovers
  • Green lovers
  • Me
  • Thank you gifts
  • Green thumb friends
  • really, any­one!

 

 




Share
 29 Responses »

Letter Love

Jan 162012
 

I love mono­grams. Today I’m shar­ing a few diy projects that I’ll be mak­ing on my next rainy day. (I’m afraid that might this week­end!) I hope they inspire you to get your let­ter on!

Diy Mono­gram Mugs by Design Moms. She got this idea when she spot­ted some mugs at Anthro­polo­gie. She shows you how to turn this it into a per­fect gift with Happy Hot Cocoa inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diy Mono­grammed Cork Let­ters from Green is Uni­ver­sal. Now this is my kind of project. Corks and a glue gun. It doesn’t get more rainy day fun than this!

cork letters

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ini­tial Neck­laces by Design Daz­zle. I love the mod­ern, cus­tom vibe of these let­ter neck­laces. I think it would be cool to have a poem, sen­ti­ment, or even birth stats as the back­drop. Add a small white feather charm and a chunky chain to give it a more flair.



Share
 No Responses »

New Twist On: Cans

Nov 212011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t throw that can out! Give them a new lease on life with some inno­v­a­tive ideas. I was inspired after buy­ing an extra large can of toma­toes from Costco. After the can was empty, it seemed a shame to throw it out. So I put my cre­ative cap on, fol­lowed by some cyber searching.

The obvi­ous, but sim­ple thing to do is use them as pots for plants. It’s the per­fect cen­ter­piece for an out­door bistro table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take things a step fur­ther and make a host­ess gift using an old can.

What to do:

  • Clean the can thor­oughly. Poke holes on the bot­tom if you plan on hav­ing it drain your plant. Place your plant or flow­ers in the can. (leave the label on or take it off, both ways have their own unique cool look) Ide­ally I would have put a tomato plant in the can but they’re not in sea­son. If you can use a plant that matches the can label, that would be a fun touch.
  • For your gift tag, get a packet of seeds. Take some paper and write or print out your mes­sage to the host. Get some dou­ble sided tape and adhere it to the seeds. Slide the seeds through the teeth end of a plas­tic fork and insert into the soil of the plant. (if you have sin­gle vin­tage forks lay­ing around, that would be even better)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other ideas I found & loved:

 

Cork cans by The 3R’s Blog.

A kitschy wine rack from Real Sim­ple.

Pen­dent lights from Shel­ter­ness.

Pic­nic cans found at Sweet Paul Mag­a­zine.

Finally, if you’re feel­ing more prac­ti­cal and adven­tur­ous, try build­ing a camp­ing rocket stove from left­over food cans. Learn how at Life­hacker.

 

 

Share
 10 Responses »

Easy DIY: Wine Box Turns Recipe Box

Nov 012011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wine boxes are not only cool look­ing, but they may hold some sen­ti­men­tal value for us. What can we do with them? My hus­band had a kinda genius idea. This past year we made a rule to give each other hand­made gifts. Since I’m a foodie and a winey girl, he came up with this idea for me. (I’m still hav­ing trou­ble believ­ing he didn’t get some help! wink,wink)

What’s extra amaz­ing is he killed two birds with one stone on this diy project. Check out my old tech­nique for stor­ing my recipes…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I had recipes on nap­kins, index cards, Post-it notes, mag­a­zine pages and print outs. You could find them in any crevice of the kitchen too. I’m noto­ri­ous for stick­ing Post-it’s inside my cab­i­net doors with recipes. Not exactly the ideal orga­ni­za­tion tech­nique. Because I would just set the recipe papers next to me while cook­ing, they are cov­ered in every ingre­di­ent imag­in­able. Just look at my favorite recipe…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could re-write it at this point, but I love the char­ac­ter it shows from all the years I’ve been mak­ing it. Think wrin­kles for recipes. In fact one day it might be fun to frame it. But for now, it is pro­tected in one of my binder pages neatly orga­nized under the appe­tizer section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just store my wine box on my kitchen counter. It not only matches the decore, it’s prac­ti­cal and serves a daily pur­pose! All this thanks to my genius hub…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuto­r­ial Here

