Awesome Japanese Masking Tape

I was sitting in the car for hour upon hour this weekend as my hubby and I made the six-hour plus drive each way from Phoenix to L.A. and back, so I did some catching up on my magazines.  As you may remember, I LOVE magazines, but they tend to pile up around the house while I’m busy with other things.  So I REALLY look forward to our road trips so I can have a few hours to flip through a stack of my favorites.

This time I thoroughly enjoyed my latest Fresh Home Ideas magazine.  I can always tell when I got my money’s worth because I tear out at least a dozen pages for future reference and this one was no exception.

Here are some of the treasures I found on the pages:

1. We bought some fresh green and wax beans at La Jolla’s Open Aire Market on Sunday morning (more on that later) and I found the perfect Roasted Beet Garden Salad with Goat Cheese recipe on the drive home.  Unfortunately, I don’t see it on their web site so you would need to buy the magazine for it.  If the beans make it long enough for me to try it, I’ll post it with pictures.
2. I saw this great idea (above) with instructions on how to make an oil lantern from a Patron Tequila bottle.  We don’t buy tequila, but I wouldn’t be afraid of going to a local bar and asking for their throw away bottles.  Of course you can do the same thing with any unusual or eye catching bottle.  I can just see the collection of different colors, heights, and shapes sitting out in the moonlight now!
3. Then they shared several wonderful ideas on creative containers for fresh flowers.  I have some hanging containers (also from Ikea) that are very similar to these below and I love the possibilities here.
4. But the product that I can’t wait to get my hands on is this Japanese Masking Tape!  As soon as we got home I had to look up the website where they sell it and I’ll be ordering a few rolls very soon just to try it out.  They suggest decorating glasses for a one-time, easy to remove pick-me-up, but I can think of endless possibilities for these beauties.  Think of mirrors, vases, trays, jars, even painted furniture and on and on…I SIMPLY LOVE IT!  Or how about adding it to that trio of hanging rose vases above?  How would you use it?

So many sweet ideas and so little time…well, at least I have the pages to put in my “craft ideas” binder if I can’t get to them right away.  I’d love to hear your ideas on these things and let me know what your favorite magazine is for new ideas.

4th of July Ideas – Part 3 – Decorating

As Americans, we celebrate our independence on the 4th of July every year with parades, picnics, cook-outs, and other fun gatherings.  Nothing screams summer like an Independence Day celebration.

So, in honor of the upcoming holiday, I thought I’d share a few ideas for patriotic decorating.

I found this fun, inexpensive and easy idea on the Better Homes & Gardens website.  I don’t know about you, but I grew up with Better Homes and Gardens magazines, and I’m still amazed at all the great ideas that they can stuff into each issue as well as everything you can find on their website.  If you’re on a limited budget, you can sign up for their email and get lots of great ideas from that as well.

Decorate Candleholders with Colored Rubberbands: Take a stroll down the office supply aisle for red, white, and blue rubber bands to decorate candles in a snap. Working from bottom to top, wrap rubber bands in alternating colors around straight-side glass candle holders. Vary widths and colors for interest.  Of course, this can be applied to any holiday or decor and what an easy way to change color schemes in a flash!

Editor’s Tip: If you’re in mosquito country, place citronella candles in the cups and use outdoors to keep the bugs away.

And don’t kids just love pinwheels?  They’re just mesmerizing to watch when the breezes blow and the kids love to run around in the yard adding their own breeze.  The Skip to my Lou blog has some creative ideas for pinwheels as well as links to other free downloads.

Disney’s Family Fun gives us directions for a colorful Patriotic Pinwheel that you can make at home too.

And here are a few more links with some fun and simple ideas:

Better Homes and Gardens: Easy DIY Decorations

Country Living shares Crafts for the Fourth – country style

Martha Stewart shares some great Fourth of July Traditions that you can begin today.

I hope this gives you some inspiration for the coming weekend.  Feel free to mention and link in the comments to any Fourth of July ideas that you’ve posted on your own blog.  I’d love to see them!

30 Creative Uses for a Coffee Filter

I just received an email with 25 practical ideas for a coffee filter, so I thought I’d share them with you.  Then when I was looking for a photo of a basic coffee filter, I came across some awesome coffee filter craft ideas.  I’ll share 5 of the best of them as well.

Coffee  filters …. Who knew!   And you can buy 1,000 at the Dollar Tree for almost nothing even the large ones.
1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the  microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.
2. Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome…  Coffee filters are lint-free so they’ll leave windows sparkling.
3.  Protect China by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish.
4.  Filter broken cork from wine.  If you break the cork when opening a wine  bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.
5.  Protect a cast-iron skillet.  Place a coffee filter in the  skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
6.  Apply shoe polish.  Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.

7.  Recycle frying oil.  After frying, strain oil through a sieve  lined with a coffee filter.
8.  Weigh chopped foods.  Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a  kitchen scale.
9.  Hold tacos.  Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.
10.  Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot.  Line a plant  pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through  the drainage holes.
11..  Prevent a Popsicle from dripping.  Poke one or two holes as  needed in a coffee filter.
12.  Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows?  Use  strips of coffee filters..
13.  Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken  fingers, etc on them.  It soaks out all the grease.
14.  Keep in the bathroom.  They make great “razor nick  fixers.”
15.   As a sewing backing.  Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliquéing soft fabrics.
16.  Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors.
17.  Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs in to put in soups and stews.
18.  Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car.
19.  Use them as a spoon rest while cooking and clean up small counter spills. 20.  Can use to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies..  Saves on having extra bowls to wash.
21.  Use them to wrap Christmas ornaments for storage.
22.  Use them to remove fingernail polish when out of cotton balls. 23.  Use them to sprout seeds..  Simply dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place it into a plastic baggie until they sprout.
24. Use coffee filters as blotting paper for pressed flowers.  Place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in  phone book..
25.  Use as a disposable “snack bowl” for popcorn, chips, etc.

