Toilet paper art on my $0 budget

Have you seen the amazing pieces of art people have been making out of toilet paper rolls? They have been all over the blog world for a couple of months and from the first time I saw them I have been saving up to make some. No.. not saving money, saving toilet paper and paper towel rolls. I have enlisted the help of family and friends to speed this process along. They all thought I was crazy until they saw the end result!

No one believes that these are made from toilet paper rolls and everyone asks to touch them just to make sure!

I love the end result! I hung these on the stairwell wall above the buffet in our dining room. This wall will be ripped down after we finished the basement so I didn't want to spend a lot of money on the art. I am so happy that my $0 project turned out so well.

You can make these so they have pointy edges (like I have done) or rounded edges. I did the pointy so it matched my lamp and curtains. I tried one of each and they don't match :)

I won't give you a step by step tutorial on how to make these because you can find the instructions all over but I will give you a few tips. Here are a few places to find the instructions: Growing up creative (oldest so maybe the original!) and The How to Gal. 

1. It is better to use the white toilet paper rolls, the recycled paper ones (brown) don't paint as nicely. Having said that, the brown work great too. I made one out of each so I see the difference.
2. I cut the toilet paper rolls into 4 sections of 1 inch each. Measure your toilet paper rolls and divide into an even number. 
3. I started by making lots of the 4 petal flowers. Be sure to match the points very well on both sides. This is the trick to getting a clean piece.
4. Use hot glue to attach the pieces. Many sites recommend using craft glue and clamping it together until it dries...I am impatient and hot glue dries almost immediately. I did notice a few sections unglued after spray painting but I just glued them again and it was fine.
5. Spray prime before you spray paint. The brown paper rolls absorb the paint and dries almost blotchy.

I made 2 small pieces (shown) and one large one. I have not decided where to hang the bigger one yet but I will find a home for it soon. I was debating hanging it above these two, but I think it will be too much. What do you think? Does it look good as is or should I add the larger one too?

Each piece took 9 empty toilet paper rolls and approximately 30 minutes to cut and glue. Not bad!  Who would have thought!

Not only is this another craft on my $0 budget, I am actually filling in spots of my house that have been bare for almost 2 years. I am loving this :)

Framing three of my favourite quotes on my $0 budget

As you know, I am one week into my month of not spending and it is going extremely well. I have only been to one store and that was to do some groceries. I only bought fresh fruit and veggies, milk, and bread...ok that is not 100% true...I also bought a bag of chips. I know chips aren't a necessity, but that is my vice. I don't drink alcohol or coffee, not because it is bad for you, I hate the taste. I will try better next week ;)

On to my $0 budget post!

I have a small wall in my ensuite bathroom that has always seemed bare. It didn't seem like a logical place for a full sized towel rack but it needed something. It was too small to hold a large print or photo and I didn't want to put anything that could be damaged by humidity.

Well, I was digging through some boxes that have never been unpacked since we moved in almost 2 years ago and I found three matching panoramic frames. There were some beautiful pictures of me and my husband in our early 20s in Mexico in them. Let me tell you, I would love to show everyone my prebaby bikini wearing photos...but I won't. It is far too depressing for me :)

After pulling out the wonderful photos and touching up some minor scuffs with my amazingly handy Sharpie, I decided I would frame three of our favorite quotes. These quotes may not inspire everyone, but I love seeing these and have in fact had a few of these framed in my office at work for years.

I found a piece of scrapbook paper (12 x12 inch) that matched my bathroom and the frames perfectly. Since I only had one sheet of this scrapbook paper, I cut it into three even pieces. I designed each of the quotes in Publisher using the 'Drop Cap' feature to have a larger first letter.

Here are the three images (sorry for the poor photos, I will try again tomorrow when there is better light)

(I just noticed after inserting the images that Publisher auto-corrected and gave me a capital 'b' on Because :( Darn you Microsoft!! I will have to live with it since I don't have another piece of paper and I can't spend the $0.33 it would cost to buy another one. Oh well, C'est la vie.)

The entire project took me 30 minutes, with most of the spent trying to get the image to print properly (since I only that one sheet of paper and no room for error).


Total cost $0!!

Did you notice my absolutely amazing and beautiful mirror? I promise that will be another post soon. My amazing husband framed our builder grade mirror for me (before our spend free month). Isn't it gorgeous?


Update: People have asked me the font I used for this and it was 'Poor Richard' that came with Publisher. I really loved the 'g's on this font :)

Framed magnetic board on my $0 budget

I had this frame laying around for ages and had intended on making a magnetic board for my daughter's room but never got around to it. So I decided that today was the day to do it but I had a few obstacles. Metal for the magnetic boards are expensive (really expensive when I have a $0 budget). We had a piece of metal flashing for a rough valley laying around so we used that and it worked great! I will never buy expensive metal for a project again!!!! Look what I am learning :)

Materials (Obviously I had everything on hand):
Large picture frame
Metal flashing (for the valley of a roof)
Fabric
Duct tape
Staple/staple gun

Method:
I spray painted the frame in color my daughter wants to use as the accent in her room...Key Lime (don't worry...I already had this color of spray paint). I would have preferred black but as my husband so kindly pointed out, almost every frame in my house is black and I should really try something new:) .

