Recycled snowmen

Went to the thrifty shops after the dentist yesterday and had so much fun.  I would just stand and stare at things. Finally settled on bringing home a bunch of snowmen.  My brother and his family came today and brought pizza for lunch.  He and his son fixed my KeroSun space heater so I could warm up the garage.  I needed a large place to play today.  :o)

Everything at the thrifty store was half off so this little gem was $2.99.  I unassembled it and tossed the words.  Gave me 7 snowmen to play with!

The hat on this little Santa got saved - the rest got boxed up for another idea later on.  :o)

The little hat went on this guy.  A snowman in a tuxedo?  Just too cute for words!!!  He has "tails" in the back of the jacket!

I think this was a quarter….

This one was 47 cents….

another quarter for this….when they are so cheap, I just have to bring them home!!!

The sleigh is pretty well chewed up.  wood showing through the paint.  I thought about stripping it, but decided I'd just be lazy!  Only $4 for this.



After taking everything apart, I used my low temp glue gun to reassemble all the little snowmen on top of the sleigh.

And then I put it outside on my patio table.  I counted up and I have a total of $8.00 in this entire thing and it is just too cute!  Someone else's trash is definitely my treasures!  Hope it puts a smile on your face!

But oops!  I realized you could see the sleigh where the paint had worn off.  NOT good!  I had parts of an old wreath that I took apart even more and then glued it around the base.  Well, I do think it's complete now!  Will wait and put it back outside on the table in the morning.  Going to enjoy it inside tonight!  :o)

I just get the biggest kick out of recycling stuff!  I hope you all will continue to take what you don't want to the thrifty store so I can continue to have this much fun!!!

More ideas for your copic airbrush

On the third Thursday evening each month, we have a girls night out at the local scrapbook store.  I take a different topic each month and share ideas. I think using the copic airbrush system was probably the most fun night I've had!  Of course...it's "work" for me to come up with creative uses for some of the products I play with, but this was just plain fun!

I found this old wire basket at a thrift store - it was browns, greens, reds and oranges and I just do not like those colors at all.  I sprayed the entire thing white - using a 2 part primer and paint spray.  Then I "hit" spots with pink and mint copics and now I love how it looks!  I love how the airbrush fades to the white edges.   Yes....full of cards I've made in the past few months - great way to store them.

The airbrush is great for giving fresh color back to doll cheeks and skin....but not on this little cutie!  She's wearing a Bonnie Jean dress I picked up for $2.49.  I was able to trace the flower petal pattern, cut it out in white satin, airbrush the satin pink and make the matching flower to add to the hat.

Airbrushing fabric is so easy and can give added color to existing fabric (no you probably can't wash it but I'll never wash this dolls hat) or create matching fabric to any project your are working on.  What have you airbrushed lately?

Bitty Baby - found a new home

I love going to thrift stores!  And I can usually find fun stuff - like this Bitty Baby - for only $2.99!!!  Yes, she needed a little cleaning, but worth every penny!

So, if you're a mom with little kids and you don't have any time to sew clothes for either the Bitty Baby or any American Girl doll, here's my tip.....look for Carter's clothes in the new born size - look for labels that say 5 - 8 pounds:

Well, yes, the tops are a bit too long!

But just cut them off at the hips, which gives you enough room to hem the shirt (I don't even bother doing that!)

Just tuck them into the pants, add a hat, and you have a precious outfit that turns a naked doll into a tiny sweetheart!  Here, my new bitty baby is sitting with her "older sister" which is yet another doll I got at the estate sale and restrung, re-wigged, and added her to my growing collection.  They are sitting with a bear that my son gave me years ago, next to a pillow that was embroidered by a friend's mom.  It won 1st place in a fair!  Behind the dolls, you can just see the tips of a pair of pillowcases that my great aunt Nellie embroidered.  Obviously, I do not store things that are given to me - I put them out on display!

The shirt was $1.99, the pants were $.99, and the hat was $.59.  I cannot make clothes that cheaply!

