Upcycle Archives - Yearning to Create

Bottlecap Magnets

I needed some new magnets for my fridge – to hold up all those things I love to get like pictures, quotes, wedding and grad invitations, etc. So I was at The Craft Store spending the rest of my Christmas Gift Card. (I love it when my guy gives me things like this – and he likes it too! The gift card comes with him babysitting too so I can go shopping alone and find things I really want!!!) So I was looking at their cute little bottle caps, but they were pretty pricey and so I passed them by – but I really wanted them!!!

My next stop was to the thrift store when SCORE!!! I found bottle caps!!! Way more bottle caps and other do-dads my girls will enjoy for way less than they were at the other place.

So I hunkered down that evening to create my magnets in the blues, greens and brown I like.

They had a few colours in the kit that worked, but mostly I just punched out scrapbook paper. I added a few embellishments to some of them and then covered them in the glaze that came in the kit too. Mod Podge would have worked fine also. Glue magnets on the back and it’s done.

And now I have some darling new magnets that cost me pennies. And I still have ten more for some future time – like kids lockers? Words and pictures would be really cute too.

Still can’t decide which one I like the best!

Now comes the fun of arranging them . . .

. . . recognize anyone or anything?

The fridge already looks different from when I took the pictures!

I enjoy my fridge photo gallery. Soon it will be loaded with Grad Invites, and other times of the year it’s loaded with Wedding Invitations (and I keep them all in a box once the event has passed!).

What do you prefer – loaded fridge doors or the clean uncluttered look?

How to Make a Chalkboard from a Cupboard Door

Before my daughters wedding, I was scrounging around in the garage, looking for stuff that we might be able to up-cycle into something wedding worthy. Well, I found a cupboard door!

I painted the outside edge in my leftover laundry room paint (Grey Morning by Behr), which happened to match her wedding colours perfectly! I sanded the edges a little and distressed them with my tube of Burnt Umber Oil Colour (best and easiest way to distress anything!)

The middle part I painted with chalkboard paint – two coats. Super easy!

The result was a chalkboard!!!

This was the perfect way to greet our wedding guests as they came through the doors. And it was perfect for pointing out which way they should go.

This was our practice set-up at home in our unfinished basement. Looking at it now, I realize it was quite the recycling project – old cupboard door, old chair, old topiary, old spindles – all up-cycled to become . . .

. . . the perfect wedding entryway!

Now my plan is to either hang it horizontally above a window or door in my house, or vertically on a narrow wall. Since it’s a chalkboard, I can make it say anything I want! And I can take it down and use it again as a welcome sign. It’s already had “Welcome to New Beginnings” written on it. It also fits very well in a small easel – the kind you would use to hold a 12 x 12 tile – which is how we propped the chalkboard up for New Beginnings.

I think this old cupboard door is loving it’s new life!!!

Make Your Own Stencil

Not every project always turns out the way you hope it will! So just ignore my end result and instead, learn how you can make your own stencil.

Here’s a natural coloured wicker basket I got from a thrift store. It’s a nice sturdy box and the perfect size for holding library DVD’s and remotes. I spray painted it Almond and it looked great, but I wanted to add a little more. I really like stars so I decided to paint a little star on one side.

I didn’t have any star stencils that I liked, so I decided to make my own. The first step was to google star clip-art and find the star shape and size that I wanted.

You need Con-Tact paper for this job. I like to get the clear stuff, but any kind would work (this is the type of paper that you would line a drawer with – it’s sticky on one side).

Cut off a small piece so it’s easier to work with.

Put your con-tact paper over your star (or whatever) and trace it on the paper side.

Cutting it out would be the next logical step.

Now, when you peel the paper off the sticky side, you’re left with something that resembles this – a stencil!!!

I stuck my stencil to my basket and then wrapped the blanket all around so I wouldn’t get my dark spray paint on the wicker.

And then I sprayed it Oil Rubbed Bronze – a couple of light coats.

When I peeled away the blanket and the stencil, I wasn’t too thrilled with the results.

The lines weren’t as crisp as I had hoped, and somehow I got dark paint near the top of the basket (didn’t I put a blanket there?).

So then I thought of a new plan . . .

. . . using the inside piece of my stencil.

I put it over the dark spray painted star, and proceeded to spray paint the basket again – using the almond colour! Pretty brilliant I must admit.

And how’d that turn out?

Can you find it?

Let’s zoom in a little . . .

. . . and there it is, not looking too too bad. I could always turn it around, or I was thinking I just might attach a rusty metal star to it.

