How to Upcycle Old Belts Into Jewelry

If you love a good upcycling project, love thrifting, and love unique handmade jewelry, this post is for you! Here is a simple belt upcycling project that doesn't require any special punches or grommets. You will end up with a lovely bangle style bracelet that is easy to take on and off.

Start with a thrifted leather belt.

How to Reupholster Your Dining Chairs

The first time I reupholstered a set of dining chairs, we were stationed at Ft, Riley, Kansas, and were using quartermaster furniture. The chairs had great lines, but the cracked white vinyl seats were uncomfortable, and well... ugly.

I soon discovered that it was okay to reupholster the seats, so I dug through my stash and found some fabric to give the chairs a face lift. Ever since then, no dining chair has been safe from my staple gun!

Make a Planner From a Vintage Book

It's that time of year again! I don't know about you, but I've always measured years by when the school year starts. As a kid, I loved getting a new book bag and pencils and notebooks. It was so exciting to get a new schedule and a clean slate!

As a mom, back to school time was bittersweet. I was always sad to send my babies off, but I was excited for them in their new adventures. Along with the school year also comes new scout troops and new sports teams and new music lessons and so on.

How to Upcycle Tins to Organize Your Crafts

I have several sets of Melody Ross debossing stamps, which I LOVE. Along with my sets of letters and numbers, I have a few extra tools. If you are familiar with Melody Ross' debossing collection, you know her letter sets came in gorgeous tins. Extra punch tools and stamps, however, came in blister packs that made them awkward to store.

My extra punches were driving me crazy.

{10} Back to School Supplies to Buy at the Dollar Tree

How can it possibly be back to school time already?  Shopping for school supplies can put a pretty big dent in the pocketbook, so when you can find great bargains, you should grab them.

Here are ten back to school supplies to buy at your local Dollar Tree.

Pen pouches. They are light weight, secure, and since they're not bulky, they are easy to slip into an outer pocket of a backpack.

Foam Core and Project Display Boards. It's great to keep a supply of these handy for those projects you don't find out about until the night before they're due.

Poster Board. See above.

Office Supplies.  It's great to have a ready supply of office supplies to keep things organized. You can find everything from  push pins to staples at your Dollar Tree.  *buy your pens somewhere else

Correction Fluid. Older kids will appreciate having some correction fluid for assignments that need to be hand written in pen.

Popular Brand Adhesives. Keep you eyes open for name brand products. A dollar for three tubes of glue is a steal! Skip the off-brands.

Kraft Paper. Kraft paper makes the BEST book covers. Your kids can decorate the paper with markers before covering. It's also great for art projects, or to use as drop paper for messy projects. If you have any left over, use it for holiday gift wrap.

Homework Supply Tubs or Bins. Make a supply bin for each of your kiddos, that they can grab and take to wherever they like to do their homework. Keep each bin stocked with grade appropriate supplies.

Hand Sanitizer. Many teachers ask for donations of hand sanitizer for class use, and older students may want to slip a small bottle of sanitizer in their backpacks.

These are only a few of the great back to school bargains you can find at Dollar Tree. Of course, you will want to check sale flyers for other discount stores, as items are deeply discounted at this time of year. Go where you can get the best value for your money.

Good luck, and happy shopping!

To see how to organize your crafts with Dollar Store supplies, click here.

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DIY Stamp Storage Tutorial

I've been struggling to find an easy and affordable system for storing clear and cling stamps.  I don't have enough stamps to justify investing in an expansive (and expensive) stamp storage system, but I have enough stamps that I needed to do something to protect them and make them easy to access.

The best solution would have been to simply keep the stamps in their original packaging, except that some of that packaging is not durable enough for extended use, plus the original packaging comes in all shapes and sizes, making storage a bit cumbersome.

How to Decorate With a Brown Sofa

*this post originally appeared on House Revivals in 2014, but it has been so popular with my readers, I thought I would share it again.

Now don't gasp when I say this, because I know brown sofas are so five years ago, but I have a brown sofa and I love it!  Mine is actually a giant sectional out at our beach house, and I never worry about it looking dirty. In the Pacific Northwest, our sand is kind of grayish brown.  Also, dirt is brown.... and so is chocolate... and those are the three things most likely to get on my upholstery.

Another reason I bought a brown sofa? I knew it would be easy to convince my husband to buy that color, and I wanted a new sofa. Plus, it's super neutral, so I have lots of options for the rest of the space, and I can change up the look of the room with a thirty dollar can of paint and a couple of throw pillows!

I know white sofas are all the rage right now, and too many dark surfaces in a room can feel a little dreary, but don't despair if your sofa is dark! There are so many things you can do when decorating around the color brown. If you are feeling stuck, and not sure what direction to go with your brown sofa (maybe yours is leather?), here are seventeen ideas sure to inspire!

Eclectic Living Room by Sharon Interior Designers & Decorators Reservoir

Tuck a blanket over the back, to break up the expanse of brown. In this case, a coral color is the perfect accent to the brown sofa.  Keep the walls light, and have fun with the trim work!

Traditional Living Room by Brooklyn Media & Bloggers Lauren Gries

Hang pretty curtains that include the brown of your sofa -- then use the print as a jumping off point for choosing other colors, art, and textiles in the space.

Eclectic Living Room by Jamaica Plain Interior Designers & Decorators Dietz & Associates Inc.

The pink and orange end of the spectrum looks phenomenal with brown.  Just saying....

domino magazine

Use your brown sofa to anchor an assortment of pretty colors... and yes, you can pair black with brown -- beautifully!  Add accessories in white to balance everything out.

