From Desk to Changing Table

Hi everyone!

Today I'm showing you a project that my 

son and daughter in law did together.

My Mom moved out of her house several

years ago and when we cleaned her house out,

Jaryd wanted her desk, so he's had it ever since.

When they found out they were pregnant, 

he decided to make her desk into a changing 

table. Recently Jaryd and his father in law got to

work on doing just that. 
I don't have a picture of the desk before, but....

here is a picture of them working on making it into 

a changing table.  In the lower left corner, you can just

see the corner of the desk. It was a very dark color, way

too dark for a baby's room.

They decided to paint it white, with the feeling that in years

to come they could always sand it down and bring it

back to it's natural state if they wanted to.

Here is what it looked like when they were done.

The hardware was painted purple, to give some

contrast and match her room. These too, can be 

changed back to their original brass if they want to.

After they got it home Sara added

a bit of vinyl to pretty it up even more.

She then took some fabric and covered the top of the 

changing area,

as well as the bottoms of the drawers.

I think they did a fabulous job with this project.

And I think G-Ma would be thrilled that her 

Great Grand daughter, Marie, will have this beautiful

changing table, that she can eventually use as her own

desk.  That top part just lifts right off, so no screws or nails

were put into the desk.

I love that my kids are creative and love doing these kind

of projects.

Thanks for coming by today and spending time here.

I hope you have been inspired to think of something 

that you can repurpose to get more use out of it.

Until next time,

think outside the box!

Memorial Gifts for Christmas

Hello, I hope 2019 is going well for y'all.

Today I'm showing you something special that I 

made for my family this past Christmas. 

My Mom passed away on May 4th.
My family and I had to clean out her room at the

assisted living home and she really had a lot of clothes.

She was very tiny and no one at the home would be 

able to use them, so I thought I'd donate them to Savers.

Once I got everything home and went through it, something 

told me to save her tops and I'd figure out some way to use them.

One day an idea hit me and I found a video on how to make

"tee shirt yarn"  So I took Mom's tops and made yarn out of

them.  I found that all different kinds of fabric work for this,

not only tee shirt type fabrics.  Some work better than others

and some yield more than others, but they all seem to work.

I crocheted baskets for everyone in the family.

Here are some of the baskets.  I didn't follow a specific 

pattern, so they all came out different.  Most are round, but some 

are rectangle or oval.  

I made little tags for the baskets with

a favorite picture of Mom on them and

wrote a sentiment to explain what they were.

I filled the baskets for the Great Grandchildren

with candy.

For my generation and the Grandkids I also made

memorial ornaments. The ornaments have a heart with angel

wings, inside the heart it says Mom, Grnadma or G-Ma depending

who it was for..

On the back they have her date of birth and death.

I put iridescent shread inside, 

I also suspended a tiny little bottle filled with 

some of Mom's ashes at the top inside the ornament.

Here is a picture showing the baskets ready to go.

Everyone was very touched by the gifts,

I think it's a great way to have Mom with us, 

we'll all remember her with many great

memories and love in our hearts, but having something

that is a bit of her is so special.

This is a little basket that I'm working on for me.
I tried to make flowers for some of the other baskets,

but they just wouldn't work.  I think it's the type of fabric 

that I used for this one that makes the difference.

I'm going to take these beads and sequins off this piece of fabric 

and add them to the band around my basket, between the

flowers. This is the top that I had gotten for Mom to wear

to our son's wedding.  We used a piece of it for their

hand fasting at the wedding, to represent Mom,

so this is particularly special to me.

I think I may be making some more things with 

tee shirt yarn in the future.  I love the idea of

repurposing old clothing in this way.

Thanks for stopping by and spending a little time with

me today.  I hope you are inspired in some way and maybe 

will try repurposing something some time soon.

Until next time, 

Think outside the box!

Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose Project

Hello crafty friends! 