Tips:

  • This makes a great wed­ding gift. Gather recipes from friends and fam­ily to add to the binder. Mod Podge their wed­ding invi­ta­tion on the top of the recipe book or on the inside of the box somewhere.
  • If the box comes from a win­ery you vis­ited, line the bot­tom (see tuto­r­ial) with a map show­ing the vine­yard location.
  • Add a “take out” menu binder to store in the box along with the recipe binder. There’s plenty of room for both.

 

 

Share
 23 Responses »

New Twist On: Mason Jars

Oct 192011
 



I love shar­ing ways to repur­pose dif­fer­ent items. Today I’m fea­tur­ing a clas­sic favorite, mason jars. Here are five ways I’m lov­ing them:

1.Pie In A Jar

Our Best Bites came up with this genius idea. They’re indi­vid­ual serv­ing sizes and can go straight from your freezer to your oven. These pies in a jar are per­fect to have on hand for unex­pected guests or a sud­den crav­ing of sweet good­ness! Find the recipe and direc­tions here.

2. Painted Flower Jars

I love this col­or­ful cre­ative way to re-use mason jars. Wouldn’t these make great bud­get friendly cen­ter­pieces for your next party? For step by step direc­tions go to The CSI Project.

3. Bath­room Beauty Storage

Clever! Clever! Clever! Lovely Lit­tle Details came up with a great bath­room stor­age idea.

4. Sewing Kit in a Jar

Whether we sew or not, we all need a mini mend­ing kit. This is a great diy gift idea! Find out how to make these by Martha Stew­art here.

5. Soap Dispenser

Heather Bullard made this diy soap dis­penser to keep on her pot­ting bench. I think this would be fun in a bath­room or kitchen as well. You could also bring some antibac­te­r­ial hand san­i­tizer to a park pic­nic or party. For a host­ess gift, fill a mason jar up with some yummy smelling hand lotion. Find the tuto­r­ial on how to make one here.



Share
 5 Responses »

Our Backyard Makeover Completed! (for now)

Oct 032011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From rags…

…to riches!

It’s been a few months since my first post about giv­ing our back­yard a lit­tle mini makeover. We finally fin­ished most of it. It was help­ful that our yard had good bones to begin with. Although there was a lot of work to do, it wasn’t a huge diy under­tak­ing. Our new per­gola and paver floors were the only real big projects. We have a few more cos­metic things to do, (hang lights, find our bbq a bet­ter loca­tion, plant veg­gies in our new bed, etc…) but does any­one really ever com­pletely fin­ish a remodel? We are really enjoy­ing the fruits of our labor. Speak­ing of that, a spe­cial thanks to our amaz­ing crew, a.k.a. fam­ily & friends!

Check out great pho­tographs of our back­yard here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tips:

  • Make chaise lounge bol­ster cush­ions using hip dish tow­els. (I bought mine at Tar­get, they’re by Dwell)
  • Dress your faded out­door cush­ions with cov­ers made from sim­ple white tow­els. Easy (if you can sew, or like me knows some­one who sews…thanks Con!) to make and easy to clean. I don’t rec­om­mend pat­terned or color tow­els due to sun fading.
  • Mix vintage/garage sale fur­ni­ture pieces with new ones. You not only save money this way, but it adds char­ac­ter reflec­tive of you.
  • Shop at your local dis­count stores and on-line. We pur­chased our din­ing table on-line at Pier One and bought our din­ing chairs at Homegoods.
  • Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Try to be rea­son­able and flex­i­ble when plan­ning your mini remodel. (espe­cially if this is a diy project)  Pick two things that are really impor­tant to you. In our case it was the per­gola and hav­ing a din­ing room table out­side to eat on. After that every­thing is a bonus!


Share
 1 Response »

Room Service Please!