House  Beautiful

Embrace your brown sofa, and build the room around it, choosing a variety of prints in the same color. Add some punch with accessories.

Contemporary Living Room by Toronto Photographers Aristea Rizakos

Blues and browns get along beautifully. Enough said.

Contemporary Living Room by Chicago Interior Designers & Decorators Buckingham Interiors + Design LLC

Choose a beautiful rug that includes brown. Pull your accessory colors from the rug colors. As you can see here, a rug that goes with your brown sofa does not have to be brown.

Lighten things up and add whimsy by adding a handcrafted garland to the space.  Use vintage materials that have patinaed over time, and the undertones will work beautifully with the browns in the space.

Eclectic Living Room by Portland Design-Build Firms Vanillawood

By keeping your sofa in the same neutral tones as other large elements, such as this hearth, you can allow the art in a room to shine.  In this case, the sofa takes a supporting role to a Platner table, a Noguchi table, and a Bertolli chair.

source

Use your rug to tie the room together, without being too matchy-matchy. Keep the walls white, to bounce lots of light around, and accessorize with gold metals. Gold looks amazing with brown. So does red, if you get the undertones right.

via decorpad

Use your sofa as a back drop for your collection of folk art textiles. Build your color scheme around one central textile (which also has a brown similar to your sofa).

Traditional Living Room by Los Angeles Interior Designers & Decorators Emily Ruddo

Balance the light with the dark.... and throw in some sophisticated, but pretty accent colors.

Contemporary Living Room

Keep things from feeling heavy by painting woodwork bright white, and painting the walls a light pastel. Add punch and balance with a large bold piece of art.

via

Accessorize with vintage wine crates filled with fresh blooms.  The natural wood will tie into your sofa color, and the blooms will add a pop of color!

Modern Living Room by Toronto Interior Designers & Decorators Sealy Design Inc.

Build your room around one textile in all neutral tones, for a calm masculine space.

Eclectic Living Room by Toronto Photographers Peter A. Sellar - Architectural Photographer

Have fun. Keep your sense of humor. Don't be shy. Surround yourself with what you love, and the room will come together.

Contemporary Living Room by Smyrna Interior Designers & Decorators The Hunted Interior

Choose a classic print, containing your sofa color, and build your color story from there -- and remember what we said about black and brown working together? Here it is again!

If you love your sofa, and it works for you, and you have built a beautiful space around it, that's good design. And good design is timeless, so it just won't matter that brown sofas "trended" in year "x".  Good design is always current. What are your tips for working with brown sofas?

Watercolor Pencil Bible Art Journal Tutorial

Hello friends! Today I want to share a tutorial for an art journal page, using watercolor pencil. I used a bible journal, but if you're not into bible journaling, but love altered books, scrapbooking, mixed media, or altered art, you can apply these techniques there, too.

If you don't already have a set of watercolor pencils, I would encourage you to pick up a set -- decent sets can be found for just a few dollars.

What to Put in Your Smash Journal

I recently shared a tutorial on how to put together a smash journal, using items from the dollar store as well as "found" items you may already have around the house. The post was getting pretty long, so I decided to break it out into a tutorial, and a flip through that included ideas for what to include in your own smash journal.

Basically, if you can figure out a way to bind it, and it fits (more or less), then you can use it in your journal! Don't feel limited to paper, either -- you may find cool pieces of plastic from packaging or old report covers that can be re-purposed.

Make a Fun Smash Journal From Dollar Store Supplies!

Hello friends! You may have noticed that I've decreased the frequency of my posts in the last couple of weeks. Don't worry, I'm still here and I'm still making stuff. I just decided to slow down the pace for a few weeks over the summer, to make more time to hang out with friends and family.

One of the fun things I made recently is a smash journal, using Dollar Store supplies!

I am IN LOVE with the smash journal concept. If you have drawers and boxes full of vintage ephemera, or if you've simply collected an abundance of pretty paper over the years, this is a project you might love, as well! This is a project inspired by a Heidi Swapp video. Heidi made a scrapbook for her daughter using a plastic 12x12 paper holder.

I started by grabbing a few items from the local Dollar Tree, including a plastic document file, some pretty note paper, and a package of  binder dividers. All you really need, however, is a plastic file, and a drawer full of random paper.

Begin by cutting off both fused ends of the file and discarding. You can even up your cuts with a paper cutter afterward, if you need to.

Next, go through your papers and dividers and cut them down to a size that will fit inside your smash journal. I used the plastic divider sheets from the document file as a guide. Get creative here. Fold some pages over, create pockets -- anything goes! As long as your items fit in your book, they do not have to be the same size.

I cut down the pocket divider from the Dollar Store set that I bought. Assemble your pages and bind together. I have an O-ring binder, but if you don't have one, you can take your stack of pages to a printer and they can bind it for you -- or you can punch holes and add rings or cord. I bound my plastic file right into the journal by folding it back on itself and and adding it to the back of the stack before inserting the O-rings.

I LOVE IT! This smash journal was made as a gift, to encourage a friend, but you can be sure I will be making more very soon.

The book is full of pretty things, vintage book pages, hand drawn doodles, pockets, and note pages.

I was planning to do a "flip through" in this post, but it was getting so long, I decided to save it for another post.

Have lots of fun decorating the cover of your smash journal. Since the cover is translucent, I made sure the top page was something pretty, then I added a tiny banner, made from tiny scraps and embroidery floss. The elastic closure was dressed up with fun foam flowers. The recipient's name was added in glittered foam letters.

If you have a stash of fun papers, you'll definitely want to try a version of this project!

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