Recently there was a contest on the Glue Arts blog, it was to recycle, reuse and repurpose some items into a project.  I would like to share my submission with you today.  I didn't win the contest, but I had a great time making my projects.  I had to use Glue Arts products in my submission, but keep in mind that you can use which ever products you like.  To be honest, I wouldn't use the Glue Glider Max again.  I borrowed it from a friend (thanks Jen T!) for this project and I found it very difficult to use.  I would use my ATG Gun in the future.

Supplies needed:

pockets cut off old jeans
Glue Glider Max
Glue Glider Pro
Crop a Dile
scrap fabric
scrap card stock
Pearl accents
ribbon
silk flowers and leaves
charms
crystal accents
butterfly applique
old bracelet
glitter glue
Say it With Studs (hearts)
Say it With Crystals (flourish)

These are the supplies I used for the 2 projects I am showing. Any type of embellishment may be used. These just happened to be what I had on hand.

These are the two projects I made. They can be used for many different purposes. When my daughter was young I made one of these as a “locker pocket” and put magnets on the back so she could put it inside her locker door at school. She kept small things like pencils, pens, erasers etc. in it. The one with the strap can be used as a little purse, or it can be hung on a door, like in the picture to put notes into it for your child. Hang it on your child's bedroom door and leave little love notes in it, or maybe hang it somewhere it is sure to be seen and use it for outgoing mail. Keep the extra keys in it, or extra change, or maybe you sunglasses, so you know where they are. The one with out the handle can be used to put a small gift in as a gift bag, put magnets on it to go onto the fridge to hold coupons, or take out menus. There are a lot of uses for these adorable pockets.

Your first step is to find some old jeans and cut the pockets off the back. I use two matching pockets, although you could use one and back it with another fabric.

Next use the Glue Glider Max to apply adhesive to the back of the pocket right along the stitching . Fold over the extra fabric right along the edge of the pocket. Cut off any unwanted fabric. Do this with the other matching pocket.

Now you will apply adhesive to the back of the pocket, line up the 2 matching pockets back to back and press them together. You will now have a “double” pocket. You can decorate both sides, but I have only decorated one on mine.

Now you can embellish you pocket. For this first one, I used some scrap fabric to make flowers. I cut the fabric into long narrow strips, about 1” wide. I cut a piece of scrap card stock into a circle, using my Glue Glider Pro, I covered one side of the circle with adhesive. Starting in the middle of the circle, I began to attach the fabric as seen in this tutorial, I made 3 of these fabric flowers in different sizes and added some pearl accents to the centers of the flowers. I used Glue Glider Pro to adhere silk leaves to the back of the flower and then to adhere the flowers to the pocket. I embellished the pocket further with some “Say It With Studs” (Prima) hearts and a butterfly applique. You can embellish in any way you like, a little, a lot, girly, boyish, whatever you like.

Next use the Crop a Dile to make holes in the fabric between the 2 pockets. Narrow strips of fabric are again used, to make a strap for the pockets. Use the Glue Glider Pro on the back of the fabric and then folded the fabric onto the adhesive and trim off any extra threads. Then simply fed the ends of the strap through the holes and tie a knot at the end. You could also use ribbon as a strap.

The 2nd project was constructed the same way, but was embellished differently. I used all items that I had on hand in my stash.

First I took a red crystal bracelet that my daughter didn’t want any longer and I cut it, this I adhered to the pocket with liquid adhesive. I then used my Glue Glider Pro to adhere the flowers and a bow that I had made. The flourish and the small flower are “Say it With Crystals” (Prima) I found the butterfly and heart charms in my stash and adhered them with liquid adhesive.

I decided that I didn’t want a strap on this pocket project, but I can easily add one at a later date if I choose. I had a lot of fun making these and think they would make great gifts for the little girls in my life.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you have enjoyed these projects and tutorial.  If you would like to leave a comment that would be great, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section or e-mail me (address is in right column) and I will get back to you asap.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!