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Up-cycled crafts

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Dream Big Butterfly Window – Resin Craft. Phew, what a week. I’ve been working on about 5 different projects simultaneously. The biggest accomplishment this week was my screened porch makeover. I have been itching to make it an outdoor living and relaxing room for about 4 years now. Well, it is about 95% done. And to celebrate, Pretty Handsome Guy and I slept outside on the porch last night. One of the projects I completed for the porch was an old curbside window that I turned into a unique piece of art using a product that ETI sent me. I have to admit, I was a little scared of the EnviroTex Lite.

The utility lighter was more within my comfort level. My beautiful butterfly window started out looking like this: Someone was throwing away these old windows. Creating the Art: Materials: Start by cutting out paper letters and punching out butterflies until your thumbs are sore. When you are happy with the design, anchor everything onto the window using mod podge. Gently press the wings onto the window. Pouring the Resin: Glass jars turned vintage. Lately I've been intrigued by those lovely vintage blue glass jars you see on the tables of chic outdoor weddings. I did a little bit of research on these, to see how economical they were in bulk, and found that they can range anywhere from $5-$15 per jar, depending on how rare they are.

I was a bit surprised by this, and thought there had to be a better way to achieve the same look, so I went in search of a way to "dye" a regular quart sized jar, to mimic the look of the old Ball Perfect Mason Jars. Here's my photo recap: I used a product called Vitrea 160, which is a transparent color for glass, in a shade called turquoise. I also purchased some thinner from the same product line, so I could get a really faint look.

After scooping out a small amount of the turquoise color (a dot about the size of the nail on my pinky finger) into a plastic tupperware container, I dipped my fan brush into the thinner bottle and then mixed that into the blue. View blog reactions. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Repeat - Mason Jars. Yes, they are everywhere. Yes, I have posted on them before. And yes, I am still smitten! How could I not be? They are affordable. Sometimes free. I should note...I'm a little obsessed with how the matte black came out and have more outside drying as I type this. Then, in my Pinterest crazed obsession, I found this little DIY image. This led me to trying my own version with a milk jar, fabric marker and glue gun.... She's not perfect, but I love that about her. For all you DIYers with questions on how to or the materials used for this project...I did a follow up post that can be found here.

Can Art: A Way To Recycle Some Tin Cans. Colored Mason Jar Tutorial. Today's DIY project is painting mason jars your favorite color! I made mine turquoise. I love mason jars! They have an endless amount of uses and really just add an extra cuteness to everything. My favorite are the aqua Ball jars, but they are always so hard to find at thrift stores and shipping prices when buying them off Etsy or Ebay are not friendly. So why not replicate the look by painting regular mason jars? With a little more investigation I found out about Vitrea glass paint, and how it comes in lots of pretty colors, not just turquoise. What you'll need: Vitrea paint in the color of your choice Paint thinner (optional) Paint brush Mason jar Small dish Squirt a pea-sized dab of the Vitrea paint onto the small dish. Put your mason jar on a paint-friendly surface. Once the jar is completely painted it needs to dry for 24 hours. After the jar cools you can add some pretty lace and twine if you'd like, and it's ready for flowers, or anything else you want to store in a pretty jar.

Wine Bottles

My yarn-holding coffee can cubbies! Well I know I said last week that my studio series would be this week, but I still haven’t been able to get in a good photoshoot of the whole room because there hasn’t been any freaking sunshine since last Thursday! Damn Portland, don’t you know it’s Spring already?! So, here is my coffee can cubbies yarn holder thing that I made, and I’ll probably do more studio posts spread out over the next couple weeks or something… The unit is made with 14 Trader Joe’s coffee cans, covered in faux bois contact paper, glued together with contact cement, then screwed into the wall… The idea came from a project in Readymade a few issues ago – they covered Pringles cans with contact paper, and made a desk organizer – it looked awesome!

I’d already been saving my coffee cans for awhile, knowing I’d find a good use for them someday, so I washed them and took a trip to Home Depot for some contact paper and contact cement. View from the bottom: Can Art: A Way To Recycle Some Tin Cans » DIY Blog. Can Decor. Convex Glass Tile from Bottles. How to Make a Lamp from a Jar: 5 steps (with video) DIY Centerpieces Made Out of Egg Cartons and Vintage Buttons. Posted on June 2, 2009 by Christina I made these whimsical DIY centerpieces from egg cartons and vintage buttons. My Blue Box is nearly always overflowing with egg cartons. I’m always dreaming up ways to turn them into craft projects – and this is one of my latest. These were inspired by my post last month on Cute as a Button weddings. I’ve got heaps of vintage buttons and I couldn’t wait to put them to good use. If you are looking for DIY centerpieces that are super cheap and easy to make (albeit a bit time-consuming), give these a whirl.

Cost: $2 – $3 per dozen (Assuming you already have acrylic paint and buttons on hand.) Materials: One paper egg carton 12 pipe cleaners 24 gauge wire Buttons Acrylic paint in your choice of colors Floral tape Scissors Paper clip Varnish (optional) Glue (I used wood glue, but regular white glue should do the trick.) Find a paper egg carton. Remove the egg carton cups using scissors. Cut the egg carton cups into various flower shapes. Paint the cups using acrylic paint.