Pantene Beautiful Lengths

Being Charitable

We decided Hannah needed a shorter hair-do, she needs a lot of help getting the knots out after showering.  She's also been talking about donating to Locks of Love once it was long enough.  However, I found a Canadian way of donating through The Canadian Cancer Society and Pantene Beautiful Lengths.

Here are the requirements from the Canadian Cancer Society: donations must be a minimum of 8 inches long. Hannah's clean and dried pony tail measured 11.5 inches long. Above, her hair is wet because I had just finished shaping it into a page boy after cutting off the pony tail.

 PANTENE BEAUTIFUL LENGTHS

ARCHWAY

2-1055 MIDDLEGATE RD

MISSISSAUGA ON L4Y 9Z9

There is a "postage paid" printable e-label on the following link, very convenient - found here.

As per the Canadian Cancer Society site: 
Pantene Beautiful Lengths accepts hair donations, then creates, ships and donates real-hair wigs to Canadian Cancer Society wig banks across Canada. There is no cost to the Society or to the individuals who receive these wigs. Please consider sending your hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths as a meaningful way to support someone on a cancer journey.

Getting Organized

While perusing the Internet for some DIY Kitchen organizing tips, I came across this post from Kevin & Amanda.com, on how to make your own wood drawer dividers.  

I've been looking at different dividers and bins from various Kitchen supply stores and the prices were just going to be too much.  I couldn't wait to try out this project after finding the post.  I bought 12 pieces of lumber.  At just over $25 Canadian - what a bargain for completely custom fit organization.

I used 1/4 inch thick "hobby board" made of poplar from Home Depot.  They were just over $2.00 CAD a piece.  It took approximately 3 boards per drawer - I've only completed 2 so far, so that's a guesstimate.

Here is what you'll need (no husband required):

I covered the bottom of the drawer with parchment paper, or you can use newspaper, just to protect it from glue drips.

I laid out my utensils how I wanted, measured and cut the pieces to fit.  I glued the dividers together, but not to the drawer walls.  I want to be able to remove these later if necessary. Or to add drawer liner later on.

You could be really exact and make a a box frame around the inside of the drawer before adding the dividers, that would require extra wood - I am El Cheapo. 

I chose to add just the dividers.  I did have to add some end pieces to stabilize it so the

whole thing wouldn't slide or shift over time.

Mason Jar Goodies

I know I've done these homemade bath salts on a few occasions, but they are just such an easy and affordable "go to" present.  When I found these cute chalkboard labelled mason jars for $ 1.50 at Michael's in October, I snatched up just over a dozen of them and stashed them away with Christmas give away's in mind.

Bath Salts Recipe:

• 1 cup of rock/sea salt (kosher salt usually only contains sea salt, check the ingredients list)
• 1 cup of Epsom salt
• 2 Tbsp baking soda
• 15 drops of essential oil (I used doTerra "Wild Orange" & NOW "Orange"
• the rind of half an orange

Directions:
In a large bowl, mix together the sea salt and Epsom salt. Add the baking soda and stir with a metal spoon until combined. Add the essential oil and orange rind.  Break up any clumps of rind with the spoon and package as desired.

Due to the the organic component of the orange rind, I put an expiry date of 3 months on my bath salt labels. 

Candy Jars:

I placed a strip of card stock in the centre of the jar and held it in place with a large cutlery spoon, then filled each side with sorted candies (Christmas Smarties & jelly beans).  

Once full, I pulled out the card stock.  I wish I had bought candies with more contrast, the effect would really pop. Oh well, next year.

I sprayed my chalk writing with hairspray, let's hope they travel well.

Keep Cheaping On

Make Your Own Decor Pillows

I am so surprised how these pillows turned out.  They look like faded denim.  This would be a perfect method if you were trying to achieve the “old coffee bag” effect using a vintage printable.

Again in my attempt to whip up some cheap inexpensive Christmas ornament, I found a recipe to make your own fabric paint.  Incredibly enough, I had ALL the ingredients already on hand, which almost never happens.

