Laptop Vinyl Decals on my $0 budget

I know this isn't a problem in most peoples eyes, but it is for me. Don't judge until you read the entire reason :). Here is the problem I face..my husband and I all have the same laptops. I know...it is not horrible but it is a cause of stress for me. When I am rushing out of the house to catch a train for 6:45am, I am always afraid that I will end up at work (after an hour and a bit commute) with a computer that is not mine. Granted, I only go into the office a couple of days a week, I am still always worried.

 (I know I need to tackle the cables under our desktop computer...that is a challenge for me)

So with my desire to get a Silhouettte growing and my jealousy of all you bloggers out there who have won one turning me green (just kidding, I am happy for each and every one of you), I decided to make (with my borrowed Cricut and some scrap vinyl) my own vinyl decals to clearly distinguish my laptop.

I only have two pieces of vinyl, so my color choice was made for me.  Black vinyl would not show on my black laptop, so the decals had to be white.  Side note: I can't believe the top of my laptop has greasy fingerprints on it...yuck.

After debating what to put on my laptop, I decided against flowers, a couple bugs and went with some swirly images in two different sizes.  I don't have the transfer paper that is recommended (and I can't buy it) so I thought I would have some trouble transferring the cut vinyl, but it worked out fine. I started with one corner and allowed the vinyl to dictate where it was going to go.

I like the fact the vinyl will come off if I ever need it to, that it dresses up my computer without making it too unprofessional and I especially love the fact I can grab my laptop in the dark without any worry I will have my husband's when I get into the office.

What do you think?
Stephanie

Remember April 1st is the $0 Budget Craft link party here. Please stop by and share your ideas and see what others are doing to save money.

DIY Cutlery Drawer Divider - on my $0 budget

I have always disliked (more accurately hated, but I taught my kids that hate is a strong word and it should not be used easily) the drawer divider for my cutlery. We have not been able to find one that fit perfectly into our drawers so we had to buy a 'standard' size one, and cut it so it fit. It never did fit properly, especially it was not wide enough so I had to place the large knives on the side of the divider. 


So to continue with our "make it on a $0 budget" we made this:

I got the idea to make my own wood dividers for this post on Under the Table Dreaming.  Stephanie Lynn used thin pieces of poplar wood to create dividers for her kitchen drawers but the wood she used still works out to be expensive here in Canada. Plus, I am still on my $0 spending limit for this month so anything other than what I had in the house is too much money!
 Before:

After:

So my husband came up with a great idea to use wood paneling board (I don't know what it is actually called) cut into strips. I originally purchased the 8 foot x 4 foot piece of materials for under $10 and had intended to do a magnet/chalk board for my son's room. I might still do that but we had lots of extra materials to play with.

We decided to make an outer box that fit perfectly into the drawer and then insert inner dividers. The reason I decided to do it this way, as opposed to gluing it to the sides of the drawer, is so I can take the wood divider out to clean all the crumbs and stuff that seems to mysteriously appear in with my cutlery.

We (again this means my husband) measured the width, height and depth of the drawer and cut long pieces to be the height of the outer drawer. We made an outer box by gluing (Gorilla Wood glue) and stapling the corners. If you don't have a stapler, you can do this with just the Gorilla glue. It is amazing stuff!

Once it was set, we cut more thin strips of wood (this time we made them 2.5 inches so it wasn't too deep to reach the cutlery) to make the inner dividers.  I mapped out where I wanted the cutlery to be placed and my husband cut the wood to the exact measurements. We glued all the pieces together with some more Gorilla Wood Glue. Again..amazing stuff!

I really wanted a knife block divider in the drawer so my husband came up with the idea to use an old piece of cedar (I had from the Block letters that everyone in blog land has done..including me :) ) and he put 1.5 inch deep slits every 3/4 of an inch. He then he cut the bottom of the block off 3/4 of an inch below where the slits ended.

We placed the block with the slits and the extra piece that was cut off in the drawer. The knife blades fit in the slots and the handles rest on the extra piece.

Pretty amazing isn't it! I have to say my husband amazes me on a daily basis! Who would have thought an Electrical Engineer could build stuff...not me :)

I put that cheap rubbery bumpy gripy stuff under the divider and that is it!

The entire project took us about an hour and a half and cost us $0!! If I were to go out today to buy the materials, it would have probably cost us under $3 ...cedar is pretty expensive :)  $0 verses the ridiculous prices they charge for these dividers! I will never buy another one!

One more AMAZING look! Come on, don't you agree this is a WOW moment?

The next project is to tackle my junk drawer..I don't think any divider will help that :)

Please let me know what you think. I really do love comments...it makes me know people are actually reading this.

