Tag Archives: dollar store

A Gift For Under $5

Posted by Leanne on June 12, 2012 10 comments

Oh, wordpress…. really, I had added the second picture to this post, but for some reason, WordPress like to delete 1/2 the post, 1/2 the time. Exhausting!!! Here it is again for you!

A few weeks ago when the principal at our elementary school came to me asking if I would be able to come up with 30 gifts for $5 each or less, on the outside I agreed happily, but in the inside, I was freaking out a little! $5 or less!! How do I pull this off?!

Hubby took charge of the kids, and I went hunting to the local dollar stores, and gift stores, camera in hand, taking pictures of anything I found had possibilities. I emailed off some ideas to the principal, and she responded with her choice. I had so much fun putting these together!

I don’t have any during pictures, and only 2 shots of after pictures… for some reason I thought I would have more time for picture taking, and then “being busy” got in the way!! But here’s the breakdown for you!

I did my shopping at the Dollarama, and bought:

Glass candle holder bowls: $2 each

River rocks, 1 bag per bowl: $1 per bag

2 boxes of smooth black rocks: $1 per box

succulents found at a local plant nursery: 99 cents each

white sharpie paint pen: already had it!

First, I painted 30 of the black rocks with the word “Thank You” using my Sharpie Paint Pen.

My original plan was to plant the succulents in the bowl, but hubby and I agreed it would be best not to… I didn’t want to kill half of them! So I simply filled each bowl 1/2 way with river rock, placed the succulent in it’s container, in between all the rocks, and filled in the rest of the space with more river rock. I propped the Thank You rock into each bowl on the prettiest side of the bowl. Easy Peasy, and a hit, too!

Thanks so much for reading!!! (and bearing with me when the blog site doesn’t work so well!!!)

Please PIN, SHARE, FACEBOOK and COMMENT like crazy, I appreciate and love all of it!

xo, Leanne

Linking up at: Embracing Change: Embracing Change

Turquoise Twins

Posted by Leanne on May 3, 2012 3 comments

Well it’s Thursday, and I’m feeling pumped today!! Tonight is our elementary school’s Ladies Night Fundraiser, where I am having a vendor table! With my past businesses I swore I would never have a vendor table again, but this was cheap enough, and for a good cause, and I’m excited to get my stuff out there, and see what the feedback is!

And to celebrate, I’m finally showing you a project! I know, it’s been awhile!! So I’m showing you a little favorite of mine, and I don’t think they’ll be sticking around for long… Meet the Turquoise Twins!

The Turquoise Twins!

The one on your left is a magnetic board, and the one on your right is a chicken wire bulletin board!

I actually have a pretty good collection of my how-I-did-it, so here we go!

This was them "before" and I picked them up on Half-Off day at a local thrift store for a couple of dollars each...

a couple close-ups of the frames before...

before...

after taking the frames apart, I gave them 2 coats of Wythe Blue, from Benjamin Moore.... once the paint dried, I distressed them to show some of the gold from underneath... then it was time for staining...

I had read about this technique online somewhere... I am SO sorry I don't remember where!... apply stain to the project (I used dark walnut from Minwax), and smear with a rag and baby oil! It gave a very nice stained darkness to the turquoise...

...here's a photo showing the difference... the bottom one has been stained, the top has not... very subtle, but just enough.

next, for the chicken wire frame, I used foam board as my "base" for my fabric. I bought it from the dollar store, and cut it to the size of the frame...

...placed the foamboard on the fabric I was using, and cut the fabric approximately 2 inches bigger than the foam board...

... so this is a photo with sheet metal for the magnet board... I bought a fairly large size sheet of sheet metal from Home Depot for $27, the price caught my by surprise, but oh well, I was determined, ...I put out a plea for tin snips (to cut the sheet metal) on Facebook, and thanks to friends willing to share their husband's tools I was set! ... To attach the fabric to both the sheet metal, and to the foam board, I just wrapped them and hot glued the back side. This project needed work gloves to keep scratches, cuts and burns at bay!...

This is the back of the foam board, with the fabric glued on. For this chicken wire project, I used the tin snips to cut the wire, a little larger then the frame. I wrapped the foam board with the chicken wire, and fitted it into the frame.

... I stapled the chicken wire to the frame with a staple gun (I felt very empowered with this project, using all these tools I've never used before!). After stapling, I trimmed the wire, then taped the edges down with masking tape...