Keep reading for tutorial on this project.

Now you may ask, why buy Liquidex Medium when it’s just as much to purchase fabric paint?  I have Liquidex on hand for Art Journaling, but now I can make ANY COLOUR fabric paint.  I don’t have to purchase individual colours.  That’s a bonus.

Here’s what you need for these adorable pillows:

• Painters drop cloth (from your local hardware store) – sewn into an envelope pillow case cover
• Liquidex Medium (or any Acrylic Medium) - I used transparent, it doesn’t change the colour
• Craft paint – colour of your choice
• Pencil
• Paintbrush
• Printer & regular printer paper

1. Sew pillow case covers from pre-washed painter’s drop cloth (hardware store purchase – paint aisle)
2. Print the image on regular printer paper
3. To increase the size of the image beyond the 8.5 x 11 paper, in Word I “cropped” the deer image into two: deer top half and deer bottom half, than overlapped them once printed.  The J-snowflake-Y were each printed on their own pages.*Subsequently you can use the "tile" function on one whole image so it is printed largely over several 8.5x11 sheets of paper
4. Cut out the image and then lay flat on your fabric
5. Outline or trace the image onto the pillow case cover in pencil
6. Mix Liquidex Medium and craft paint.  I used half and half (red did look pink when adding medium, but dried accurately)
7. Let dry

*To remove the pencil markings, I washed my pillow case covers after they dried.  This MAY be how I got the lightened denim effect. 

I wonder if I IRONED the paint after it dried to heat set it before washing, if it would fade less.

I’m going to try this on test piece just to see what happens.

Envelope pillow case cover tutorial found here @ Instructables.com:

DIY fabric paint tutorial here @ Instructables.com:

Deer silhouette found here @ 11 Magnolia Lane.com:

I'm Dreaming of a CHEAP Christmas!

Let's Do Christmas on the Cheap, shall we.  

I decided I wanted to change up some of my Christmas decor, so I bagged up any "countrified" decorations and sent them away to a good home.  Since we are in the midst of some kitchen renovating, I can't quite justify replacing things THIS year.  Here's how I filled in some of the gaps of my decor, but on a dime.

Wrapping paper art:  I wrapped my large canvas art in Dollar Store paper and glitter ribbon.  I can't take credit for this project, I saw it online.  That person must have shopped at the Dollar Store too, I found the same paper there.

Rolled wrapping paper tree cones.  These can be seen all over the Internet.  You can cover styrofoam forms with fabric, or do it the CHEAP way like I did.  I made a cone out of cardboard then covered it in... you guessed it Dollar Store wrapping paper.  Here is a good cone tree making tutorial @ Sand & Sisal.com.

BTW, did you notice I flipped my pallet wood shelving?  It holds things better this way.  I added some drawer pulls that were saved from my daughter's old IKEA dresser that fell apart.  The dresser went in the trash, and the pulls have become part of the decor.  I REALLY prefer the look of the shelf this way.

I painted the pants of the Nutcracker seen here to make it fit the colour scheme better.  I have a few larger Nutcrackers (*insert joke here) that still need to be painted, and one that I am making a new felt cape for.  

I filled a shadow box frame I already had on hand with Dollar Store Christmas baubles, (snowflakes, jingle bells, and pom poms).  Glued some scapbook paper to the backing and cut out a slogan in vinyl. You can purchase pre-cut vinyl lettering at your local Staples store if you don't have a cutting machine.  A tutorial to make a holiday shadowbox frame can be found @ To Simple to Inspire.com.

I threw together some "scrap" scrapbooking paper and coordinating stickers to use with my "new" holiday clipboards.  I bought it on sale at Michael's for 60% off, OKAY, so I'm not perfect and bought something ;D

I have one other inexpensive project in the works, but with sanding and painting the kitchen cabinets this weekend, I ran out of time and steam.

Pumped Up Christmas Garland

Make Your Garland More Substantial

We purchased a 36 foot long strand of pre-lit garland from Lowes, hoping to add chunky holiday elegance to our "new" front door.  We were greatly disappointed to find out that the the strand was very small in diameter once installed and was barely noticeable from the street during the day.  Our intention was to strand around the door and then down our porch railing with the 36 foot strand.