Remember April 1st is the $0 Budget party here. Please stop by with your frugal ideas or stop by to see what others are doing on e $0 budget. Hope to see you all!

Stephanie

Picture perfect TV - Flat Screen TV Frame

Although this amazing project was completed during my $0 budget month, we did plan for it and purchased all the materials a couple of months ago. The materials cost approximately $35, but if you hunt around or have leftovers from putting up crown molding it could cost your far less.  I will let you decide if this was cheating on the budget, but for this month I spent $0 on the frame. Since the goal was to finish projects and to use the stuff I had, I think I stayed with in my goal :o).

At Christmas, my husband and I decided rather than buying gifts for each other, we would splurge on a TV for our bedroom (42 inches for those of you wondering how it would look on your sized TV). I know there are some of you out there that are gasping and thinking "You should never put a TV in your bedroom!" I respect your opinion but I do like to lay in bed at night and watch TV.  Plus with 2 kids in this house, the moment the TV turns on in the family room, they come running and take control over what we watch. If I don't have to sit through another Hanna Montana again, I would be overjoyed.

When we purchased the TV, I made sure the one we bought had the controls on the front. Although this does not matter with modern day remote controls, I like to be able to turn the TV on and change the channel/volume without having to hunt for a remote control that is always misplaced.

I only agreed to put a TV in our bedroom because I knew that I wanted to frame it so it was less obvious. I didn't want to walk into the room and that be the one thing that you see. So I agreed to get a TV and my husband agreed to make me a Flat Screen TV Frame.

I will admit I did not participate in the making of this; I helped design it but I did no physical labor in its production. This is 100% my husband's beautiful handy work!

Before:

After:

Materials:

• 5 inch Crown MDF molding (enough to surround the outer edge of the TV with some to spare)
• 2x1 inch MDF molding (enough to connect the outer edge of the crown molding to the wall. You need a longer piece than the crown molding)
• Thin trim molding(looks like the opposite of quarter round. Curves in not out)
• Wood glue
• Nails
• Wood filler/ sand paper
• Paint
• Hanging brackets

Method:
We (from here on out we is really my husband :)) hung the TV on the wall with a 'flush mount' bracket. This mount does not swivel or tilt, but this is what we wanted since our bed is directly across from the TV. Once mounted, there was only an inch or two of gap between the TV and the wall.

We cut two hole between the studs in the drywall (one behind the TV and one at the electrical outlet height) and dropped all the cables through. We used a special plate/kit made specifically for this, but it really is not necessary since ours is hidden by a dresser like ours.

We measured the exact width, height and depth of the TV. I would give you my measurements but this will vary for every TV and it won't help you.

We first made the crown molding part of the frame to the exact outer dimensions of the TV.  So the inner part of the crown molding frame covers  but a smidge of the outer lip of the TV. We connected the pieces together with small nails and wood glue.

We placed it over the TV to determine how much of a gap remained between the frame and the wall. We had a 2 inch gap so we used a piece of 2x1 flat trim molding to make the frame fit flush against the wall. Again, we used small nails and wood glue to secure the pieced together.

After the frame was fitting flush against the wall, we noticed we had a slight gap (on the inner part) that you could see between the TV and the frame, so we used a small piece of trim molding on the inner part of the frame to hide it (looks like quarter-round but it is curved in rather than out).

We filled in all the holes with wood fill and used caulking to hide seams. After giving the entire piece a light sand, we painted it the same black paint we used for our kitchen table. Three light coats later and it looked amazing!

In order to allow the heat and sound to come out from behind the TV, my husband removed approximately half of the 2x1 molding on the top and bottom of the frame using a router. You cannot see that the wood has been removed unless you bend down and look at it from underneath, but it does allow the TV to vent (these TVs produce a great deal of heat). I am sure you could drill a few big holes in the top and bottom too and that would allow the heat to come out.

We used picture hanging hardware to secure it to the wall. The hanging brackets were attached to the piece of 1x2. This frame weighs hardly anything since it is made of MDF but if you do this with real wood, be sure to use hangers that can hold the weight.

Here is a breakdown of where each piece of molding was used. You can see it in the above photo too (the inner white piece is the small trim, the light brown is the crown molding and the outer white piece is the 1x2) :

 And here it is, the end result again:

I still have not decided how to decorate around it. We did not center it above the dresser because I wanted to do a collage of pictures to the one side...however, it is far bigger than expected and I might just have to leave the plant for height.


Any suggestions on how to decorate this?

Oh and in case you are wondering, we do have a computer connected to the TV. My husband is an Electrical Engineer so every TV in our house also doubles as a computer monitor.