Speaking of my son, here is the outfit that he wore when we brought him home from the hospital.  I've kept it all these years!  I think it's high time I find a doll that will fit into this.  Maybe even another bitty baby?  Jason was a premie by 6 weeks, weighing in at only 6lb.  Imagine how big he would have been had he been born 6 weeks later?  I still think the doctors were off on their calculations!  But this is one of those 5 - 8 pound outfits....so I'm off to hunt for the perfect doll!

Do you hunt your local thrift store?  Or are you more like Kerry who refuses to even consider going inside one of them?  Colleen and I just went to Colorado Springs yesterday and had a blast stopping by 4 thrift stores.  Sure wore me out....but I came home with loads of treasures!  I'll just bet my neighbors wonder how I fit all those shopping bags into this tiny little cottage!!!

Making the best of what you have!

Last blog, stranded in Kingman.  I'm back home in Colorado now.....with a 2013 Ford Focus.  Nice little car that made the trip home just fine.  So I had another whole week in Kingman and got the "office" and the kitchen cleaned out.  Sort of glad I had to stay as now those tasks are done.

Kerry's grandma Mae passed away 3 years ago, and they had not gotten rid of much of her stuff.  She painted china.  She was an amazing artist.  But many of her pieces have chips or breaks in them.  I didn't want to toss them and no one would buy them at a garage sale, so I decided to play.

Now, when you play like this, you do need certain aids/tools.....like chocolate, a low temp glue gun, diet coke....

The pedestal dish had a big chip out of the corner of it:

The bear and the snowman at the bottom left of the top photo were taken apart and undressed using undu.  Yep, you can use undu on fabric!!!  And the little pilgrim bear was undressed as well.  I found some broken bits of jewelry as I was cleaning up, so I used those as well.  Glued most of the pieces to the base mirror so they wouldn't slide around.  Added the matching plate on a stand in the background. Pulled apart some very old silk flowers and put them down into a little vase that matched.  Added barbie ornaments as my mother-in-law collected those.

If you click on this photo to enlarge, you can get a better view of the details.  Earrings glued to the side of the pedestal dish.  A silver bear earring glued to the bear's paw.  The other earring glued to a button on the center of the bears chest.  Earring posts clipped off and glued down into the silk flowers.  Netting and ribbon from Mae's sewing box threaded among the items.

I took apart a silk flower (on the bear's ear) and took apart a plastic hair barrette and layered the 2 together, glued it back and used it on the bear's head.  More earring studs on the shoulder on the lace.  Broken beads and one complete necklace draped around the bear and into the dish.

Once I got the flowers arranged, I simply glued them together and stuck them down in the vase.  The paintings on the 3 pieces of china "match", but 2 are wisteria and 1 is grape clusters.  Can you tell which is which?

This is the little bear that had it's arms around the snowman.  I left the arms stitched together and threaded the hanky between them.  Glued beads together to make the pearl necklace and glued grandma's earrings as a "ribbon" on the ear and a brooch.  Now this one is just too cute!!!

When my father-in-law saw what I had done with broken bits and pieces, he was quite pleased.  We decided to set this on the end table in the family room.  I don't think "trash" has ever looked quite so good!!!  Barbies, jewelry, hand-painted china, bits and pieces of lace, old hankies on a mirror - reflect the memories of times gone, but not forgotten.

Recycled Art

My youngest sister is a fantastic artist....but I think she went over the top with this piece!!!  We had a recycle art contest here in Canon City and when I saw her entry - I knew it was a winner.  And it took 3rd place!!!

Click on any photo to enlarge.  She took the actual keys off a piano and put them on the board!  The background is all recycled paper.  She cut up used wood to make the black musical notes.  The frame she picked up at a thrift store.  She took all kinds of old charms that I had, painted them black and put them around the piece.

It was too cute that the ribbons were made by recycling the comic pages from the newspaper.

Here's what she wrote:

I know the keys don't look right
And the notes don't look right
But even when some things don't look right
We can still see something wonderful an inspirational.
The same is true with our lives.
Sometimes you have to see beyond
What looks right in others
To find something truly amazing, wonderful
And inspiring.

I think this should inspire all of us took at what we are going to toss out and see what we can do with it.  Imagine - piano keys!!!