Thrifty Thursday - The Eyes Have It

These shoes cost $1600. Eye kid you not.

The Fireman and I have a deal - I won't buy any shoes that cost more than a house payment. $1600 is about four times our house payment, so this pair is something I won't be purchasing unless we hit the lotto. In the meantime, I can make my own!

Just take your favorite pair of black pumps, some randomly sized googly eyes, and some E-6000 glue. (That stuff is fairly awesome in the strength category.) then go to town, gluing the eyes to the shoe.

Be creative! And why limit yourself to shoes? Hair clips, bangles, eye glasses - they call can be improved with a few googly eyes.

Your ensemble isn't complete if your nails aren't accessorized accordingly.

Can you imagine this on a black pleather motorcycle jacket? Neat!

Everyone will be eye-ing your new look. Can you think of other fun items? Have you had any success with adding googly eyes to your unique fashions? I'd love to hear about in the comments section below.

Stay thrifty!
Becky

Thrifty Thursday - Free Magazines

This morning I woke up to an email from FreeBizMag.com. In it was the following link:

http://www2.freebizmag.com/10023695/welcome.html?ref=email2&tcode=&fid=104273008495

If you want free magazines, click the link. Whether you need some for crafting or you just need extra reading material, they have a huge selection of informative literature with colorful pictures. You'll be taken to a page where you have to give up some information to continue. This combination has always worked for me in the past. If you aren't sure what to put, just select whatever. They make it easy for parents of home schooled children.

1. Industry
   - Education
   - Other education
2. Job Area
   - Education
   - 08: Teacher / Educator
3. Company Size
   - 1 - 4

Next, select the featured title. Then, scroll down and click "Continue".

You'll be taken to a page called "Qualify for Your Selections" like this. While you have to answer every question. However, you do not have to answer YES to every question. You might have to answer something multiple choice like the size of your company or your business industry. And of course, you have to provide the first letter of the state you were born in, to prove you're a real person. Once this is done, click "Continue" again.

This will take you to a page called "Please Sign In". If you have an account, sign in. If you don't, it's safe to create one. You can always set up a gmail account called something like homeschoolfreebies4me@gmail.com or something so your regular inbox doesn't get cluttered with mail. This site's pretty good and only sends me email a couple of times per week.

Now you should be at a page called "You've Reached the Last Step".Just fill in your name and address and at the bottom, click submit.

THIS PART IS VERY IMPORTANT -- YOU ARE NOT DONE YET!

See this page here? It's the "Check out Our Great Offers" page. Click no on everything, and then click "Submit" again.

This is going to take you to an offer for magazines. In huge letters it will say "YES! SHIP MY SELECTIONS >>" and in teeny, tiny letters beside it, "no thanks" -- you'll want to click "no thanks". Magazines are free, trust me on this.

Then a pop-up comes up that asks if you're sure you want to click this offer. Yes, yes you are sure!

And that's it! Your application is complete. Wasn't that easy? And now you're getting a free magazine!

Our family has skipped some of the titles offered. Most of the ones we take them up on are automotive or science related. Honestly, my boys have shocked me with some of the titles they actually wanted to read like Tech Briefs, Solar Today, and something about farm machinery.

If you're looking for free magazines, whether for crafting or just to have extra reading material around, try this site. I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Thrifty Thursday - Keep Calm

By now practically everyone has seen a Keep Calm sign, especially if you're on Pinterest or Facebook. However, if you haven't, it looks like this:

Where did these posters come from? Wikipedia states that: Keep Calm and Carry On was a poster produced by the Government of the United Kingdom in 1939 during the beginning of the Second World War, intended to raise the morale of the British public in the event of invasion. It had only limited distribution, so was little known. The poster was rediscovered in 2000 and has been re-issued by a number of private companies, and used as the decorative theme for a range of products.

And it's true. Everyone from Etsy to Amazon is selling stuff with variations of the logo, but did you know it's very easy to just make your own? And you don't need any kind of special program. Here's a quick screenshot tutorial of how to make your own Keep Calm sign using MS Paint.

1. Open MS Paint by going to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint

The rest of the steps are a series of screen shots because it was more fun than trying to type it all out.

And here's the finished product! Isn't she adorable?

Here's one I previously made for my friend Ellen, the proprietor of Bitchy Bee Aviary.

Here are some of the more unique ones I found while perusing Pinterest early this morning.

   

   

 

   

Why not make something with your new Keep Calm sign? Here's a card someone else made with theirs!

Thrifty Thursday - Rock On!

Today's thrifty tip is something fun you can do with kids. It's very exciting. I wish we'd home schooled when the boys were younger and they would have gotten more out of this instead of just throwing rocks, namely at each other. The tip is - rock collecting!

Here are 10 reasons why you should start a rock collection with your kids.

1. It's free.
2. It gives you a chance to recycle things like egg cartons or any other box-like container where dividers can easily be divided for sorting.
3. You might actually find something valuable.
4. You will learn more about geography than you ever wanted to know.
5. Other rock collectors will be interested in seeing what you found.
6. The internet can tell you what kind of rocks you find, saving you from buying expensive rock-identification books.
7. It's a great family hobby.
8. You have to go outside and enjoy fresh air and sunshine to do this.
9. You can do it anywhere that there are rocks to be found (except National Parks, and on private property unless, in the case of the latter, the owner gives permission).
10. Collecting a rock from vacation destinations is much cheaper and more meaningful than a t-shirt that you'll outgrow or a coffee mug that will get shoved to the back of the cabinet over the stove.

And there you go! Because I live a stone's throw (haha, get the pun?) from a National Park, let me reiterate that you should never, ever, ever take ANYthing from National Park property. This includes but is not limited to rocks, shells, tree branches, pine cones, berries, sand, animals, insects, or anything else. They are serious. They will escort you to put it back.

Other than that, have fun and happy collecting!

Becky

Thrifty Thursday - Hang Up Your Drawers

While at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store a few weeks ago, we saw a bunch of cabinet drawers. They had a little smoke damage on the inside, but the outside was a lovely, dark wood with a unique, dark silver knob.  And the best part was, it was only $1!

Initially I used it as a type of pseudo-basket to carry around my handfuls of odd bits of junk for making pendants; you know, items like the bolts, the washers, the weird-looking springs. By the time I got to the register I'd formed a relationship with the drawer, and I couldn't let it go. My inner hoarder clung to it like the Goonies' Chunk on a Baby Ruth candy bar.

Once I arrived home with it, my husband patiently set it aside in the spare room, atop the pile of stuff that's waiting to be made over into something wonderful. Fortunately, the drawer didn't have to wait that long. Inspired by the interior design at Beans in the Belfry, We already use desk drawers along the wall in our bathroom to store rolled-up towels, extra TP, and other necessities.

There's a space on my bedroom wall that was begging for a filler piece, but I hadn't found anything I liked to go there...until the drawer made its way into my life. I left the front of it natural, and left the knob in place. A bit of acrylic paint brightened the inside of the drawer, and a few cup hooks finished off the ensemble. What at one time would have headed for the landfill now holds all my necklaces, pendants, and a few bracelets.

Here are some similar projects that I found online.

I love the idea of using the flatware sorter for this project.

I never would have thought to use this kind of drawer for jewelry, but now I totally will be on the lookout for them at the flea market.

How cool to add little drawers inside the drawer!

What did you make this week? I'd love to hear about it in the comments section!

Thrifty Thursday - The High Calorie Purse

Yes, I know it's Friday but I posted Tuesday's on Monday, so now we're even.

Today's thrifty tip is all about recycling something old into something new. The plastic, metal, and paper containers that we toss out, if flattened and smoothed, can be used in lieu of most any other material for crafting items that would typically call for fabric or leather. Here's a great example of a purse that was crafted from soda cans.

I saw this and it got me thinking, what if you could use non-traditional materials to create other things? What about a soda can vest? Or a gift bag created from squares cut from either cardboard food containers or plastic water bottles? The possibilities are endless, and patterns are found from one end of the world wide web to the other. Here's one for making a teddy bear. What will you upcycle today?

Thrifty Thursday - Upcycled Hard Arnold Palmer Caddy

My Big Craft Challenge entry along with the drink that inspired it all.

Unless it involves knocking a ball through a windmill while avoiding having it sink into the depths of a miniature pond filled with exotic koi, I'm not really a fan of golf. But I am a fan of half-tea / half-lemonade drinks, like the Arnold Palmer. Because we live in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia we have the advantage of buying limoncello from a local distillery.

This place is the bombdiggity.

When going to see the multi-talented Jennifer Maghan play live music there a few months ago, the guy behind the bar suggested we mix the 'cello with their lemon ice with Jeremiah Weed Sweet Tea flavored vodka for an Arnold Palmer that was out of this world. The recipe goes something like this:

Limoncello + Sweet Tea Vodka = Hard Arnold Palmer

This drink was pretty spectacular, enough that we decided to keep the ingredients stocked with the other kitchen essentials. However, our kitchen space is very limited so we had to find a way to store the ingredients so they'd be on hand without cluttering up the kitchen counter. Enter the Big Craft Challenge.

For my entry, I found a vintage metal shower rack. Throw on a couple of coats of hammered black spray paint, use a guitar string as wire to add some beads (some of them made from rolled-up strips of magazine pages), and tada! I now have an Arnold Palmer caddy! Here are the photos. What have you created lately? I'd love to see!

Detail of bead work.

With a bottle of Relax wine for good measure. The basket will hold lemons and limes, while the hooks below will hold corkscrews and other drinking-related accessories.