I try to reuse as much of the original item as possible, so I used the mat from the original frame on the back, and was able to push the photo tab holders thingies down to keep it all in place.

And a couple of “after” pictures for you!

The Turquoise Twins!

I’d love to get your feedback, let me know what you think! If you LOVE them, find them on my For Sale Page!

Thanks so much for reading!!

xo, Leanne

Partying at:

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Fresh Cut Flowers and a Mason Jar!

Posted by Leanne on April 16, 2012 14 comments

Well, I have been dealing with 3 sick kids and a sick hubby since Wednesday, and I am beat! My post on Thursday let you know about my son Jordan, and how we feared he had the chicken pox. It turned out it wasn’t, but Thursday night the poor guy was sick all.night.long. And I was on mama duty, sleeping on the couch next to him, doing keep-up-on-the-cleanup-duty. Then he needed a second night on the couch with me beside him, just in case. Yesterday we figured he was good enough to take out, but alas, there we were in the parking lot of the dollar store, when Anna suddenly got sick. Yup. And who walked by but an old friend from highschool. Of course. Luckily he is an elementary PE teacher, and was very, very kind. I went inside with the baby, to buy some ginger ale, and… the baby started vomiting. Everywhere. That was not a fun ride home. Poor hubby got it by 9:00 pm. Again, on mama duty, I have now spent 3 nights in a row on the couch, have seen (and smelled) way more than I ever needed to, and I am beat! (I am writing this post Sunday night). I hope that wasn’t too much info for you all, but I needed to get it off my chest!

So now I would like to focus on something that makes me much happier, a little project I managed to pull off last week, and I love this little darling!

Fresh Cut Flowers!

What do ya think???

Here’s my “how-I-did-it”:

I started out with my piece of pine, painted the outer border brown, and the inside roughly with a blue, both from my craft paint selection...

...I used a new tip I found online: before adding the top layer of paint, apply vaseline to the areas you want to have easily distresses, as the paint won't stick to these areas. I focused the vaseline on the corners, and added a few streaks randomly on the board. Best Tip Ever! ...

(Source for the Vaseline trick: Shanty 2 Chic - awesome blog, I’ve learned many little tricks from here!)

...I then added a top coat of white paint....

...distressed with sandpaper...whew, that was easy!!! I LOVE the way both the blue and brown show from underneath...

...I had made my template on Picnik.com, and printed it out on my computer. Cut it and decided on its placement...

I colored the back of the template with pencil for the transfer method... I then used my favorite Sharpie paint pen to paint the letters in...

...traced the template with a ball point pen, and the lettering transfers onto the board...

I then took one of these plumber-thingies (oh, hubby just told me it's a 6" hose clamp)... Hubby helped with pounding a nail through 2 of the slots on this, so screws could fit through... I needed hubby's help a lot with this part of the project!

And used the hose clamp to hold my Mason Jar in place! (in case you don't know, because I didn't have a clue, the clamp tightens and loosens with the help of a drill at that big knobby part of it. You can completely open it up too, to screw it onto the board) ...After I took this picture I realized the jar didn't sit straight on the board, so you'll see in the later pictures that I adjusted the jar so the clamp sits lower...

...I waxed it the sign with Annie Sloan clear Wax, added a wire hangar to the back...

...picked our first blooms of daffodils from our garden, with a bit of "greenery" (lavender and chives), added a wee bit of twine to the mouth of the jar, and Ta-da!

...this baby will be hanging on my wall until it is sold!...

Fresh Cut Flowers!

I’m holding on to this sign for our school’s ladies night, but you can check out my For Sale page for more info on how to get your own!

I hope this sign makes you smile as much as it does for me, and I hope we all have a wonderful Monday!!

Thanks so much for reading!

xo, Leanne

24 HOUR Sale!–Hunt For 40% Savings On Adorable Selected Items In Each Of Our Departments, TODAY ONLY! Shop & Save at Naartjiekids.Com

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Not Just A Housewife

Refinished Frame

Posted by Leanne on March 1, 2012 6 comments

Is it really Thursday?? this week has been a weird one for me… part of me feels like “it’s Thursday?? Where did all the other days go??” and the other part of me is saying “it’s only Thursday?? Weekend, please come quick!” It feels like a lot is going on, and yet nothing much at all. Does that make any sense?? Probably not! Just ramblings I guess!! I think most of it is that we have celebrated Jordan’s birthday twice already, and tomorrow night will be the third time… I made the long-awaited switch over to my new url…and I’ve suddenly received a couple of custom orders for frames and signs… and I’m working on a couple of very beautiful pieces that I can’t wait to finish! That’s a lot for a mom of 3! LOL! For me anyways! This is also my first time posting at this new site, and it’s very different…a bit intimidating, and time-consuming. Hopefully I’ll get the hang of it soon!

