girlFRUGAL

All my life I've had one dream, to achieve my many goals.

2010-07-12T10:32:00.019-04:00

My goal of blogging about my projects has been a dismal failure. I continued to craft and not take any pictures of what I was doing! Horrible, horrible.

Below are finished projects with some comments, but no before pictures. Sorry!

Sleep
I found some wooden rectangles at the local Salvation Army for $1.05 for nine of them. No idea what I wanted to do with them. I bought them on the same day I bought my key holder board. I decided my mantle in the bedroom was a bit empty, so I pulled out some pretty scrapbook paper. I applied it to the wooden pieces with some Mod Podge (adore this stuff). I printed out some large letters onto regular printer paper, which is always too thin for my tastes. So, I cut out the letters and used Mod Podge to adhere them to the blue scrapbook paper. Once dry, I cut them out and they were much sturdier. Used Mod Podge again to put them on my wooden pieces. If you look closely, the same pattern is on the letter and on the wood. They're just different colors.

Painted Bottles/Vases
I saw this on Starshine Chic and knew I wanted to try it! I bought the bottles at the local Goodwill for $0.50 each and the round vase I already had. Painting the inside was pretty easy and I kept rolling them while watching TV. I think I'm going to keep the lids on the bottles. They look pretty cool that way.

Hazel the Cat
She's inspired a few projects. Since I scored the free Scrabble set, I used some of those tiles to spell out her name. I covered a wooden rectangle leftover from the sleep project with two different scrapbook papers and mod podge. Then I added the tiles with some glue and it was finished. Next to the Hazel sign is a small wooden plaque that I painted using the same paint that I used for the blue bottle (LOVE the color). Photoshop had the little template for the cat, so I sized it to fit and cut it out. Used it as a stencil and painted it on.

Linking to:

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Not if you called 'em stench blossoms.

2010-06-30T19:39:00.006-04:00

I have some leftover wood from a project my Boy and I embarked on together. It was our first time using Mod Podge, spray adhesive, and stain. It didn't turn out too well, but we had scrap wood! They sat around for a few months because I didn't know what to do with them. I finally sat down with it over the weekend and painted the board. I thought I was going to put one of my favorite Simpsons' quote on it: "Unlike most of you, I am not a nut!"

I let the paint dry while watching "A Haunting" with my Boy. Then I decided to use the painter's tape to put a border on. I decided to paint it Robin's Egg Blue and found that the colors are perfect for our bedroom.

I remember a while back finding these nifty branches on Martha Stewart's website. I thought those would be perfect to put on the wood. I printed out the templates onto some transparency sheets and started cutting. This. Took. Forever. My Boy was watching Lie to Me, an hour long show, and when it was finished, I was, too. I had cut out one template! I was too impatient to sit there and cut out the other template. I had to see if my idea would work out. I didn't cut out the branch well and the Boy held onto parts of it while I tried to stencil with a non-stencil brush.

Here's the scrap wood:

Here it is painted lightly with a tan-ish color:

Painter's tape all around:

I hate measuring anything and the painter's tape was the perfect guide for getting nice straight lines

Robin's Egg Blue:

My stenciling. It was incredibly time consuming cutting out the shapes from the transparency paper, but well worth it, I think.

All in all though, I liked the way they turned out. Considering that I used everything I had on hand and paid nothing for it. :) I sanded it down a bit and I still need to apply a clear coat on it, but I'm happy with it!

Linking to:

So...do you...like stuff?

2010-06-29T19:55:00.006-04:00

I do. I adore it. I adore it even more when it's free!

I like using freecycle for well, free things. It's usually my go to when I don't want to buy stuff, but want to craft. Yesterday, I was lucky enough to score the following:

The cat is mine. She insists on being in photographs that I don't want her in. The baskets were free and so was the Scrabble game. I've been looking for some Scrabble tiles so I can work on stuff like this:

Image from Oh That's So Cute

I'm excited to give the pendants a try!

Oh, stupid bird! I never should have put you in charge!

2010-06-28T07:41:00.004-04:00

My fiancee and I had a Friday tradition of having dinner at a local restaurant named Sara's and then heading off to the nearby Goodwill before it closed at 8PM. It was on one of those jaunts that I found this for $1.00.