Sep 292011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who doesn’t love room ser­vice? When I think of relax­ation and some­thing spe­cial, I think room ser­vice. While wait­ing to have a nice hot meal deliv­ered to your door, you can be watch­ing re-runs of Sein­feld on your dreamy bed. It’s my love of this lux­ury that made me think of my lat­est gift creation.

“Room ser­vice please” is what I’m call­ing this cus­tomized gift that is per­fect for so many occa­sions, such as an anniver­sary or a new baby arrival. Basi­cally you’re giv­ing some­one the gift of a home­made meal deliv­ered to their front door. Since pre­sen­ta­tion is every­thing, so they say, I’ve pro­vided some ideas and free down­loads so you can give that per­fectly wrapped present!

What to do:

  • Pur­chase a con­tainer whether it be a casse­role dish or a cute pot. Be sure it is some­thing that will store your meal.
  • Get rib­bons, twine, a unique pen­cil, mini clothes­pins, fresh herb cut­tings, etc…to wrap up your pack­age. (see photos)
  • Fig­ure out what din­ner options you’d like to offer. Then go to my free down­load below and cus­tomize yours. Name your “restau­rant” some­thing clever. It was my friends 11th wed­ding anniver­sary so I called it, “Bistro Eleven”.
  • To make your door hanger I have also pro­vided a free down­load below for your con­ve­nience. You just need to fill in the blanks.

Tips:

For the gift I gave, I required 48 hours notice to be given. I also requested for them to put the door hanger on my door with their order filled out. Have them drop the dish off at this time as well. If you pre­fer, you could have them put it on their door and ask that they shoot you a text when they do. (this really only will work well if you live close to one another) If you think this would be an incon­ve­nience, you can have instruc­tions on the door hanger or menu that tells them to e-mail you their order for example.

Free menu down­load found here.

Free room ser­vice door hanger down­load found here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share
 33 Responses »

What Is A Plantsphere?

Sep 152011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A plantsphere (yes, I made that word up) is my lat­est cre­ation. I love this mod­ern twist on a ter­rar­ium.  My inspi­ra­tion for this DIY project comes from designer Shane Pow­ers and his Hang­ing Glass Bub­ble Col­lec­tion at West Elm. You can make this in under 10 min­utes and for less than $6. I repur­posed an empty orna­ment globe by remov­ing the cap then adding sand, embell­ish­ments and the very low main­te­nance air plant, Tillandsia.

Idea:

Plantspheres make a per­fect DIY gift for any­one! (teach­ers, host­ess gift, wed­ding favor, get well soon, etc…) Wrap them up care­fully in some­thing unex­pected like a take out Chi­nese food box or put one nes­tled in a bas­ket filled with rafia. (you can find them at most craft stores like Michaels)

 

 

 

Step by step tuto­r­ial here:

Post by Style­bag­gage con­trib­u­tor — Colleen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share
 23 Responses »

Repurpose Your Wine Corks

Aug 252011
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This might be my favorite way of repur­pos­ing used wine corks. (besides the wine cork mulch idea) Instead of using pre­dictable store bought charms, name tags or dif­fer­ent col­ored rib­bons, I used dif­fer­ent win­ery corks for my wine tags. The next time you have a party and don’t want to run out of glasses, this is the per­fect thing to have on hand. Every­one will know which glass is theirs by their wine maker. It’s also a great con­ver­sa­tion starter. Every­one can chat about their par­tic­u­lar win­ery and if and what they drink from there, etc…

Go from this:

To this:



 

 TUTORIAL HERE
  • I think mak­ing a dozen of these and putting them in a clear bag or dec­o­ra­tive chi­nese take out box would be a great gift! Think host­ess gift, thank you, co-workers, neigh­bors, mother-in-law, boss, brother, teacher, me…well you get the idea.
  • If you plan on doing a trip to the wine coun­try, you could col­lect all your dif­fer­ent corks and make tags from them. Then when you use them, you’ll think back on the good mem­o­ries you had on that spe­cial vacation

 


Share
 31 Responses »
Page 1 of 212