I wanted to THANK each one of you for continuing to follow me and re-subscribing so quickly. It was very affirming to receive that response! …

I would love your continued support by referring my blog and facebook page to your friends. At the bottom of each post is also a couple of options to help you share my posts on facebook, twitter, and more…

Also, please remember the giveaway week is open till next Monday night, however, YOU MUST COMMENT and let me know you are following, in order to be entered in the giveaway. The original post for that is here.

Plus, visiting that post will give you a chance to see my new theme… let me know what you think! If you can’t find where to comment, you should be able to find “comments” under the post heading

I also wanted to let you know I won’t be posting quite as often as I was… it was getting to the point that I was posting 7 days a week, and I realize that I’m not nearly that interesting! So if I was beginning to scare you off by being in your inbox too often, I assure you, I’ll back off!! LOL! That’s the main reason I decided not to continue the sleepy sunday blog hop linky parties I was participating in.

So now onto today’s topic… A Refinished Frame…

Pin It

When hubby and I married almost 12 years ago (!) my parents gave us this,

: “A House Blessing” frame before

You probably can’t read what it says, so here it is:

“A House Blessing

Bless this house as we come and go, Bless this house as the children grow, Bless his house as we enter in, Bless this house with love and friends.”

I love this little blessing on our home and family, but after my desk and hutch re-do in my kitchen, the brown of this frame was beginning to stand out…. so… out came my paint!!

Instead of taking the frame apart, I used newspaper and tape to protect the glass…

…and once again, I didn’t have the camera around, so I don’t have “during” pictures but all it took was:

2 coats of white paint (for this project I just used white craft paint from the dollar store)
when the paint was dry I distressed with a sanding sponge
to age it I used a stiff art brush, and Distress ink. … I’ve “complained” about the Distress Ink before in that I would love for it to be more 3D, to reach into the grooves better, when a lovely reader commented and suggested I use an old makeup brush! Ah, I love people who are brighter than me! My mom had given me a stiff art brush that worked perfect for this… rub it into the Distress Ink pad, and then onto the project.
after this I left the frame as it, and love it!

After:

I apologize for the poor pictures, sometimes I am in just waayy too much of a hurry! But what do you think?? Do you like the change??

Thanks for reading!

xo, Leanne

I’m partying here and at Serendipity and Spice

Valentine’s Gifts for the Kids

Posted by Leanne on February 9, 2012 12 comments

While I’ve been working on signs for other people, Jordan has started asking that I make him something. Well of course!! And with Valentine’s coming up, what a great reason!

This is what I made, one for Jordan, and one for Anna,

Cute, right? And Easy-Peasy too!

Because, let’s face it, kids don’t always completely appreciate the hard work that goes into a gift, I didn’t want to sweat over this one. So, I first created my artwork on picnik.com, following this tutorial here. I really don’t know what I’m going to do when that site closes down in April, I guess I should start searching for options!!

I had hubby cut me up some wood to size, with enough for a small border all the way around my printout, and painted the wood to match. (For projects like these, by the way, I just use craft paint from the dollar store!)

Then, the most difficult part, I just decoupaged them on!

A thin layer of ModgePodge with a sponge brush, then carefully lay on the print, smoothing out any bubbles (Anna’s was the first one I did, so it does have a few bubbles ) Jordan’s is perfect!) Finish with a top layer of Modge Podge, and ta-da! I added wire hangers to the back … and yes, hubby has taught me how to do this, so I don’t have to bug him everytime I need a hanging wire put on – I now use a drill! Yay me! … and gifts are DONE. They will be getting some awesome chocolate with it of course, because you know that’s what they really want anyways!

And of course I made something for baby, but I’ll show you that on another post, it’s extra special!

What are you doing for Valentine’s?!

Thanks for reading!! xo, Leanne