Washcloth Transformation

I love it when I find a project for something that I actually need- not just something that would be fun to make, but then what will I do with it?! Even better if I already have everything I need!

This project came at exactly the perfect time! I couldn't believe it! I had been trying to think of the best way to transport all of my teeth cleaning tools for an upcoming trip to Arizona when I stumbled across this tutorial for a Washcloth Toiletry Travel Wrap. I seriously couldn't believe my luck! It was exactly what I needed!

 All you need for this project is a sewing machine (though I suppose you could do it by hand), a washcloth, some ribbon, and any embellishments you might want. I decided to do a button snap closure on mine, rather than deal with tying and untying the ribbon.

 I trimmed the fringes off each end and did a zigzag stitch over them to prevent them from fraying. Then I folded up the bottom of the wash cloth, determined how many slots I wanted and how big they needed to be and did a basic straight stitch to create the pockets.  Finally,  I stitched the ribbon to one side of the cloth, sewed on my snaps and embellishments, and in under an hour:

 Tada!!!

 It snaps open and closed very easily!

Unrolls nicely to hold everything I need, including my toothpaste and floss!

I decided to add a flap to the top to ensure that everything stayed neatly in place, not to mention clean and covered. I was worried that this would be a nuisance, but it hasn't been a bother at all!

Even with everything tucked away inside, it folds up nice and neat! It worked out so perfect on our trip, and I am actually still using it now that I'm home. This was such a fun and easy project! Made better by the fact that it is useful!!

Story Stones

When I realized that I was going to be going to Arizona, I wanted to make up something to give to my friend for her kids. I'd had this idea in the back of my mind for a long time, but had never done anything with it. With summer looming, I realized that these Story Stones might just be a good way to keep her kids busy!

 This project is really very simple and a lot of fun! You could even get your kids involved with making it!

 All you need is:

Glass stones

(from Dollar Tree, the big ones. I bought two bags, around 30-40 stones)

A Glue stick

Mod Podge or Elmer's Glue

a foam brush

variety of small pictures

For my pictures, I went online and did clip art searches for everything from food, to animals, clothes to toys. I copied and pasted them into a publication and printed them up (each picture should be around an inch, but you can measure your stones to be sure!).  You could technically use stickers, but I like putting the picture on the underneath of the stone rather than to the top. When they are face up, the stone acts as a magnifying glass for the picture!

Step One:

Once your pictures are cut out, take your glue stick and put a bit of glue on the flat bottom of the stone. Place your picture face up onto the stone (in other words, the picture side will be stuck to the glue).

Do this one at a time, setting them aside to let the glue dry.

Step Two:

Put a dab of Mod Podge or Elmer's Glue on the back of the stone (I do a few stones at a time, it goes faster, but don't do too many. In the time it takes to get through them all, the glue can soften and warp the picture). Using your foam brush, spread the glue smoothly onto the back of each stone. Set them aside to dry.

Step Three:

Once the stones are dry, repeat Step Two. This gives it a nice seal. By the time I got through all of the stones (I made around 30-35), the first ones were dry and I was able to repeat the process right away. After the second coat, they will take longer to dry.

Step Four:

Give them to your kids and let their imaginations run wild! The older kids can write short stories based off of the stones,  and the younger ones will enjoy looking at all of the bright colors and pictures!

Happy gluing!

Cake Pan Transformation

Okay, I admit I felt a bit silly over this particular transformation project. However, I decided to persevere and see it through, regardless. Even knowing that it possibly would end up in the trash.

Weeks of work later, I now have a pretty and very sturdy cake pan serving tray.

For several years... yes, I said years.... I have been holding onto this rusty cake pan. It was a brand new pan, I just made the mistake of sending it through the dishwasher and it came out rusty. Argh! I was so annoyed, I simply couldn't throw it away. I tried over and over to get rid of the rust, and it would go away for a while, then come back. Rust does that. That's why when something is rusty, sometimes it's best to just throw it away.

The more I talk about this, the sillier I feel for holding on to that old cake pan.

However, I finally made up my mind what I was going to do with it! Step one, however, was to come up with a solution for the rust problem. Since I couldn't seem to make it go away, I was going to have to cover it up. After talking to an expert (aka, my dad), we agreed that if I painted the pan, then sealed it with poly-urethane that the rust wouldn't be able to come through.

 I'm not sure what made me settle on pink, but after trying several other colors, when I saw the final project, I am glad that I did.

 As I painted, new rust spots actually came through. I painted and I painted, but nothing was covering those rust spots. Finally, I decided that since the inside of the pan was going to be covered anyway, I wasn't going to worry about it.

Day after day, I painted this pan, layer after layer, waiting for a nice day in Northern Utah in spring (few and far between) so that I could poly-urethane the pan!  Finally, a half-way decent snow-free day came! My pan was ready, I'd finished crocheting the liner a week earlier... it was time!

I am really glad that I saw this project through to the end. For one thing, the crochet liner, my general conference weekend project,  was a lot of work and I'm not sure what I would have done with it had the tray not... "panned out".

Besides, it turned out so incredibly pretty! I love it! The liner covers up any rust spots that exist, and the polyurethane is preventing it from rusting anymore! I love my cake pan tray! It's useful, pretty, and I didn't have to throw away my cake pan!