SUPER FUN COFFEE FILTER CRAFT IDEAS:

26. Gorgeous Roses (see photo above) from Mommy Makes Roses

27. Colorful Pompoms (photo right) from The Thrifty Crafter

28.  Coffee Filter Wreath from Martha Stewart

29. Natural Coffee Filter Garland (photo below) from Pam Garrison

30. Coffee Filter Snowflakes from The Artful Parent

List #13 DIY’s I Want to Try

I’m sure there are dozens of DIY’s in my crafts binder, but right now my mind is nearly blank.  Let’s see if I can get it warmed up…

1. Tile mosaics – I have 2 perfect metal tables from Ikea that would look so lovely with mosaic tops.

2. Jewelry making – looks so sparkly…

3. Outdoor garden architectural art  – for when I have a garden.

4. Pebble patio, paths or flooring – love them!

5. Landscape design – want to re-design the whole back yard, but who knows when we can get it done.

6. Sewing tote bags out of Starbucks Coffee packets – I’ve been collecting them for a couple of years.  Hopefully this will be the year that I do it with my new sewing machine.

7. Sewing birds for my branch  (aren’t these wonderful?)

8. Mini-tin Advent Calendar – so many designs to choose from

9. Sewing lots of pillows in lots of colors so I can change things up around the house.

10. Creating wall art out of my photographs

I just visited a one of the gals from 30 Days of Lists and love what she’s listed!

Thanks for the inspiration, Chris!

So many projects…so little time…

Chase Away Winter Blahs with Flowers

O.k., so the first day of Spring isn’t until March 20th, but actually here in Phoenix we start enjoying Spring weather quite early.  It was up in the 70’s all week and looks to continue in that same vein for a while.  Oh, we may get a few more cold days, but my guess is that we’ve already had our winter this year and although short-lived it was much colder than usual.

We had about a week straight with temperatures getting down below freezing at night and our plants in the front yard are pretty pathetic looking as a result.  I won’t bore you with those ugly photos, but I’ll share a little inspiration for those of you who might be stuck in the cold country and want to find a way to chase away those winter blahs.

Here’s a great way to perk up your home with flowers and make a little bit go a long way.

Not long ago I was helping a group with decorating for an event.  Our budget was very tight or more accurately, it was non-existent, so I was trying to find a way to dress up the room without spending a lot of money.  So. here’s what we did.

I went to the local Goodwill Store and found this set of 10 spice jars that came with their own metal storage/carrying rack for a few dollars.  They were  dirty and some still had worn and torn labels on them.  Each one also had a silver screw-on lid, that isn’t in the picture.

I brought them home and washed them well.  Had to use a little bit of Goo Gone to get all the adhesive off the glass from the labels, but that didn’t take long.  Soon they were sparkling clean.

When it was time to use them for the event, I filled each jar with water, put the lid on and put them back in the holder that they came in.  You see the cool thing about having a carrying rack and lids for the jars was that I could transport all 10 of them with water without spilling a drop.  The event that we were setting up didn’t have easy access to water to fill them there, so I brought it with me.

Then I bought just one inexpensive bouquet of flowers at the local store.  Being in the city, grocery stores are great, but if you have a Costco nearby their flowers are always beautiful and very reasonably priced.  Of course, during growing season in the cold country you may have them growing in your backyard or available at a farmer’s market or roadside stand.  I trimmed the stems at home, then carried the bouquet in a plastic pitcher to the event and inserted the flowers in the mini-vases after we arrived.

With ten mini-vases we were able to put one vase of a few flowers on each table to add just a touch of fresh scent and color and make the ladies feel pampered.  I mean really – who doesn’t love fresh flowers!

And of course, you can use those precious little beauties all together for more impact (like in the photo above) or in any combination or groupings you can imagine.   What fun, right?  Imagine them lining your windowsill or scattered throughout the house to brighten up each room.  Or place them in front of a mirror for double the impact.

If you had these mini-vases how would you use them?  What other ideas do you have for spreading the wealth with your flowers?

Today I’m linking to:

Frugal Friday

 

Great Way to Re-purpose Christmas Cards

Are you like me and hate to throw away all those beautifully designed Christmas cards?  I always hold on to them thinking that there must be some way that I can re-purpose or recycle them.  Well here’s a fun and easy idea that can be used each year and is easy enough for youngsters to do it as well.

And the instructions are so easy!

Select a palette of coordinating hues to create a whimsical wreath. Cut greeting cards into different-size circles (or other fun shapes). Arrange the circles into a wreath shape, overlapping as desired. Secure with crafts glue. Machine-stitch over the top using coordinating or contrasting thread. Attach a ribbon to the wreath with a colored paper clip and hang.

In looking at this project, it might make it easier to cut out a donut shape as a base out of cardboard.  And if you don’t have enough coordinating colors in your greeting cards this year you can always keep the circles from one year to the next until you have what you need to make your wreath.

You could also cut up your Christmas or other card fronts to use as embellishments on your scrapbooking or other craft projects as well.

I found the idea along with many other great craft and organizing ideas at the Better Homes and Gardens website.  I love browsing through all their wonderful tips, and craft suggestions.  Sign up to get their emails and you won’t miss another helpful hint.

Or…here’s another idea!  How about using those greeting card circles to make a garland like Amy did here on Lemon and Raspberry?