We Repurpose Wednesday: A Cool Way To Repurpose a Spice Container

First, sorry for the background shot of the "foods that are to be picked up by relatives" and the shot of my dirty floor (I've been sick and it doesn't take much to get dirty does it?) *laugh*, but this was the only angle I could get this to show up at.

So, you know those metal cans of spices you get at the store?  I had a empty bottle of Cinnamon (after I conglomerated about 3 different containers that were about 1/2 used up...how does that always happen?) and thought that it being metal it might be magnetic.  And it was!  So, I thought of making it into a pen/marker holder as I'm always having problems finding a place to stick pens for my shopping list.  I went to Fred Meyer and picked up some high powered magnets (you can just find them over in the stationary section) for like 1.00 a container ages ago to have some magnets on the fridge that worked WELL to hang up things like artwork for the kids.  I then took the lid off the spice container, washed it (duh right) and was ready to rock.

I took some of the high powered magnets and just magnetized them to the inside of the spice container (seen above).  No glue needed here.

Then I just stuck the container to the fridge with some pens and sharpies in it.  And voila!  Instant pen holder.

After I did this I found that there are pics where people had done this before by adhering the magnets with hot glue to the back (darn and here I thought I was original), but I don't see the need to waste the hot glue here :).  You might have to mess around with the amount of magnets to stick to the container so you have the right "weight limit" on your container to hold the amount of pens you want and/or need.  I stuck like four on mine as I wanted it to be able to hold Sharpies too.

So, there you have it folks!  Why throw out a spice container when you can EASILY reuse it to something just as useful!

Enjoy!

Simple Sewing: Make Your Own Hanging Book Sling

Thanks to Penny Carnival for use of the image!

This project is so going onto my "to do" list as I could hang this sucker up high enough that my son couldn't get a hold of it to eat the books (some bedtime stories have suffered terrible fates so far when I had a book holder in the children's bedroom) and, at the same time, it'll have a small enough profile I won't have to worry about my kids whacking themselves on it.  Double bonus is that the books are secured in the sling so you don't have to worry about them falling off of a shelf in an earthquake too :).

Go HERE where Penny Carnival shows you how to make your own book sling.  You have to look at the various ones people have made down the page some too...so cute!

Enjoy!

Make it Monday: Fun Thanksgiving Centerpiece

When I saw this I just HAD to share it.  I'm going to get my daughter to help me make one :).

Go HERE where Triadsmartypants explains how to make a super cute nut holder centerpiece for your table.

Enjoy!

DIY: How to make Applesauce Cinnamon Ornaments

Thanks to "A Storybook Life" for use of the image!

When looking for things to put on this year's "Sensory friendly tree" for my son (basically I want it to be non-choke friendly and mainly put things on there that are edible and/or really little kid friendly) I had two goals in mind.  One:  To make sure my son wouldn't eat anything that was "questionable" (like the metallic plastics in the garland, although I am getting some plastic ornaments...I just didn't like the idea of him grazing on the garland) and Two:  I didn't want to be out a fortune.

And so, when I ran across this recipe I KNEW it was immediately going onto the, "this is SO going on the tree" list.

These ornaments are super duper simple to put together (two whole ingredients), smell AWESOME and if you put them in your oven to dry they make your house smell sooooooo good!

So, go HERE where A Storybook Life shows you how to make Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments (so, can you guess what the two ingredients are? ;).

Once these are done you can very easily paint them up with some acrylic paint if you want to make smelly, yet intricate ornaments, or you could just leave them plain (I just used cookie cutters to cut mine out by the way), put a nice looking ribbon through them (I got some spools of ribbon for .47 a piece at Wal-Mart) and voila!  Done and done :).

Enjoy!

Make it Monday: How to Make Halloween Mason Jar Lanterns

Thanks to Our Best Bites for use of the photo!

These were so darn cute that when I saw them on Our Best Bites I knew where one "Make it Monday" segment was going to go *laugh*.

Go HERE for a very simple (and quick) tutorial on how to make Halloween Mason Jar Lanterns.  This would be a good time to pick up a couple of jars from the used stores!

Me?  My jars are being used for canning right now, unfortunately (sort of *laugh*) but if I end up with a chipped rim somewhere I know where my jar is going ;).  You could even switch these up for different holidays.  I can see jars with different autumn leaves pasted on for Thanksgiving/fall themes, Christmas trees and snowflakes for Christmas, etc.  The sky is the limit :).

Enjoy!

Homemade Christmas Idea: Let your children's artistic streak out

I know that every single blog in creation is giving out ideas on home made Christmas gifts and well...I'm no different *laugh*.

I found myself asking the question when my daughter was little under two, "What else can I get for my husband for Christmas?"  We'd just added my son to the family a few months before and to say that we were tight on money would have been a gross understatement.  I really wanted to give him something special from Armina, since she was old enough that I felt like she would want to give dad something for Christmas.

As I was going through my art supplies one day, looking for stuff to make a few Christmas ornaments, I suddenly had an idea.  Why not let Armina just paint dad a picture?  Yes, I could have given my daughter crayons and let her draw him a picture, but my daughter was still at the stage where if you gave her a crayon she'd draw with it for three seconds and then try and eat it.  So, I went to the store that day, got some finger paints that were on sale and grabbed my canvas pad that I had from painting pictures throughout the years (you could do this just as easy with just a big piece of paper and whatever art supplies you have lying around) and sat down with my daughter.  And she painted her first finger paint picture shown above.  I took her paint covered hands and added hand prints to the picture just because I thought it would be a cool touch and then added a Christmas message to dad "from Armina" and in the upper corner put her age and the year so we'd know years from now when she painted the picture.

After it was dry I re-purposed one of the many poster frames I have lying around from painting pictures in high school and college (I just pulled out my painting and stuck it into storage to grab the frame), but you could easily pick up a poster frame for under 10.00 if you wanted to do this or just grab whatever frame you have around the house, even, and just cut out pieces of the painting to make a collage painting or whatever your imagination can come up with :).

My husband opened that gift Christmas morning and was blown away.  He still says to this day it was one of the best gifts he's ever received.  We hung the painting up in our living room and everyone that sees it says that it is the most awesome idea for wall art they'd ever seen. 

I did the exact same thing with both kids just this last week and am giving my husband two more paintings for us to hang up on the walls that our children created (with hand prints included because mom thinks it's awesome to do that ;).  How can you beat a little bit of your child for Christmas?  I know I sure can't think of anything.  Enjoy all!