I had already anticipated adding Deco mesh and Christmas balls to the garland, but our Lowes strand was going to be waaaay too fine for that.  

Walmart to the rescue.  We purchased four 9 foot lengths of fake garland (they were 4 for $10).  We strung them together end to end, then folded in half making a thicker strand 18 feet long.  Then we folding the lighted Lowes strand in half and twined it into the Walmart strand. Basically combined two 36' lengths folded in half and twined together.

I added green Deco Mesh and 2 different Christmas ribbons as well as some Dollar Store plastic Christmas bobbles and voila... a chunky substantial Christmas garland.  I think I will add more bobbles as the weeks progress leading up to Christmas.

From Canadian Tire we bought these cool brick hooks that allow you to hang decorations to brick without having to drill holes.  A bit of a recess is needed between your brick and grout in order for them to work.  Canadian Tire also had these cool green plastic adjustable strings specifically for hanging garland, kind of like zip ties but they are reusable.  Really easy to install and no power tools required.

I have EVEN more exciting news to share.  For those of you who know that Sean and I are ambitious project starters, but lack in finishing our projects - all our baseboard trim and quarter round is finally in.  In the front hall, the bedroom hallway and ALL of the kitchen. Hurray!  It's a Christmas miracle!

Boo's Art Project

For some time now, my daughter and I have been thinking of making Abstract art on canvas.  We had some smaller canvases donated by Nana, but were  waiting for large ones to go on sale at Michael's.

Here's Boo's project.  We first watched some Youtube videos about Fluid Liquid acrylic painting. (example: here.)

Hannah sprayed the paints with a water bottle while they were still wet to create this effect. She used regular craft acrylic paint.

The photos don't do it justice.  When you turn it over it resembles a birch forest in front of a lake.

The squares were done with Medium Gesso and a repeating square stencil that was left to dry for 24 hours before adding paint.

Halloween - Haunted Signage

Using the second of the two sign plaques that my Mother In Law gave me, I painted and sanded it to shabby chic perfection.  I used Halloween rub-on's that are so old, I can't even remember WHEN I bought them on spider web paper scraps from my stash.  I paper stained the edges with Tim Holtz "Old Paper".

The balsam wood "Haunted" is from Michael's, I cut off the House portion from the bottom, painted it black and covered in black Stickles.  

Check out the The "Canicula Embalming Fluid" bottle.  It's REAL.  I know I have shown this bottle before on my previous blog, but it's just so cool.

CANICULA

CONCENTRATED

EMBALMING FLUID

100% PURE CHEMICALS

PERFECT COSMETIC EFFECT

COMBINED WITH UNSURPASSED

PRESERVATIVE, ANTISEPTIC

AND

DEODORIZING  QUALITIES

DIRECTIONS

For ordinary cases use 4 oz to 6 oz

to the half-gallon for first injection.

Use 6 oz to 8 oz to the half-gallon

for second injection.

For extreme cases - after first

injection - use full strength (16 oz to

the half-gallon).  For cavity injection

use concentrated form.

Price $5.00

CANICULA

CHEMICALS CO.

TORONTO, CANADA

Dollar Store Feather Boa Wreath

$13.00 Halloween Wreath Tutorial

Everything for this project was purchased from the dollar, except the Styrofoam wreath form.  The form is $ 9.99 @ Michael's, but I used a 40% off coupon.

Wrap the entire wreath form with black Electrical tape or black duct tape if you have it.  I have seen similar wreaths online that were wrapped in black fabric ribbon before adding the feathers.  The electrical tape made this super quick and easy.  It adheres instantly and is very flexible.  Plus it was one less item I had to purchase since I already had it on hand.

The boa is fastened onto the form with metal sewing pins.

Awesome tip: only partially wrap the boa's onto the wreath, leaving a long feather tail. Using the electrical tape, adhere the unsightly section of the wired roses onto the wreath then cover with the reaming boa.

