This little light of mine...well not mine but my sister's

 

My sister is truly amazing.  When she told me about one of here most recent projects I kept thinking about that old show McGyver. You know...the guy who can make anything out of the most basic materials.

Here is how the story played out in my mind. My sister (a.k.a. McGyver) was given a challenge by her tween daughter to create a beautiful light for her bedroom.  McGyver was given one day and only a handful of materials to complete this challenge. Here is what she had to work with: Embroidery hoop, various beads in the tween's color of choice (sparkly white, purple and pink), thin gauge wire, an old lamp base and some spray paint.

You and I would look at this and laugh thinking there is no possible way...but my sister McGyver knew there was a way of doing it!

 McGyver spray painted the old lamp base Heirloom White and while it dried she started to work on creating a beaded shade. She strung a variety of colors and sized beads down one long piece of wire being sure to place a large bead at the bottom for weight.

This strand was then attached to the metal embroidery hoop by simply looping it around, making sure it was the length she wanted. McGyver repeated this step until the embroidery hoop looked 'full.' Then McGyver knew her tween would want some more bling, so she added some beads around the lip of the embroidery hoop.

Now that the shade was done, McGyver set out to create the ceiling light. She cut the plug off the end of the lamp and pulled the chord through the base. She drilled two holes in the base of the lamp so it could be hung onto a standard ceiling light fixture.

Using some more fine gauge wire, McGyver secured the new beaded shade onto the light base.

Another successful mission...McGyver wins again :)

Great job McGyver...oh sorry, I mean Carol!

Linking to some great parties including: Story of A2Z

OMG!! Flip flop, sandle and ballet flat hangers on my $0 budget

 

With two shoe loving girls in this house, we have our fair share of summer shoes (especially my daughter who loves shoes more than I do). In the winter, I hate having a pile of flip flops kicking around the bottom of the closet getting in the way and in the summer I struggle to find two matching shoes in when I am always in a hurry to run out the door.

Funny story..A couple of months ago I ran out of the house to catch my train. It was very dark outside and I didn't want to turn on too many lights, so I grabbed my knee high boots and ran out the door. I drove across town, parked and ran to the station, I was running up the stairs with the train pulling in and I realized my heels were making different sounds when I walked. It was an odd thing but didn't think too much about it, until I looked down to avoid a pile of snow and saw I was wearing one knee high black and the other was brown! To make it even worse, they were different height heels! I still to this day don't know how I managed it but at least I caught it before getting on the train and was able to go back home to change :)

Back to the flip flop hanger. I was surfing through Pinterest and saw a picture of this amazing idea. I thought it was absolutely adorable and I knew it would solve my shoe problems :).  EPBOT took a cheap wire hanger and converted it into a flip flop hanger!!! She is a genius...who would have ever thought to do this!

Materials
Wire hanger
Wire snips
Pliers
Scrapbook paper 1.5 x 12 inch (optional)
Spray paint (optional)

Method
Here is how it is done. Take a cheap, thin, flimsy wire hanger and cut off the bottom.
My girlfriend is a police officer, so she gives me her wire hanger from when she dry cleans her uniforms. I started to amass a large stash and was thinking I wouldn't find anything else to do with them.  Reinforces my craft supply hording :) 

Using pliers, I straightened out the small bend at the neck and created two new bends about 3 inches from the middle. I then created a loop at the bottom and continued to roll it up for where the flip flop will hang. For ballet flats, I made a wider circle so the toe of the flat rested on the wire. There is no right or wrong here.

I debated spray painting these a bright color, like hot pink or lime green but I liked the white. Perhaps I will make a set for my daughter's closet with bright green. We will see. But if you want to spray paint them, this would be the time.

Cut a strip of scrapbook paper to be 1.5 inches wide and 12 inches long and made a little jacket for the hanger.

Glued on a spare button or a rhinestone to finish it off.  Isn't it adorable!

 I have only done two but I knew I had to share it ASAP. I just love this. Thanks EPBOT!!!

I have an old shower rod (you know the tension mount ones) that I am going to put in the closet to hang all of the shoes. When I am done, I will post more photos.

Are you as excited about this as I am?!?!

Enjoy!
Stephanie

What can you do with a $3 bolt of wire?

 

 This not a question I ever thought I would be asking myself.  After randomly picking up a $3 bolt of wire last week at Home Depot, I have been extremely interested in what I can make with it. I know what you are thinking, wire is not exciting ...but it is!

When you are on sites like Pottery Barn they have so many things created out of wire that don't really look that difficult to make.

