DIY Inexpensive Candle Holders Out of Cans

Edited!

The other day while I was doing dishes and cleaning up my counters I  noticed some empty cans that were destined for the recycle bin. All of a sudden, light bulb! I wondered what I could do with those cans that would be creative and inexpensive.

WARNING: Please handle cans very carefully to not cause any cuts on your skin.

I decided to make candle holders using some glass candle holders I had gotten at the thrift store (.50 cents each) but they are also available at the $1 store. Cans are free after you use its contents. :)

For this project you will need:

-hot glue gun

-ribbon

-primer

-spray paint

-twine

-2 candlesticks

-1 clean empty large can (like those of refried beans)

-1 clean empty small can (like those of small tomato sauce or jalapeno peppers)

-2 candles

-2 coasters (I got these from the thrift store as well, they were .25 cents each)

When you remove the paper from the cans, some of the adhesive/glue remains on the can.  This can easily be removed using GooGone.

The way that you will stack these is as follows from bottom up:

candle (top)

coaster

can

candle holder

canned meat can (bottom)

First I put hot glue on the top part of the candle stick, hold upside down and place it right in the center of the can.

Turn down side up and this is what they should look like:

Prime and then spray paint:

Add some ribbon around them and place the coasters and candles on top (hot glue to attach)

But then I didn't really love the finished product so I decided to take the bottom cans off and scrape the hot glue off. I also added some fabric around the cans to make it less obvious that they were cans and here's the finished product! I hope you like it! I know I do (and a special thanks to my dear sister-in-law Shelly for her constructive criticism!)

Leave me your feedback please! Thanks for looking! <3

DIY Erasable Message Board on Candlestick

The other day I saw a really cute idea on Pinterest (I am so crazy about that place, totally recommend it!) that I wanted for sure to try. It was putting a frame with a photograph on a spray-painted candlestick.

I decided to take a bit further and make it into a message board to put on my window sill which is perfect to write little messages to my loving husband (he typically does the dishes around here) and it's a little way I can show him how much I appreciate him.

OK so here we go!

For this project you will need a candlestick (mine is from the thrift store), hot glue, a small wooden frame (mine also from the thrift store and was only 50 cents!), craft paint, a small brush, and a print out to put inside your frame (I am sharing the one I made for you to be able to print yourself at home! Enjoy!).

First, I painted my frame. I didn't prime it because I didn't want to completely cover the frame with paint cause I wanted it to look old and shabby. :) I did two coats of paints leaving some parts (that look like scratches) uncovered, the reason why to use a brush instead of a spray paint.

After that I painted a wood ball knob (available at hardware and craft stores). I did mine a shade lighter than the frame because my candlestick is white and I want it gradually transition in color.

I painted the top half first and when that was dry, I turned it upside down and painted the other half. I did two coats.

I then made a graphic for the inside of the frame that will become my message board. This graphic is available here for download.

I inserted the paper in my frame, hot glued flat side of the wood ball onto the bottom of my frame.

Then I put hot glue in the inside the hole of the candlestick and placed the wood ball (already with the frame) onto there.

And voila! I just write the message on the glass with a permanent marker and erase it with a wet rag or tissue. Gorgeous, inexpensive, super easy, decorative, and relationship enhancer! Have fun!

DIY Lamp Makeover

Hello everyone! I've got a new little DIY project I took on not too long ago and love how it turned out. About a month ago I went to the thrift store and found these beauties:

And I also ordered these self-adhesive lamp shades from hobbylobby.com along with some gorgeous reversible ribbon in turquoise and brown:

And here's what I did with the lamps first before working on the lamp shades:

1. I wanted the wood parts to be turquoise because the white parts are white milk glass and I wanted to keep them that way (plus it already matches my decor!) so I taped off the glass parts and left uncovered the parts that I wanted to paint.

2. Then I primed the parts I wanted to paint.

3. I spray painted silver the parts that I wanted silver making sure that everything else was taped off securely cause metallic paint can be really messy.

4. I then took off the tape from the wood parts so that I could hand paint those parts.

5. I then applied a coat of clear gloss lacquer to keep the paint glossy (except that I didn't like how dull it made the metallic paint look but I left it as is cause it wasn't that bad).

And here's the finished work on the lamp post itself:

Now let's work on the shades. Well unfortunately my little girl broke one of the lamps by accident so I am only going to show you what one of the lamps looks like when it is finished. 

For materials I had the self-adhesive shades (very inexpensive), hot glue gun, and long strips of fabric (mine were from an old and torn linen table cloth)

1. Because the shade is already pre-glued, the fabric adheres to it already so all I did was wrap the strips of fabric around lamp shade.

 

2. I then wrapped some twine in a drum diamond pattern around it to give it more texture and dimension.

3. Next, with some left over fabric strips, I made a fabric flower. I did this by twisting the fabric strip and  then hot glueing it together in a spiral shape.

4. Finally, I added some turquoise ribbon to match my lamp base (only hot glued the ends of the ribbon in place over the fabric), made a bow out of the ribbon which I then hot glued right on the spot were the ends of the ribbon were and then I hot glued the fabric flower in the center, and voila!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial! Follow me for some more awesome upcoming and gorgeous decor crafts I will be posting soon! Happy decorating!

I know I know, such a slacker...

Haven't posted anything since October... ACK!!! So sorry about that. So busy with so much stuff that I kinda got burned out BUT... the good news is that I have a new goal. Check it out. Feel free to repost if it inspires you but please credit where you got it from (thank you!)

Are you with me on this? Decorating and doing DIY projects and crafts is something that I love so much and that brings me so much happiness. Sometimes life gets so busy that I don't make time to do some of the things that I really love to do for me... end result --> burn out! No wonder! So, hopefully I have learned my lesson. I know that as a mom life is supe busy. I have 4 kiddos so I know. BUT I also know that if we also make a little time, like once a week at least, to do something that we want to do just for us and lets us be creative, then why not?! Totally go for it. The way I see it, any negative things that I perceive to be negative in my life (not many thank goodness) might be completely overshadowed happiness, excitement (looking forward to doing your thing each week), creativity, and joy. As for me, I definitely want the latter. :) What is your goal in 2012?

Oh decor, pretty decor...

Sooo... I love decorating, I love thrift stores, I love yard sales, I love turning ordinary not-so-appealing things into beautiful things. I looooooove it. It has become my newest hobby. 

Here are my latest decor pieces:

Shabby Chic Flower Arrangement Set

Classic Chic White Cookie Jar

Unique Glass Hurricane

Classic Tabletop Hurricane Set

Shabby Chic Candle Holder

Thanks so much for looking! :)

DIY Family Monogram Plate

So it has been a little while since my last post. I have been busy. However, I for sure will not let go of this project and I am back! So in my last post I asked you about color you think I should paint/stain my cabinets in my kitchen. Most of you chosen Espresso and I think it is a good option. So if you looked at the photoshopped picture oh my potential kitchen that I posted, you were probably thinking, "what in the world is that on the wall over the range?!"

Well that is what I intend to show you today. :) I made a craft to go over my range on the wall (I don't have a backsplash - I want to find a nice inexpensive and creative way to have one) that is a focal point in my kitchen. I cannot yet disclose how it looks in the kitchen as I have not done the reveal of the kitchen yet (not ready for it yet). But I do want to show you how awesome it itself looks and how you can do it. OK so this is what I did and how it actually looks like in the real non-photoshopped life...

So how do you make something like this? I call this a Family Monogram Plate. Here's how I did it.

I went to the thrift store (I LOVE thrift stores!) and got these two plates. One is like a platter, metal-ish, and very ugly. The only thing that I liked about it was the border and the size. I saw great potential in this. The white plate I loved. It was white, oversized, and I loved the border as well (and I only had to buy 1 - except that I went back the next day and bought a couple more like it for some other crafts I have planned).

I primed the gold platter (see that it already had the nice little hook ring there ready to hang so it was perfect, I didn't have to install that myself...

Then I painted it (my paint is a flat finish paint because I wanted it to look like wall paper on the wall, so for this project, I used shellac after I painted it and it was dry so that it could have a nice subtle gloss and so that it can be easy to clean (gotta love that!).

Then I used my handy dandy glue E6000 glue that I got from the local True Value Hardware:

and put it on BOTH surfaces since neither one of them is porous. 

And then had it dry for about 3 days (in which you do NOT want to touch it because it can come apart, yes, it does take that long for that much glue to harden completely, but when it hardens, it HARDENS!). And yes, it did happen to me, I was too curious and I had to go through the glueing process a second time, so learn from my experience. :)

Then after then were stacked and the glue was dry, I placed a vinyl monogram I ordered through Etsy (because of the size it was very inexpensive) and I placed it on there as soon as I received it. If you have a local friend that can do this for you, then that would be great because you wouldn't have to wait as long to get it and it might be cheaper. :)

And voila! Our plate is finished and I get so many compliments by people who come into my kitchen and see it. The M is the first letter in our last name so it is very well-suited and customized for our family (love that!). That's the beauty of making your own crafts - cheap, stylish, custom!

Have fun making yours if you want to endeavor making one - super easy!! Hugs!

Kitchen Cabinets Poll - Please Vote on the right ---->

Aahhhh, the power of Photoshop... I can see the possibilities with my kitchen cupboards right before my eyes. Here's what my kitchen cabinets look like (they're actually a bit darker than the picture but still orange-ish... I can't believe I chose that...pointing finger in my mouth):

Here are the options that I chose in Photoshop: 

Here are some more altered images I did playing in Photoshop:

White:


Now:


Medium/Dark Brown:


Espresso:

Will you please take a moment and decide which color/stain I should choose? It would help me out tons. Thanks so much!! :)