Trash to Treasure

My husband and I eat almonds like there is no tomorrow, needless to say we are left with these empty containers after all the almonds are gone.  I have kept wondering what I could use the empty containers for and thought...what about my craft supplies!  After scraping off all of the label that would come off with just my fingernails, the goo gone came out and it came off with ease! 

The lid was a green color....I knew this would bug me so I painted the lid with a spray paint meant to cover and stay on plastic, this was used as a primer. Later painted a cream color with regular spray paint and sprayed with spray glitter.  

I measured the area where I wanted paper placement and began cutting paper to fit the area.  The paper used is from Canvas Corp  After cutting the paper, I rounded the edges with the Creative Memories corner rounder, lightly sanded each piece, then antiqued with a Tim Holtz distressing pad(tea dye).  

The Canvas Corp glue works great for stacking the papers, this glue makes it stick....and stick well:)  It also will not wrinkle the paper when it is drying.  Normally I like to let each layer dry just a bit before placing another layer on top. The middle of the layer is two round circles that were cut out with the Creative Memories circle punch.  The top circle was stamped with a circle stamp that reads "from the heart".

To finish off the top of the project, I found ribbon that was used in my tassel project, and hemp cord from Canvas Corp.  A chipboard embellishment that I found in my supplies was dyed to match the ribbon with a stamp pad.  Letting the chipboard dry, I tied the ribbon around the top and heated up the glue gun!  Then attached the chipboard with hot glue.  

Below is the entire finished project!

Thanks for stopping by!

Teachers Pet

Andy's teacher is a wonderful lady....but she has been keeping me SO busy! To not be working...I am working ALOT!!!!  So she wanted bookmarks made for the parents with their child's picture.  She gave me blue paper for a background, I painted silver and white snowflakes all over it with spray paint.  Then we hung it up, put a snowman by the kids and started snapping away!  I edited the pictures with Picnik by creating a border around the picture.  I ordered the generic white cards from Sam's Club.  

Picked up the cards, then mounted them to card stock, laminated each with heavy duty lamination.  Added a grommet to the top of the card and attached a tassel.  This little project seemed to take forever but the kids loved them and wrapping them for their parents made them super happy:)

Endless Possibilities with Tassels!

I have been wanting to make my own tassels for quite some time now...I hadn't because it was difficult finding the finials for the top.  If I wanted to get really creative and up off the couch...finding a wooden topper, or ceramic topper would not have been a difficult tasking!  On the other hand that would have required drilling and all sorts of other tools that I would have to find and later put away:)  Truly I am not lazy but on occasion I like the easy way out! Finding these tassel toppers at my local Hobby Lobby about made my week, what could be easier??? 

Here are the supplies I gathered before sitting down to do my project:
Tassel Topper from the local Hobby Lobby
Assorted Ribbons of various sizes, colors, shapes, even rick rack, and beads.
Scissors
Hot Glue Gun
Wooden Wheel(this is optional)
2" Foam Ball

You will want to start out by cutting your ribbon.  If you want the ribbon to loop remember to cut it double the length.  A variety of lengths will be needed for each tassel.  While you are cutting the ribbon the glue gun can be heating up. Form individual loops and glue together.  Find your 2"foam ball, start gluing the ribbon around the circumference of the ball.  You can line the ribbon up side by side, use as many ribbons as you would like on each loop around the foam ball, working in rows. 

The following picture is a top view of the foam ball after all the ribbon pieces have been glued on.  I am not a neat crafter....please keep that in mind:)

This next step is optional...however if you choose not to do this step the top portion of the tassel still must be finished somehow.  I will show you two alternative ways to finish out the top of the tassel.



I found this neat stretchy ribbon that I used around the wheel, then  used a cording to break up the ribbon.  After being as creative as you care to be hot glue the wheel to the top of the foam ball.  Take your tassel topper and hot glue it onto the top of the wooden wheel.  Tie a ribbon onto the topper to use as a hanger.  Below is the first tassel I finished!

Now for a second finish to the topper.  This one is a little more tricky.  It is more of a pleated design around the top and I used ribbon.  I really think it might be easier to use fabric? So pick a starting point and start folding the ribbon.  The ribbon has to be glued on both the top and the bottom of the pleat in order to stay put.  This is the bottom ugly view!

Here it is sitting up.

Around the last tassel(pictured below), I pleated the ribbon on the bottom of the topper and then simply hot glued a wide piece of ribbon. 

I hope you all enjoy creating these as much as I did!!!! Thanks for stopping by:)