2 Garage Sale finds got facelifts yesterday

I worked on some garage sale finds yesterday. First of all, I hit all the g-sales, but there aren't many on Sundays, which is probably a good thing, because I aready have a TON of projects that I want to work on. So, my daughter likes to collect church items. (She is only 10 years old, unusual I know, but she loves crosses and bibles and other stuff like that) Last summer, she found an old church kneeler at a garage sale that she bought for only $2. I was like it was meant to be, because she said that she had always wanted one. It is pretty old and had a lot of water damage. It had likely been in damp storage for a long time. She decided that she wanted to spray paint it to clean it up and make it her own. I decided to let her do that yesterday. She painted it a lavender color and it is really pretty now and very suitable to her tastes. Now we just have to figure out a way to cover the kneeler part with a coordinating fabric. It is turning out way cuter than I even imagined.

Last week at a g-sale, we found an old vanity chair with golden colored metal frame and an ulgy gold upolstered seat. My 6 year old wanted this chair. The frame is now painted purple and she picked out a fabric for the cover that is pink flannel with a bright frog print. I love how this is turning out too. I love doing this kind of stuff. It gets the creative juices flowing and my spirits up!
I will post pics when they are done....hummm....what to work on next???

Some new crafts...inspiration: Birthday gifts!!!

I have been trying a few crafts to find my niche, but I realized this week that making gifts for my kids' birthday parties that they were invited to is a good way to give a one-of-a-kind gift without breaking the budget. A few weeks ago I painted a 8x10 picture frame, bright pink. I put in coordinating craft paper and the glass back in to make a dry erase board. I bought a new dry erase pen that had a clip and I glued a loop, made out of ribbon to hang the pen on the side. My daughter's 10 yr old friend, who received the gift for her birthday, told her that she really liked it.

So, this Saturday brings another birthday party for an 8 yr old. I decided I was going to try to make her a pillow decorated with woven ribbons on it. Her mom told me that her favorite character is the Little Mermaid, so I found some Ariel ribbons on clearance at Walmart and incorporated it into her pillow. It turned out SO cute. I made another one with some dog ribbon that I had on hand, here is a pic of it:

Glass bead decorating = Mom/Daughter bonding time

My 3 girls and I had a blast decorating fun glass beads to make magnets this weekend. I found the beads at Dollar Tree and we Mod Podged pictures from magazines and also tried to decorate with fabrics. I don't know if they would ever sell at a craft fair, but we think that they are SO cute! It is fun trying. My two youngest love American Girls Dolls, so we make some magnets out of pictures from the catalog. We also found some pics from popular cartoons and some adorable animals. The girls really enjoyed the crafty time...bonding time, if nothing else. They love the idea of their own creations, possibly selling to help out the family. Maybe it will all work out sometime where we can try.