Re-purposing Old Favorites into New Loves

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ard sales. Here at the Corner Craftroom we LOVE yard sales! One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. We can find something at a cheap price, spice it up a little, turn it into a unique and one-of-a-kind item. At a yard sale from one of our neighbors we bought five frames, some baby clothes, and a baby blanket.  Now-a-days not many people have a need for frames (why by a photo frame when you can look at your picture in your photo gallery via social media?). We thought we could show you a few ideas for those unwanted eyesores taking up space in your house. The frames have a desert landscape and did not really fit in with the décor of the house. We thought they were in pretty decent shape, as they have a glass cover and a stand in the back. With some supplies you can turn any old frame into a custom, one-of-kind work of art. We set different themes for each frame, pink, teal, black, white, and one with polka dots. 

For each frame, we used:

* Acrylic paint              *     Acrylic sealer

* Jewels                        *     Poms          

* Mini flowers             *     Pipe cleaners

* Chalk                         *     Stickers

* Ribbon                      *     Spackle

* Tools: Glue gun, Paint brushes and Scissors.

 This project did not take long to complete. The most time-consuming part was waiting for the paint to dry. For each frame we put spackle on top to smooth out the indentions. Afterwards, we applied 3 to 4 coats of the paint and then sealer. Once we finished painting, we were able to finally start decorating the frames.

*Pink: Two fuzzy pom-poms, a green pipe cleaner, hot-glue gun, paint, paint sealer, and a baby’s onesie.

*Teal: Flat-back craft jewels, hot-glue gun, paint, and paint sealer.

*Black: Chalk.

*White: (This  can be used as a gift or memorabilia frame.) White ribbon, invitation, gift card, hot-glue gun, and decorative mini flower buds.

*Polka-dots:  Stickers of two sizes, paint, paint sealer, and baby pants.

The frames have taken on a new style and a customized look. You can purchase the finished products at our store at www.Etsy.com/CornerCraftroom, go ahead and check it out! We hope we were able to inspire you today to create something simple and unique in a creative new way. Check out our website for pictures of the project at

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Autumn Do-It-Yourself Project

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Shopping at several local craft stores we found some gorgeous Autumn themed wreathes that were outrageously expensive, to say the least. Inspired by the beautiful flowers and ribbons we saw, we decided to make our own. Decorating for the holidays does not have to cost a lot of money or take a lot of time.  With a few inexpensive items, and an hour of your weekend, you too can create a statement with custom Autumn decorations.  We purchased the following items:

* 4 bunches of flowers, hay-like stuff, A Styrofoam wreathe,

* 3 Styrofoam pumpkins, Some fake flickering candle lights,

* A stem of leaves, and a stem of berries

* wire edged ribbon, flower tape, wire, wire cutters,

* Hot glue gun, paperclip, and a knife.

First we worked on the pumpkins. We used a paperclip to mark the outline of the design, and then used a butter knife to “carve” out the pattern.

Next was the wreathe, we covered the wreathe in the hay and used the flower tape and wire to adhere it to the wheel. Now just grab the hot glue gun and put the leaves onto the hay-covered wreathe. Don’t worry about making any kind of pattern just as long as it covers most of the Styrofoam. The best part was adding the berries and flowers. The wire was already included, so we clipped them about 2.5 inches from the base of the flower and then used that wire to “jab” them into the wheel. We had 4 colors: white, yellow, orange and red. We picked one of each color and clustered them on the wreathe. Again, don’t worry about making it perfect-the flowers do all the work in making it pretty. Lastly, we added a bow.  This was probably the most difficult part, but thankfully we found this video to help us: Cooking and Crafting from YouTube. After we completed the wreathe, we hung it up to take pictures and disaster struck! A storm came through our town and knocked the wreathe to the ground. As we picked it up, pieces of Styrofoam fell to the ground. We went back to the store and purchased a string of leaves, and another wreathe, this time choosing one that already had the hay on top-it cost about the same as our last Styrofoam wreathe. Re-doing the wreathe only took about 20 minutes, including removal of the flowers from the old wreathe. We also recycled the bow and decided it looked better on top of the wreathe. We think this second one came out much better, don’t you?  Check out our pictures  online at CornerCraftroom.com