 My husband cut the metal flashing to the exact size of the picture that came out of the frame. He hammered out the fold it the metal to make it flat. I then spray painted it quickly in black so the light gray of the metal would not show through the black fabric.

I laid the fabric under the metal flashing and trimmed it so there was approximately 3 inches around the outside to fold over. I then ironed and starched the fabric so it was perfectly flat. This was a left over piece of fabric from a quilt my aunt made my daughter. So it matches her room perfectly.

I folded over one of the longer sides of the fabric and secured it to the metal with duct tape. I then did the opposite side making sure to pull the fabric tight.

 I neatly folded the corner over and secured the shorted end. Be sure to not rip the fabric on the corners...they are sharp. Then do the same on the last side.

 We put the original print back in the frame and my husband secured both into the frame with staples.

Using the original hanging hardware, my husband hung the frame above our daughter's book shelf. I barely had enough time to take a photo before she was putting stuff on it.

Sorry her room is a mess; I wasn't planning on showing it but it is cute how excited she was.

Project #2 with my $0 budget! 

What do you think?

Stephanie

Note: You can secure the fabric with Mod Podge too. This takes far more time and in my opinion costs more. A few pieces of duct tape that no one sees is fine with me :)

Tea Cup Topiary on a $0 budget

For those of you who have little girls in their lives that love everything pretty, this one is for you.  

As you know, I am officially crafting on a $0 budget this month and I am shocked at how inspired I am.  I have been looking around my house at things that I don't want to get rid of but I really have no use for and trying to see them in a new light.

I have a set of 4 beautiful tea cups and saucers that my Oma (Grandma) left me when she passed away. They are extremely special to me but I don't know what to do with them.  My daughter recently stumbled upon them and wanted to use them in her room. I debated allowing this but I really could not part with them. I know if I allow them to go into her room, I have to be willing to give them up because they might not last.

So I was at my mom's last night and she had a tea cup that she was willing to give us to use for Catrina's room. As most 7 year old girls do, Catrina loves everything pretty. If it is pink, lacy, flowery or frilly she loves it!


Initially we thought we were going to spray paint the cup white but the only flowers I had were white, so we decided to use it as is and I really do like it. Had I have know, I might even be willing to use my Oma's cups for this.

Materials (Everything I had on hand):
Tea cup and saucer (you could do it with a pretty mug too)
Flowers
Styrofoam ball
Pencil (can use a dowel)
Moss
Newspaper (can use floral foam)
RibbonTwine
Hot glue

Method:
I hot glued the cup to the saucer. You can use gorilla glue but I really wanted to be able to take this apart in the future when my daughter no longer wants it as decoration.

Using an old Styrofoam ball, I glued the flowers to it (I tried to make a snowman head out of it at Christmas and it didn't work...so I brushed off the Epson salt and glitter that was on there :)). I started with the larger flowers and filled in the gaps with the smaller ones. Where there were still small gaps, I glued petals of two flowers together.

I know I have a small dowel somewhere but I could not find them... so I glued twine to the top of the pencil and wrapped it around the entire length, gluing as I went.

Since I do not have any floral foam, I stuffed the base of the cup with newspaper. I wrapped more paper around the eraser side of the pencil and stuffed it into the cup to hold the pencil upright. When I got the pencil to the perfect spot and standing straight up, I glued the paper and the pencil with hot glue.

I attached some moss with hot glue to cover the newspaper and then glued the pointed tip of the pencil stuck it into the topiary top.

I found some old ribbon (can you see how wrinkly it is) and tied it around the twine covered pencil.

It looks very cute in my daughter's bubble gum pink room and I am glad I did not paint the tea cup.  This is not my style of decorating, but she loves it and that is all that matters to me :)

Enjoy!

I have to be honest with you....

 I never wanted my blog to be one where I share all my personal secrets and inner most thoughts. I wanted to share the crafts I do without exposing my life on the internet.  So I have have gone back and forth with the idea of sharing this with you...Well since I am posting it, obviously I am going to share.

My husband and I have decided to make March a 'spend free' month....a moneyatorium month...a spending moratorium month. What does that mean? Well, we aren't allowed to spend money on anything other than what is absolutely necessary. No, we aren't having financial troubles; we were just shocked at how much we spend! We took a serious look at our spending habits over the past few months and realized we need to pull back and re-evaluate what we need to spend money on.

I have been going through a serious spring cleaning and it has felt amazing! I have brought bags full of clothes, toys, books, you name it,to charity. I feel so much lighter! But then I go shopping. Why do I do that? I give stuff away only to replace it. So I spend money to buy it, I get bored of it, I get rid of it, and I buy something new. The never ending circle of spending.