Cost Breakdown: 
1 - Hall Rose Bqt Glit $ 1.25
3 - Feather Boa's $ 1.00 ea.
1 - Black Glitr Crow $ 1.25
1 - Styrofoam Wreath $ 6.00 (with the 40% discount)
Total: $11.50 before taxes

Ignore the glue gun, I didn't end up using it at all in this project.

Thanks to curlymade.blogspot.ca for the super fun hand drawn arrow jpg's, and dafont.com for the Buffied font.

Halloween Deco Mesh Wreath

I finally tried making a Deco Mesh wreath.  I can't believe how easy it was.  Hint, buy the right colour pipe-cleaners. I just used what was on hand.

Deco Mesh YouTube tutorial found here.

Very happy with the results, I may change up some of the elements at another time, but for now I am satisfied.  I have so much mesh left over it's ridiculous.  Anyone want a Halloween Decor Wreath?

Burlap Pumpkins

Here's a few pumpkin crafts I worked up this weekend.

Paint or distress the Styrofoam pumpkin, Mod Podge the burlap strips in place and hot glue ribbon onto the seams.

I also took the paper Decoupage pumpkin I made in a previous post and added ribbon and wrapped twine around the stem.

Fall Decorating

See further down for DIY crafting:

It's that time of year again.  In Canada, Halloween and Thanksgiving are in the same month, so Fall/Thanksgiving decorations are only put up for a very short period of time.  I seem to focus more on Halloween, but decided I needed a Fall crafting blitz.

Here is my Fall fireplace mantel.  Yes, it's a fake fireplace, we didn't inherit a real one with the purchase of this house *sigh*.

Here are the close-ups of the mantel (from left to right:

Dollar store pumpkins/gourds in the Hurricane lamp and the metal bird cage.

 Dollar store foliage garland and Michael's 60% fake mums (5 bunches @ $1.11 ea.) 

This cool rattan or corded raffia pumpkin was a new purchase from HomeSense (similar to the U.S. HomeGoods).  I have been waiting 8 years for a HomeSense to FINALLY open in my town.  It's been 3 weeks and I have been there more then a dozen times.

Now for the DIY bits:

A while back, my mother-in-law purchased two standing plaques at a discount store for me to re-craft. I Mod Podge'd burlap over the base of one and then added cardstock letters which were in the Dollar bin at Michael's.  The Leaf charms are from my card making stash. 

This dollar store pumpkin was covered in pages from an old Dictionary that is used just these kind of crafts.  (I think it was hubby's dictionary in High School - ya, that's definitely not up to date, can you imagine the World Map section *laugh*

I tore the dictionary paper into strips and adhered it to the dollar store plastic pumpkin with Mod Podge.  I tucked the top of the paper under the removable plastic pumpkin stem.

This pumpkin was from the Dollar Store gourd package.  

I tucked the start of the twine under the plastic removable stem and then wrapped the twine along the seems of the pumpkin.  

Tucking and hot gluing the end again under the stem.

I used some left over letters from the above "Fall" signage and glued them to a cork covered piece of 1 x 6 (cut down to 1 x 3) from my wood stash.

Some more Fall decorating:
For more on the pallet pumpkin see the post here.

Decor on a Dime

We bought my daughter a new bed spread set last year, but never got around to decorating her room. Since we had some spare time last weekend, we decided to do some decorating on the cheap.

A girlfriend of mine had made Hannah a paper craft name frame when she was a toddler.  I decided to "case" the design, but update the colours according to the new colour scheme. This was even cheaper then a dime to make since I re-purposed the frame from the original original sign and had all the embellishments on hand already for card making.

 The older sign is now put away in a scrapbook.

Sorry these are blurry, camera issues!

My daughter also had some ceramic Bugs that have been on her wall since she was a baby.  Her and I painted them to match.

I up dated the "H" that has been on her wall for years.  So lots of not so "new" decor is updated to match her colour scheme. 

I'll be working on her new curtains over the long weekend.  I may even have enough fabric to make a bed skirt.