In our last house we built a beautiful wall unit – cupboards below, TV spot, and bookshelves on each side. Alas, it was attached to the house and had to stay there. But we have something similar in mind for this wall. In the meantime we make do with our $10 dresser that was sturdy enough for the TV and DVD’s. But it will be years before we tackle that wall unit – I think even just some new knobs would make a big difference! Those fancy brass things just aren’t making me happy.

So the star project turned out okay – not great. But now you know a simple way to make a stencil to paint anything on anything!!! Just remember, if you’re doing words or letters, figure it out so nothing is backwards. And obviously, spray paint can get under blankets! I think my problem was simply that the basket weave was too loose so the spray paint could easily get under the stencil because I couldn’t press it down firmly.

New Look for Lamp

I’ve had this lamp for a few years – I have absolutely no idea where it came from! My guy may have got it from a garage sale or something. It works – it provides light, but I’m really not loving the brass anymore. It used to be fine hiding in a corner of the family room, but now, not so great.

(Please imagine a lovely stone fireplace in the left side of the photo – someday that black paper and wire mesh will be covered!)

Close up of the details before I get happy with the spray paint.

Now, this marble base I really like.

So I got busy with masking tape because that’s all I could find. I taped of every last square millimeter of marble. Then off to the garage to spray paint with my Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze – took about 3-4 coats from various angles.

While the paint was drying, I tackled the lamp shade. I’d like to get a new one, but for now a good vacuum of the shade worked wonders!

Then I took some natural polished hemp twine and started wrapping it around the edges of the lamp – top and bottom. Hot glue gunned it on every few inches. I used four layers to get my edges covered nicely. No burned fingers for this glue gun expert!!!

Ready to see my “new” lamp?

Oh so much better!!! And don’t you love the marble base? And I even remembered to spray paint the little finial at the very top.

Darn! Should have spray painted the cord!

And here are the detailed parts. No brass is showing through – it just looks that way with the flash.

And finally, a shot with the light on.

I love how the edges of the lampshade look so dark when the light is on. Yup, I’m certainly lovin’ the new look of my lamp. And if someday I get tired of the dark base, I’ll go search for a new colour of spray paint!

How to Give Old Frames a New Use

I got these picture frames at a garage sale. I really liked the teal colour, but the gold wasn’t working for me. I didn’t know how I could keep the teal and hide the gold, so I decided it was all going to change via spraypaint.

We’ll come back to the frames in a minute – let me show you one of my pet peeves . . .

. . . crumbs from the toaster all over the counter!!!

When I was designing my new kitchen, I planned a nice little cupboard on the counter to house messy things like toasters. Imagine my dismay when the electrician said that he can’t put an electrical outlet in the cupboard – it’s against code to have an outlet in a closed space. And I can appreciate that – I’d rather have my house not burn down. But it means the ugly toaster and crumbs still get to dominate my countertop.

(I love to look at these beautiful kitchens on display in blogworld, but where do they keep things like toasters? Do they hide them away and bring them out when needed? We use our toaster way too much to not keep it on the counter! Oh, wait! Maybe those spectacular kitchens are just set up for photo shoots and don’t usually look that way! Now I feel better!)

So . . . I decided to fix my crumb problem!

I spray painted my frames Oil Rubbed Bronze. And then I chose fabric to go under the glass. I also glued a little square of felt in each corner on the bottom of the frame so it wouldn’t scratch the surface I put it on.

And there we have it . . .

. . . a crumb catcher for the toaster!!!

Once in a while, a stray crumb dares to escape outside it’s boundary, but that’s easy enough to wipe up. I love how it’s kept my counters crumb free in that area.

(Someday my kitchen will be finished – there will be subway tile covering all these primed walls, and the switch plates will be on, and crown molding, etc. And then I will post a picture of my finished kitchen – and it will have toasters and knives and cutting boards on the counter, because . . . we live in this kitchen!)

And this is how I decorate cookies for my kids . . .

. . . I take them to Storyhour and let them do it themselves! They love to create too! (I did the one with the green eyes on the top plate!)

So, what did I do with the other frame?

It got a piece of burlap under the glass and sits on an end table in the living room. It makes a nice anchor for table displays.

As I snapped the photo, my two-year-old popped into it, pointing at the picture and excitedly saying . . .

“It’s you, Mommy! It’s you!”

And as she pointed to the youngest girl in the picture saying “It’s me!” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that she wasn’t actually in the picture – she hadn’t blessed our family with her arrival yet.

Love it!!!

(And the candlesticks came from the same garage sale! When are you having another one Mary?)

Edited much later to add:

Look!!! The kitchen did eventually get finished! And the toaster looks great still sitting there with its crumb catcher under it!