As you know, I am a strong believer in recycling items in my house as much as possible. I move items from room to room to make them look new and fresh. But even by doing this, I still buy things. There is always something else I need...even though I have three massive tubs of fabric, enough mod podge and craft paint to cover my entire house, a million cans of spray paint, scrapbook paper that is almost a foot high, wood and trim galore!

 I don't need ANY wood!

 

Fabric? I have three huge tubs of it..just in case I ever want to sew something.

 Spray  paint anyone??? The worse part is, they are three deep!

So...I made a promise to myself to only buy fresh produce, dairy and bread this month. We have a full size freezer (I won't share those photos!)  that needs to be cleaned out plus a freezer on the side of our fridge. I think I can go a month without even finishing everything that is in these two freezers.  I will not buy anything for crafts! I will not simply go to the dollar store and pick up a few things. Trips to Michaels and Walmart are out of the picture. And I will avoid Costco!

So you might wonder what the impact this will have on my blog? I don't know. I have so much crafting, home decorating, etc. stuff in my house, that I might actually come up with truly unique ideas. Or I might just post junk. Either way, it isn't going to cost me anything :) But don't worry too much, I have a few ideas that I know I have all the materials for that are very exciting for me..I will share a great one early next week!

Have any of you ever tried this? Any advice?

So I hope I can inspire you with crafts things this month on a $0 budget and inspire someone else to save a few dollars.

Thanks for reading and understanding.

Stephanie

OMG! Have you seen the new Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation product?

I have hated the color of my kitchen from the day we bought the house. I love the layout and the size but the cabinets can be described in one word...hideous! Some people might look at them and think "Oh those aren't so bad" or "They are good quality cabinets and they are in great shape. Why would you replace them?". Well I look at them and think..."Was pink ever in style for a kitchen?"  Not only is our kitchen pinkish, we were lucky enough the people who built the house loved the color so much they put it in the laundry room and the mud room too.  

Like I have said before, my house is only 12 years old but I really think it was built in a time warp :) Here are the photos of the kitchen, mud room and laundry room as it looked when we bought the house. (I only wish my kitchen always looked this neat and tidy). Wow am I glad we let them take their appliances when they moved out :)

 

I have been very anxious to reno the kitchen but I can honestly say I am not anxious to pay the price for a new kitchen. SO I have spent countless hours searching and searching the internet quietly admiring everyone else's kitchen and dreaming about the day when my kitchen would come into the 2010s.  I thought when I bought the house, I would paint it but my problem is that the floors are white, the back splash is white....how can I paint the cabinets white or even cream when that is the color of everything else?!?!

And then last week I stumbled upon a new and (what looks like) amazing product by Rustoleum. The few reviews you can find on the product have been amazing! The end result looks great and it goes on easily (time consuming but easy!) And the cost...$150 to do a kitchen!

Here are the color's on actual cabinets. The product consists of a liquid cleaning product, paint/primer in one, a glaze (which is optional) and protective coat. The lighter color is without the glaze and the darker is with it. I love some of those colors. The grays, dark brown/black, linen...oh the choices!

 I love these three colors - Linen, Winter Fog and Kona.

I can only imagine the possibilities this opens! Think about it...it starts with cabinets, then you can use it on furniture (no more brush strokes on painted furniture), the banister on my stairs would look gorgeous a darker color, my stairs (under the carpet!!) ...oh my. Can you understand why I am so excited about this product!?!    

I  searched for someone online who has used the product and found Laura at Flawless Face 101. Laura was so kind to provide me details and photos on how her transformation has been. This is what Laura told me about the product. 

" This process has been very easy (and when I say I am a novice, I mean novice) and I don't see brush strokes at all. In the end there are two coats of paint on each side and then a protective shine coat. The process seems a bit slow but not painstakingly so... The reason its slow for me is because I am working full time and just doing small pieces at a time. It's a great alternative to spending thousands of $$$'s and redoing your whole kitchen. I bought 2 kits for my entire kitchen (which cost me around $150)- how can you beat that. I am very excited to work on some cabinets this weekend. I will take more before and after pics. 

Here is some advice if you want to finish over a long weekend - it can be done. But, you need to get a work area set up and allow yourself to work on several at a time... This is my plan for the rest of the kitchen. When you watch the video you can see how to set up a good flow."

Here are Laura's before and after pictures. AMAZING! I am so glad she could share her information with me because this is one of the the colors I was thinking of using for my kitchen. What do you think? I love that you can see the grain slightly in the after shots!

 

After seeing these photos and getting Laura's personal glowing review, I immediately ran off to Home Depot to buy my own...but (insert me crying here) IT IS NOT IN CANADA YET!!!   [Update: I have now seen it at Lowe's in Canada! So for all you fellow Canucks...head to Lowe's for this amazing product] I contacted Rustoleum and they told me to expect it in stores here within a couple of months. So I guess that gives me time to finalize the color I want to do. Plus it might actually be warmer in the garage to do it.

Be prepared everyone...as soon as this product is in Canada (or I venture over to the US shopping) I will be posting a 'new' kitchen.

Thank you again to Laura at Flawlessface101 for sharing. Be sure to stop by her site and see her great makeup tips!