So over the past week, this is what I have made for $3 with wire (and still have some left over):

I have made the wire photo holders (version 1) (version 2)

 Made my daughter's name to put on her shelf (it is approximately 32 inches wide)

 Accented a Dollar Store frame. I am still working on this and this might be a separate post if I can think up a few more idea ...since I still have some wire left over :)

Made the word 'love' (18 wide) to put above a photo. I think I might spray paint it with Oil Rubbed Bronze.

There is nothing really complicated with any of these designs. They were easy to make and only took a short time.

The one tip I have is don't bend the wire too much until you are sure it is in the position you want. The wire is forgiving but not if you do a 'hard' bend on it.

What do you think of my $3 spent?  Not bad huh!

Make your own Wire Photo Holder (Version 2)

I thought I would try to make a larger version of the photo holder I made for my daughter.

 

This time I used higher gauge wire (14 gauge) and it worked out even better than the lighter gauge. It seems to hold it shape a little better but I was still able to bend it and shape it easily with my hands.  I decided I would try to make this version square instead of round.   I could not get it perfectly square, but it isn't bad. The photos and ribbon cover up most imperfections. 

I love how this color wire looks great with black and white photos and it will work nicely for Christmas cards.

 This version took about half the roll of wire that was $3...so grand total $1.50.

Enjoy! Stephanie
Be sure to check out the Linked Parties I have participated in.
I Heart Nap Time
Making the World Cuter
Between Naps on the Porch
Cottage Instincts
The DIY Show Off 
Skip to My Lou 

Make your own Wire Photo Holder

I have been eying the wire photo holders from Pottery Barn Kids for a while, dreaming of one for my daughter's room. Well, I was at Home Depot today (looking for something completely different) and saw the rack with various gauge wires. I had so much fun with the Floral Wire Pumpkins that I thought I could make my own wire photo holder. I have to say it was not as easy as it looked. Perhaps if I was willing to solder them, I could do it without a problem...my husband can do this so I might be getting him to help me with this one night. I will keep you informed.  So with only limited tools, I was not able to do the exact photo holder I wanted but I am still happy with the end result.

I used 19 gauge wire and started bending it into figure 8s.

I did this over and over again until I thought I had the length I wanted.

I stretched out the wire and flattened it by hitting it a few times with a large rubber mallet on a mat on the floor.

My daughter's room is pink with bright lime green accents, so I decided to spray paint it bright green. I personally liked the Oil Rubbed Bronze but this wasn't for me.

(Don't mind the photos in the loops, my daughter picked them)
When it was dry I tied a not so fancy ribbon (This will be changed when I can find some nicer ribbon).

The photos slip into the loops.

This took maybe 30 minutes from start to finish and the end result is approximately 10 inches around. Total cost was probably $0.50 since the entire roll of wire was $3 and I barely used any of it.

If you want to do little extra with this, you can make the loops in to hearts really easily. I might do one for my room this way, but we will see.

 

I have done a second version of this. Please see this page for the larger square version.
Enjoy! Stephanie

Floral Wire Pumpkins for $1

I love, love, love rattan and grapevine shaped pumpkins.  But who can justify the cost (especially Pottery Barn prices!) to buy one? So I decided that I would search out an economical way to make these on my small budget. 

Make-it-and-love-it has created an amazing grapevine pumpkin out of  grapevine garland but the only craft store I have close to me is Michael’s and this too was a little pricey for me. I do love this and will keep my eyes open for grapevine garland on clearance.

So after much searching, merging various ideas and horrible first attempts, I came up with this extremely easy method of creating my own pumpkins out of floral wire.  The grand total for the entire project…$1!  Now that is in my price range.

Materials needed:

1 roll of floral wire (approx. 33 feet long) in your color of choice (I did one in brown and one in cream)

Method:

Determine the size of pumpkin you will like. Remember the larger the pumpkin, the less ‘full’ it will be.

Shaped the pumpkin by either wrapping the floral wire around a bottle  that is the size you want (don’t judge me by the bottle I used) or simple hold one side of the wire and loosen the circle until it is to the desired size.  

 If you wrapped around a bottle, slip the wire off the bottle and bunch into a group by holding the center. 

Take the two ends out of the group and leave approximately one circle length out. These will be used to hold the center of the pumpkin together and to create the vine at the top of the pumpkin.

With one of the floral wire ends, wrap around the middle of the group of wires to form the center or the pumpkin. It is useful to go back over the original piece to hold the shape better. (see the picture)

Once wrapped tightly, start to form your pumpkin by moving the circles around to make the pumpkin shape.

Wrap the second floral wire end around a pencil to make the curly vine top.

You can shape your pumpkin to be fat or squish the sides in a bit to make it taller and skinnier.

Note: If you want a larger pumpkin, you could probably use 2 rolls of floral wire.

Please let me know what you think.

Enjoy!