Look what I found with a little googling...a Pottery Barn version available for a crazy/ridiculous price.  I guess I create a Pottery Barn knock off their TV frame Chadwick without even knowing it :)

Source Pottery Barn

I am licking everying in my house - on my $0 budget

I know that title is a little odd but let me explain. My husband came home last night and saw a few of the crafts we were working on and the first thing he said was "Are you licking everything?" I was confused until he reminded me of the Volkswagen commercial, where the man licks the car to claim it as his own. Well, I was labeling things in the house with our initials, and he was pointing out I was doing the same thing.

Since I borrowed my Mom's Cricut, I decided I would monogram things :) . I am hoping and dreaming that one day I can have one of my own. Insert a picture here of me staring off longingly, dreaming of a Cricut or Silhouette :)

I put our initials on picture frames, candles but the best thing I 'licked' was our mailbox. When we moved in, the mailbox was a rusty bass box. I would love a beautiful mailbox but do not want to spend the money on it  because here in Canada (or at least where I live) we have large mailboxes on each street where 20 or 30 homes collect their mail from. So our mailbox is only used for junk mail and occasionally the newspaper (the odd time when the delivery person actually comes up our steps and put it in the mailbox rather than throwing it at the house and leaving a big messy pile of paper).

I took the mailbox down, lightly sanded off the flaking rust spots and spray painted it black.  If you look closely you can see where the rust spots were, but I really don't care so much. This is a million times better!

 I cut our initials out on the Cricut (you could buy stickers at the Dollar store or Michaels to do this too) and after much debate (mostly my husband complaining that I was going to put my initial first...the 's' does look better before the 'k') I gave in and put the initials this way. I guess I will see how often he reads my blog by how long it takes him to comment on this :) Hi honey!

 

 I then hung the mailbox back up and here is how it looks.

 

 I really do like it. Grand total was $0, thanks to my Mom lending me her Cricut and me having the spray paint on hand.

Remember April 1st is the $0 Budget link party. Please remember to stop by and share you ideas.  Thanks for the support the past 17 days with my challenge.

Freezer paper stencil t-shirts - on my $0 budget

{Remember everyone, that April 1st is the $0 Budget link party here. Everyone is welcome to share their ideas no matter how big or small. If you can't make it but would like to participate, please email me the link and image and I can post it for you.}

We are coming to the end of our March Break and I promised my guys I would do a kids craft with them this week. Since I am in the middle of my $0 craft budget month and I worried I was going to run out of ideas, I borrowed my mom's Cricut.

Forgive me but I must digress for one moment...I want one of my own..or a Silhouette. Maybe if I am positive and put it out there the 'Secret' will bring it. Keeping my fingers positively crossed that one day I will have  a cutter of my own to share my ideas with you :)

OK back to my craft. I have always loved the freezer paper transfers and I have a huge roll of freezer paper so I thought we could customize a couple of shirts for them. They each picked a plain shirt from their collection (since I can't buy them a new one -$0 budget remember) and an image they liked. My daughter picked three hearts (I know it is the wrong season for hearts and we should be doing Shamrocks but she is a girly girl) and my son picked three different robots. I tried to convince my son to use a nicer shirt, but he wants to use this one as PJs so it is fine.

Materials:
Freezer paper (Wax paper will not work)
Iron
Fabric Paint
Item to paint

Method:
We cut the images out of freezer paper (shiny side down) on the Cricut. If you don't have a Cricut or a Silhouette, you can draw an image on the paper side of the freezer paper and cut it out with scissors. It really is easy.

With my iron on medium heat, I ironed the shirt flat and once cooled placed the cut freezer paper (shiny side down) where the kids wanted the image to appear. Carefully iron the the freezer paper cut out to the shirt. You can do this with almost any fabric, so the possibilities are endless.

Using fabric paint, we applied a layer of paint and evened it out with a cheap foam brush.

This is what it looks like once the entire area was covered in paint. My son loves to color things to look like rainbows so he decided to use multiple colors for his robots. After he was done I was a little worried because I wasn't sure if the color pattern had a bad association to it, so I googled it and realized it was the Romanian flag, all is good :).  He is now a  new inadvertent fan of Romania

 

We immediately peeled off the freezer paper, being careful not to get any of the excess paint onto the shirt.

Here are the end results. Aren't they so cute!!

 My son desperately wanted to model it so here he is (fresh out of a bath with wet hair).

 

 

I think I might start making these as gifts for the birthday parties my kids attend. Also, wouldn't it be great as a craft at a birthday party?  Buy a pile of shirts at Michaels when they are on sale (and I am not on my $0 budget) and let each child decorate their own.

17 days into the challenge and still going :)

 What do you think? The possibilities are endless!