Wicker Facelift

I found this thing at a thrift store. My best guess would be that it might be used for carrying wine bottles. But since I don’t drink wine, I decided it would make a pretty cute wicker vase.

The first step was to cut off the lid.

(My 13 year old, who doesn’t play with Barbie’s anymore, decided that the little latch part would make a perfect Barbie sized noose. So I tossed it before we got some disturbing Barbie things going on!)

Looks better already!!!

Then I took that bottle of Almond spray paint and went to work – in a well ventilated place of course! That stuff stinks.

I did two coats and then flipped it over and did my third coat to cover the bottom and catch the rest of it at a different angle.

And there it is – an adorable and cheap wicker vase! (love spray paint!) Warning: Do not use with flowers that will require water unless you put a narrow vase inside first.

Add some dollar store berry twigs and there you have it!!!

Now I just have to find a cuter spot for it, but that will come as I unpack those mounds of boxes! Still tons of things to find homes for.

I have found that since I discovered the joys of spray paint, I shop differently now – especially at thrift stores and garage sales. Colour doesn’t matter anymore – it’s the bones that count!!!

My Little Tin

This cute little tin was a Christmas gift – filled with delicious homemade chocolates. Mmmm, someone knows my weakness (and yes, I ate them all myself – but not all at once!).

My mom grew up in NZ and used the word “tin” all the time. But it doesn’t seem all that common here in North America in the context she used it.

English lesson time here: when I say “tin” I’m referring to the noun, meaning “a pan, box, etc., made of tin” as opposed to the adjective – eg. a tin can. Tin, as we all know, is “a soft, silver-white metallic chemical element”. My guys says that not everybody knows that, but now that I’ve typed it, you all know now!

Anyway, I liked the tin – it’s a nice size and the lid is hinged in the back. I’ve got plenty of things already that are just for Christmas, so I decided to give this little tin a new look so I could use it year round.

Bring on the spray paint!!!

This was after three coats of spray paint. I know it looks like you can still see the red showing through – but it only looks like that in the picture with the flash. In real life it looks like . . .

. . . this – nice and dark. I used Oil Rubbed Bronze Krylon spray paint that I got in Walmart for about $4.64 a can (that’s a pretty accurate estimate!). I used maybe $1.02 worth of spray paint on this.

As you can see, I prettied it up a little with some natural hemp twine.

And now it sits on my dresser, being a cute little catch-all for those things we collect like buttons, pins, pennies, library cards . . . etc.

Love my tin (the box, not the metallic chemical element).

It really is amazing how spray paint can transform anything – how did I not discover it years ago? Stay tuned for some more spray paint projects!

Oh, and you can check out my Forget Not project here.

Now, go spray something!!!

My Kitchen Hours

It’s no secret that I really don’t like to cook or spend time in the kitchen. However, I do love to eat!!! If it weren’t for that love of eating, and the fact that my family needs to eat to survive, I’d probably never enter the kitchen! So when my daughter Elle gave me this plaque for Christmas, I was thrilled!!! Now I had an excuse if there was no supper prepared!!! “Oh, sorry, the kitchen was closed today!”

Isn’t that perfect for me? And I especially love the words she wrote on the back: The rest of the box was filled with chocolate covered almonds – yup, she knows me well!!!

So I love the words, but the colours were not going to match the kitchen in the new house we’re building. And I needed to make it a little more “me”. My problem was, all my craft paints were packed in a box somewhere and I didn’t want to buy new paints when I already have a million colours. So finally, I bought a little palette of about 12 colours – you know, the kind you would get if you bought a paint-by-number kit. And I set to work painting. Some things took a couple coats, like covering the red tomatoes.

Ready to see the after picture?

And a little bit of distressing and antiquing the edges and – I love it!!! Much more “me” now!!!

And it matches my future kitchen so much better now! I can’t stop looking at it!!!

One Huge Frame

I found a treasure – big old ugly brown frame at our band garage sale for about $0.25. I just knew I’d be able to get a lot off use out of this frame once it was prettied up!

It looked so cute after a few coats of spray paint. I believe the colour was Ocean Breeze by Krylon.

The first time we used it was part of a photo wall at Grad . . .

. . . it’s the big one with the blue couple inside it.

Then we used it during engagement photo’s for my daughter.

I love the sky, the wheat, the frame, the couple!!!

And finally, we turned it into a chalkboard for their wedding!

My guy cut me a piece of 1/8″ melamine in whatever measurement the back of my frame was. Then I gave it two coats of chalkboard paint. Now this was the hard part – attaching the chalkboard to the back of the frame. I used duct tape and taped it on!!! That way I can easily take it out when I just want a frame again.