Mother's Day

When I started this card for my mom for Mother's Day,

I never intended that the pearls would look like a child's handwriting. I decided that it worked and went with it anyway! It's fitting for a Mother's Day card, don't you think?

The card for my sister came out even better than I hoped, and she loved it, which made it perfect!

Lamp Transformations

For my birthday, I bought myself a set of lamps. Wasn't that a sweet thing to do? I have been on the lookout for new lamps for over a year. Not just any lamps. Of course I wanted to create my own lamp, but I've had so many ideas running around in my head that I couldn't settle on just one! So, I've been looking, instead, for good, cheap bases that I could work with. Finally, that's exactly what I found!! For less than $10 for two, I finally found lamps with potential!

 Now, I don't know what image pops into your mind when I say "lamps", but these are so unusual that I doubt you are picturing anything like this:

 Weird, right? As soon as I saw them (and especially after I saw the price on the clearance sticker), my mind was racing! They had so much possibility! There was so much I could do! I could work with them as they are, or I could completely dismantle them for parts! I admit I wasn't overly fond of the green- it reminded me of the green shag carpet I had in my bedroom when I was growing up.

Yes, that's right. Green. Shag. Carpet. Pretty.

These lamps sat in my room for a while as I tried to decide exactly what I was going to do with them. Part of the problem was that I had so many ideas, I couldn't choose just one. I was hesitant to do anything permanent that I might not like. So, after much consideration, I decided to play with some ideas that could be easily undone when/ if I changed my mind.  These are my "first editions", and possibly will be changed someday. Until then, I love them!

I love oriental patterns and designs. My artistic abilities aren't the best, and this didn't come out as well as I had hoped, but given the fact that I drew it free hand, although it could be better, it could definitely be worse! (In case you are wondering, the script is Japanese for "Peace")

After working on this for a few days, I decided to do something a little different with the second lamp.

Both designs are super basic and simple. Both are easy to undo, should I change my mind. I started by covering the green base in plain black paper. In both cases, the design elements I chose- the drawing in the first and the doilies in the second- are simply slid underneath the plastic that is covering the lamp shades.

I love the way the base creates its' own shelf-like element. I love my birds but also considered stacking a few small books inside, or a bundle of flowers. What I love the most is that I can change them anytime, very easily! I love my $5.00 lamps, with all their potential!



Earrings

Before the bracelets, I hadn't been making very much jewelry. I was actually so discouraged that I considered giving all of my beading supplies to my sister. I made myself hold onto them, though, knowing I would be glad to have them someday. Of course once I started the bracelets, I was happy to have held onto them. This morning, I was in a pinch, and it was so nice to be able to go to my supplies and walk away with a new pair of earrings!

 One of the bracelets I made was of shiny black pearls, and I love it! It goes beautifully with my new dress- not to mention, I love pearls! However, as I was getting ready for church this morning, I realized that I didn't have any earrings that would match. Since I am relying heavily on earrings and bracelets to feel dolled up these days, I knew that simply would not do!

I thought that they came out very pretty! I may play with them a bit in the future, but they were absolutely perfect today!

The Jewelry Project

Ever since my divorce, I have found it impossible to wear rings, uncomfortable to wear jewelry in general. For me, this has been a bit of a struggle! My fingers feel naked! I can wear earrings, and even the occasional necklace, but rings just feel wrong on my fingers.What options does that leave?

I needed a bracelet.

I realized that I don't have many bracelets, and the ones I do have are pretty old and tarnished. So, I set out on the search for the perfect bracelet.

Easier said than done, especially since I didn't exactly know what the perfect bracelet would be! I tried many times to make my own bracelet at home, but none of them seemed right. So, I patiently held out hope that someday soon the perfect bracelet would find me!

I was at Walmart- of all places- browsing through jewelry, not holding out hope for anything, when I stumbled across these pretty beaded bracelets with silver tags. Each tag had a different word on it, "Faith", "Love", "Peace" "Family", and "Courage". They were very pretty, and I liked the idea, but none of them seemed quite right. Either I didn't like the tag, or I didn't like the color of the beads. But for some reason, I simply couldn't walk away. Right as I was getting ready to give up, I flipped one of the tags over and realized that there was writing on both sides.  I flipped over each tag, curious to see what they said. They were nice, but none of them were quite right. Until I came to the last one. "Courage". Underneath it read "to know yourself". This was not at all what I expected! But it was perfect.

When I started this "project", I didn't actually realize that it was going to be a "project", so I didn't take pictures of the bracelet before I did some construction on it.  My plan was to remove the beaded part of the bracelet, which was attached by metal rings, and string up a new set of beads. As I was going through my beads, I realized that I couldn't decide what beads to choose! Then it hit me. Why choose one?

These are the beads from the original bracelet. I removed the metal rings and attached lobster claw closures to each end. 

Once I got started, I realized that the possibilities were endless!  I made so many that I had to go back to the store to get more clasps! I also have a few charms that I can link on also. The little crown is my favorite!

 Each strand of beads are strung on plastic stretchy cord so that I can slip them on and off easily.

Because the message is meant more for me, I tend to wear the beads facing up, though I don't fret too much about how it sits.



I love that I can have a message of encouragement with me everywhere I go, and I can change it to fit my needs for the day! I had no idea when I saw this bracelet that it would turn into something more!

This is my favorite jewelry project ever! And the best part of it is, it can be ongoing! I know that there are more bracelets to come!