Simple Solutions

In one of the nursery rooms at church we have a blank large bulletin board.  I've been trying to come up with some ideas how to disguise it or make it blend in.  While at the craft store yesterday I saw scrapbook paper was on sale 4/$1.00.  I purchased about a dozen sheets in various designs and colors.  It took about 15 minutes to hang up, trim and staple the paper to the unused bulletin board.  I'm pretty pleased with the result. Affordable and not permanent.

Easter projects continued!

It's a little late, but I'd like to share what else I did for Easter at church.

Previously, I made the nail crosses: Nail Crosses

In kids church we also made a large tomb.  Thankfully we had saved the nativity from a previous Christmas Pageant two years ago.  We put it up in kids's church, taped two side-way pieces vertically to make the tomb wider to fill up the front of our "stage area."  It already had a hole in it, that was originally to feed kids lines in case they forgot.  We turned it upside down and cut the hole bigger.  Hubby also cut a large rock out of styrofoam and I painted it.  We made sure when the tomb was open/stone was rolled away on Easter morning that the kids could only see black inside (yay for black curtains) and also placed a few pieces of toilet paper in it, to look like the burial clothes were left behind.

We also stuffed 1,200 plastic eggs with candy for a Egg Hunt between services on Easter.  It was a perfect Easter Sunday Morning and so much fun!

Boy, oh Boy!

Our friends' daughter turned 13 last month - it's was a big deal!  Since Ris was 3 years old a bunch of us from Bible Study/Young Adults at church have been calling her "Stuart" and telling her she was going to be a boy when she turned 13.  

10 years later we finally get to celebrate.  A bunch of us met at a pizza place and Ris came in late with her mom - she didn't know it was going to be a surprise party.

I put together a fun little gift set for her.

-Blue felt gift bag w/ sports balls on it from Target Dollar Spot $.50

-Water Bottle w/ Baseball $2.00 at Michael's
-Red Sweatbands for the wrist w/ baseballs embroidered on it $1 at Michael's
-Fun candy $1 at Target

-Target gift card w/ a Monster Truck on it.

I used my Cricut to put "Stuart" and "#13" on the water bottle (looked like a last name & sports number)

Her parents had cupcakes at the party.  1/2 girlie and 1/2 boyish.  What fun!

Bling-around-the-wrist

I found an ugly necklace on clearance at Kohls - the beads were lovely, just the pattern was obnoxious.  While carrying it around the store it broke, so I got a discount on the clearance price, total $6.  I purchased stretchy .5mm clear elastic cord at JoAnn's for $4.

Necklace Before (It was double strung and all the colors were segregated):

I cut the necklace apart and poured the beads onto a plate.  I saved the clasp for a future bracelet.  So pretty, when all together on the plate.

I made two bracelets - one I knotted the elestic together.  The other I used a $1.29 clasp.

Next I used a necklace I found in the parking lot of Target last Fall.  I cut it up and made it into a beautiful necklace and pendant for a necklace.  I used the clasp from the original necklace (above) to make a double-bracelet. 

Before:

I also took a teal beaded bracelet that I've been wearing and added a yellow oval bead from the original necklace to make a bracelet and necklace pendant.

Before:

Tonight I made 5 bracelets and 2 pendants.  The 5th bracelet was a combo of silver beads from original necklace and tiny teal beads I purchased at Michael's a month ago for $2.

AFTER:

Total spent $12 and I still have 1/2 the beads left from original necklace and tons and tons of the clear stretchy elastic! 

At the cross.....

At the cross I bow my knee
Where Your blood was shed for me
There's no greater love than this
You have overcome the grave
Your glory fills the highest place
What can separate me now?

 Video of "At the Cross" by Hillsong Video

Last week hubby & I were at Home Depot looking for screws for the new Ikea shelves.  I got bored looking at screws and wandered away when HUGE nails caught my eye.  I purchased 8 large nails for a project for kids church & Easter.  Here's the finished project:

Instructions.  6 nails, glue gun, black twist-ties, cut 2x4 & twine.

I glued 2 nails together and wrapped twine in a criss-cross pattern. I then glued any gaps in the twine, to help it stay sturdy.

After making 3 crosses.  I took our jar of saved twist-ties (hubby refuses to throw them away) and pulled out all the black ones. I made a circle out of a larger twist-tie.  I used other black twist-ties and cut them in 1/4's & 1/3's.  I wrapped the cut ties around the circle to make the crown of thorns.

I found a cut piece of 2x4 (it was 17" long) in our garage and nailed the 3 crosses to the board...and it's finished.  I saved the last 2 nails for the kids to see & touch representing the nails that were used to crucify Jesus.  We have some faux moss at church that I may glue to the board.

 

Cardigan Power!

I found a couple of cute dresses last week at Kohls, but they're sleeveless.  I couldn't find any cardigans that I liked or wanted to spend money on.  Today on facebook a friend posted a t-shirt upcycling she did...taking a t-shirt and making it into a cardigan.  I spent hours thinking about it and instead of going to bed, I made myself a t-shirt cardigan.  It won't win any beauty pageants or design awards, but it cost me nothing & I love it.  It took an hour for me from start-to-finish.  The next one won't take as long...I really analyzed each cut before I did it.

The t-shirt Before:

I cut it up the middle in the front.  

Then I used a small plastic card to help me cut a some-what straight line to shorten the bottom of the shirt.  I actually did two lines, the first line wasn't short enough.

I then cut the arm hems off.  I took one of the hems & cut in the middle and sewed each half to the top of the shirt to make a tie.

This was so much fun.  I spent no money and now have a great addition to my dresses.  After:

Shelves, Shelves & Shelves!!

After a trip to Ikea we got inspiration to change up the kitchen a little.  We purchased 4 black shelves & 8 black brackets from Ikea, then a trip to Home Depot for screws....$32 later for this project we headed home.  We had different plans for them, but realized our impulse buy didn't fit where we wanted them. Yay for creativity and we changed our plans. We created an extension of our counter top (we have a teeny, tiny kitchen) and can't wait until the next time we have people over to see how well this helps with the buffet line.  The only thing new besides the shelves is the little silver lantern.

I like that my cookbooks are out, they were taking up good real estate in a cupboard.  The silver basket/bucket holds all our hand towels (in order to save space in one of our only 3 drawers.)

We can also stand in out kitchen without the shelf at the end in the way, the new black one is taller, so more room to stand at the stove.

Before:

After:

Before:

After: