Fork Stand on my $0 Budget

Did you see the Blessed to Be Blessed's guest post yesterday with here $0 infinity scarf? Amazingly creative! If you missed it, you can check it out here.

Today's post has helped me get rid of use up a basket of old forks I found laying around that didn't match my everyday or my formal set. I made photo stands out of them. This $0 project would work amazingly well with silver forks ...like anyone has some of those laying around to be altered into a plate/photo stand. Steer clear of thick, heavy gauge forks; they are very hard to bend and you will not be happy with the end results.

Here is what the project looks like in the end:

Materials:

• Old forks
• Needle nose pliers
• Wire bending tool (not necessary but nice to have)

Method:
Using a wire bending tool my husband had (if you don't have this, you can easily use pliers) I bent the prongs of the forks forward and backwards so the fork stood on its own.

You start with the two outer prongs and you bend them forward to approximately a 90 degree angle.  Be sure to line up where the bend is otherwise you will have a wobbly stand.

 

Once the outer two are bent, move to the middle two. Bend them in the opposite direction as the outer ones.

So your fork will look like this.

 

Then using a pair of pliers, I separated the middle prongs so they will provide better balance.

Test out the fork now and see if it stands well. If it is off balance, bend the prongs a little to get it in the right position. I liked mine to lean back slightly but it is up to you.

Then using needle nose pliers, I rolled the 4 prongs to make a loop on the ends. This makes it look a little nicer and provides an edge for the photo to lean against.

I had planned to used these forks as pictures stands. I really wanted this stand to hold photos of my two guys in my office that I don't want to frame since I change them frequently. I love how they are not bulky on my desk.

I now think these would have work great for the Personalized Marble Tiles I made for everyone at Christmas.  I made over 20 of these as Christmas gifts and ended up buying plate stands at the Dollar Store for each of them. I wish I had thought of this earlier because they are far cuter than the Dollar store stands I gave. I will have to remember it next year.

I still have one of my original plates waiting to be gifted (we will see them later this month) so I tested out my fork stand and it worked great. You can barely see the top of the fork sticking out but I love how it doesn't take away from the tile.

What do you think of my $0 fork plate /photo stand?

How has your spend free day been? We have had an interesting morning. My guys were in desperate need of hair cuts but since I am determined to not spend unnecessarily, I sat them down and did it myself. Before you gasp in disgust, my son had really curly hair so even if I completely messed up and had many different lengths, you would not be able to tell on his hair. My daughter on the other hand has perfectly straight hair. So this took me a little longer but ended up working really well. I saved approximately $45 by doing this! Not bad. Maybe in the future I can alternate between me and a professional.

Do you but your kids hair? Anyone have any tricks to make this easier?

Have a great day,
Stephanie