I loved the shape and even the cute bird picture inside it. I initially wanted to spray paint it with some ORB I had, but the colors in the bird picture didn't go with much around my apartment. So, I broke out some Heirloom White, since that would go better.

I loved how it came out! Now, I only needed something to put inside the frame. Of course, I headed over to The Graphics Fairy and found this cute egg picture. I fitted the image into the frame and tada -- I was finished!

Linking to:

I asked for ketchup, I'm eating salad here!

2010-06-27T08:04:00.002-04:00

I'm not fond of my kitchen. Since I'm renting there's not much I can do about the things I dislike, such as the lack of a back splash and how there are gaps in between things (like in between the stove and the cabinets). So, I work around these things and hope for more from my next rental.

The cabinets in the kitchen are painted red, also another thing I'm not fond of. There is a space above the sink that's empty and in need of decorating. I don't like spending too much money on decorating so I had to be creative...and lucky. I found a $15 credit in my email account the other day for CSN stores that had been there since November of last year! I bought a clock from then and then I headed over to Hobby Lobby and bought three small wooden plaques (2/$1), some red acrylic paint ($0.59), and three packs of wooden letters ($0.77/each).

And this is what I came up with. Plaques were painted red and I used some spray adhesive to get the paper to hold (which I already had). I love using Mod Podge for this sort of thing, but I'm running low and saving it for other projects. I use sandpaper to get cleaner edges. I always end up with uneven cuts with scissors, especially if I'm cutting non rectangular or square shapes. I think I'm going to make some crafty changes to the clock...it just doesn't seem to go. Any ideas? My boy also pointed out that the 'T' is lower than the other letters and now that's bugging me too!

Now that it's above my sink I realize that maybe I should have spelled out 'clean' instead of 'eat'...

Linking to:

To start, press any key. Where's the any key??

2010-06-03T10:24:00.017-04:00

I saw this adorable key holder on Made by Stephie and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this piece I had. I have no before picture, but here's the back of it to give you an idea of what it looked like. It's exactly the same since it's the back, heh.

It cost $1.05 at a local Salvation Army so I had to buy it! It sat around for a good 4 months before I decided on the key holder.

I painted it with some vanilla acrylic paint I had on hand. I found the paint and the cute scrapbook paper at Michael's. I used spray adhesive on the paper to stick it to the wood. After, I covered the whole thing with Mod Podge to seal it. I bought these mug hooks at Wal-Mart. I got 4 for $0.97. I tried to not drill holes in the wood and just screw it in, but that didn't work for me. I had to drill the holes; I was getting nowhere after the screws were almost in, so then I used to use pliers to grip the hooks and turn them. Pain in the butt!

Here it is, painted and Mod-Podge:

A little more detail:

The weird thing is I've never had a key holder. I started the project at night and left the adhesive so it would stick well. I woke up at 5AM to use the bathroom and then heard my car alarm go off! I rushed around trying to find my keys, since they weren't in their usual spot. Where were they? On my crafting table where I never leave them.

I looked over at my fiancee Dave and said, "It's a good thing I'm making that key holder now."

The car was fine, but here is the key holder again, with keys:

Linking to:

i'm shaving my shoulders, gettin' it all shaved off

2010-06-03T10:06:00.027-04:00

The titles are odd, I know, but I like using quotes from The Simpsons. :D

This is probably the project I'm most proud of, so it goes up first! I bought a letter holder at The Salvation Army. I have no before picture of the letter holder, but here's the back of it to give you of an idea of what color it was. Since it would be sitting on top of my counter against the wall, I didn't bother wasting paint on the bottom and back of it.

The shape was good and I liked that it was only $0.55! But, of course, like most of my projects, I had no idea what I was going to do with it since I already had a letter holder at home. I knew that I could do something with it, so I snatched it up.

A few days later it dawned on me that I ~~needed~~ wanted a towel holder in my bathroom, so why not use the letter holder? I sanded it down as best I could and painted it a sage green. I found a cute graphic on The Graphics Fairy to use. I Mod Podged the graphic on and applied two top coats.

Here it is with hand towels:

Linking to: