How to Keep an Art Journal

I have several journals. I have prayer journals, planner journals, idea journals, and paste books, but my favorite journals are art journals.

You will usually see me talking about altered book journals, which I make from discarded books -- these are great for mixed media projects.

Make This Easy Last Minute Advent Calendar

Here is an easy last minute Advent Calendar that anyone can make. This project uses vintage book pages, but you can use pretty scrap book paper, as well.

It is so easy to create these pretty little advent envelopes.

Black Friday Shopping for FREE stuff!

Skip the crowds this Black Friday, and shop from the comfort of your home -- without spending a dime!  I have scoured our local Free listings on Craigslist to find all sorts of great stuff.

If you find something as amazing as this mirrored armoire, grab the truck and go get it! It's stunning, just as it is.

This white painted armoire, from Restoration Hardware, costs $1800!

I am in love with this french provincial dresser!

It is missing veneer in a couple of places, so it's a perfect candidate for a little wood putty and paint, like this dresser, from This and That Life.

This leather sofa is in good condition, structurally, and just needs to have the leather reconditioned to be beautiful, once again.

These channel back chairs look like they've spent the last sixty years in an unused living room. I might pull the skirts off, to update them, but the off white upholstery is in great shape, and off-white is always classic.

People are often giving away faded or dated framed art. These make great "canvases" to create new art pieces for your walls.

Here's an easy example of how to create your own wall decor. If you are doing this over an old piece of art, give it a good base coat of paint, first, and let that dry completely before taping a pattern off with painter's tape or masking tape.

Two things, in the picture below, caught my attention. First, the vintage metal doll crib is just darling. I might use it like a basket, and store extra lap blankets in it, keeping it under an end table.

Second, that ornate frame is gorgeous! I would clean it up and put a thin piece of plywood in it, painted with chalkboard paint, like this one.

If you have someone strong in your life, you might grab this vintage safe. It has a working combination!

So much great patina! I would clean it and seal it and put it in my living room.

I've seen these converted to occasional table and dry bars. Here is one I found on Apartment Therapy.

While a stack of old magazines might seem like a strange thing to get on Craigslist, collage artists, and papier mache artists and crafters can find all sorts of things to do with them.

This starburst mirror was made from magazine pages!

And then there are the ubiquitous paint listings. You can paint your house, paint your armoire, paint your mirror, and still have paint left over!

I love wheeled carts. They are great for craft supplies, sewing supplies, party drink stations, etc.

I love this pretty rolling cart that's been converted to a coffee station.

These beige sofas are clean and in good repair, with classic lines.

Add some pretty pillows, like these, from Pottery Barn, and your living room will be a show stopper!

You might also enjoy this post on how to weave a rush seat.



Or you might like this post on mixing paneling styles.



If you enjoyed this tutorial, please subscribe to House Revivals in the sidebar, so you won't miss the fun projects we have scheduled. Find us on Facebook, too, so you can catch all the "in between" stuff, and see what I'm working on daily on Instagram. Feel free to link today's post to your favorite social media sites.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Amanda

Easy Thanksgiving Greeting Card

Sometimes, it's a good idea to pull out old craft supplies, and look at them with new eyes. For this card, I used a decades old Stampin' Up Thanksgiving stamp.

The rubber was still in perfect condition, and it stamped perfectly. I paired the stamp with this adorable fox paper. The paper is from a couple of years ago, but the colors are still a fresh take on Fall.

Get Your House Holiday Ready -- For FREE!

The holidays are upon us, and if you are like me, you are looking around your house and starting to freak out just a little bit.

If your household decorating needs are bigger than your budget, here a a few items I've found recently for FREE on Craigslist, along with some inspiration to help you see how an ugly duckling can be transform into a beautiful swan.

Make These Book Page Napkin Rings!

Whether you are hosting a large crowd, or just having an intimate dinner, this easy Fall napkin ring DIY is the perfect way to add a finishing touch to your Thanksgiving table.

You can even write guest's names on the leaves and use them as place cards!

Library Card FREE Printable Template

I love the library.  I have great memories of pouring through the Nancy Drew titles as a girl, making my selections, and checking out. My friends and I liked to read the names on the library cards to see if we knew anyone who had checked out our books before us. Usually, we found each other's names.

Library cards are becoming a thing of the past, but nostalgia keeps me coming back to them. On our trip to India this year, we visited some beautiful places that I wanted to commemorate with some new designs. A series of library cards came out of this. This library card set is named after Kerala -- one of the loveliest places on this earth.

Make Special Ornaments From Greeting Cards

My son and his new wife had a sad assortment of Christmas ornaments -- a couple of hand print ornaments from a little niece, and a half dozen plastic spheres. It hurt my heart.

Both my son and his bride are busy software engineers, with a forty-five minute commute to and from work, so they don't have a lot of time to shop for Christmas decorations. After their wedding last September, they brought me all their leftover invitations, thinking I could "do something" with them. I could. I did. I combined them with some of the greeting cards our family had received over the years, and some scraps of card stock to create these pretty paper ornaments for their tree. They were delighted.

These are made using the same "triangle-within-a-square" technique that our grandmothers used to made paper spheres from old greeting cards to decorate their Christmas trees, except these are two sided, instead of spherical. My beautiful daughter-in-law is from India, so I wanted to create something colorful and elegant that had an Asian feel.

To make these ornaments, you need a circle template and a triangle template. Normally, I would have drafted the templates in CAD, and printed them out, but my printer was out of ink, and I am impatient. I decided to use a two inch hole punch that I had in my stash (here's an affiliate link to a two inch punch), and then hand draft an equilateral triangle to fit perfectly inside it. Except, I didn't have access to my drafting tools.

I tried holding a piece of paper to my computer screen and tracing a 60 degree angle, but that was less than perfect. Then, I looked around the house for a triangle. I also began looking around for a flat piece of plastic to cut a sturdy template from. When I found the plastic lid to my dishwasher pod container, I also found my equilateral triangle! As is turns out, that little recycling symbol is an equilateral triangle, so I was able to get my sixty degree angle. I drew two legs of the triangle the exact same length, then connected them.

I made my triangle slightly small -- the points don't quite reach the edge of the two inch circle. This was because I wanted to account for the thickness of the plastic.

Side note: this technique will also work with your scalloped punch. Just make sure the number of scallops is divisible by three. My scallop punch, from Fiskars, has fifteen scallops, so it works perfectly. (Fiskars scallop punch affiliate link)

For each ornament, you will need to punch ten circles. Place your sturdy triangle template on top of the pretty side of your card stock (or upcycled greeting card), centering it. Carefully fold the card stock up, using the edge of the triangle as a guide. Some folks use the triangle as a guide to carefully score a fold line, but I like my method better, because it's so fast.

 Do this on all three sides, being careful to keep the triangle centered.

Fold the sides completely over, to get a nice crease. You will now have a triangle with three rounded tabs. Each tab will be glued to a tab on an adjacent triangle to create your ornament.

Glue five of the triangles together, radiating out from a central point, for the first side. Repeat, for the second side. Glue the front and back together. You can glue a ribbon hanger into the top of the ornament at this time. If desired, punch a hole in the bottom of the ornament and hang some fibers to create a pretty tassel.

I must warn you, these ornaments are addictive. You will find yourself scouring your house for old greeting cards and card stock to make more and more and more!

My son and his beautiful bride love the fact that pieces of my son's past Christmases were used, as well as mementos from their wedding.

While I was digging, I found a lovely old Christmas card from some dear family friends. The card had pictures of their kids when they were little, as well as a letter talking about the family's interests at the time -- all printed on lovely card stock! I was able to make an ornament for them using their old card. They were thrilled to receive the memento. There was nothing this couple needed, as a gift -- they have had successful careers and can buy anything they want, so giving them something sentimental and handmade was perfect.

I hope this post encourages you to dig out those old greeting cards and create your own special mementos.

You might also like this post about making paper mach Christmas ornaments.

For another easy ornament DIY, you may want to check out this tutorial.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please subscribe to House Revivals in the sidebar, so you won't miss any of the fun projects we have scheduled. Find us on Facebook, too, so you can catch all the "in between" stuff, and see what I'm working on daily on Instagram. Feel free to link today's post to your favorite social media sites.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Amanda

Free Furniture and Decor for Holiday Entertaining

It's November, and you know what that means. It's the time of year, when we look around our house and panic, because are house isn't ready for holiday entertaining.

We're counting our chairs, and making sure we have enough tables. This beautiful drop leaf table, as well as everything else in this post, is offered up for free on our local Craigslist.