Snowmen using small plastic cups I had I found in my stash (not sure where the larger ones came from, plastic containers that were small like communion cups for the little ones, circles made from cardboard for the bottom of the hat use hot glue gun to attach, plastic baseballs for the large ones and ping pong balls for the small ones. hot glue ribbon around the hat, add a bow or other little decorations then put some school glue on the hat and ball so I could put some glitter to make them look a little snowy. The eyes and mouth are drawn with a permanent marker. The larger ones I rolled some paper real tiny and glued on painting it with an orange sharpie.

• 

• 

The wires are just small pieces, (I poked or drilled a hole in the top of the cup, slipped the wire in then hot glued to keep it in place)

• 

I put some on a wreath I made

Mushrooms for the yard or for a planter inside

• 

The tops are plastic bowls from the dollar store 5 for $1
I made some with just dots and some with trees and dots. I made a circle with masking tape so there would be a bare see thru part in the center of the bowl. I used a round sponge pouncer for the dots and did the trees myself with a white latex paint, when that dried I spray painted the inside with red rustoleum paint.

• 

The solar lights are from the dollar store only $1 (they really don't last long) but they are cute even when they don't burn out. I hot glued them in the blank center so they can get sunlight.

• 

These lights are are great because they have their own stake so no worries how to anchor them into the ground

TV Stand redo

My old TV stand was looking poorly. It was similar to the one below but has a swivel top and had pealed paper wood grain (manufactured wood with paper wood grain)

• 

I sanded the entire stand, nailed a piece of plywood on the back
used primer on the entire stand
Painted the inside a combination of browns to make it look a little like wood boards
Mod podged a printed horse picture along the side and back
painted it with matte black paint
let that dry then use 1/8" tape to make boards
used white paint over that and immediately used a wood grain tool to make wood grain boards (pictured below) doing one board at a time
I then dry brushed a medium brown paint over the white grain after it dried
Pulled the tape off
Gave it 2 coats of minwax polycrylic (water based) inside and out

wood grain tool

• 
  

  
  

front

side

back

Kitchen cabinets refinished

My cabinets are old but I can't afford new ones so I wanted to make them look lighter and newer. I stripped them and sanded plus added a tendril vine stencil to them then used a oil based polyurethane because of the wear and tear that the kitchen cabinets would get.
The bottom ones look a bit busy but I am not going to change them just yet. I do like the way the top ones look though. This is the before of what they looked like


this is the bottom area that is too busy looking and will need changed eventually


This is the top cabinets which I like much better. I made a mistake with the stencil and didn't want to have to remove all the poly from them so I mod podged a rose over the mistake. For some reason the picture is sideways and I can't find a way to change it

Old dresser refurbished

This dresser was so dark you could hardly see the wood grain, not in great shape either with some gouges, scratches. It is only laminate and not an expensive piece of furniture. I was redoing it for my own use so I wanted the wood grain even though it does have gouges in it so I didn't want to fill and paint. I stripped the wood and put clean polycrylic on it so the wood grain would stand out. I did paint some highlights on the trim so that the drawers would stand out more. From a distance it does look good and since I am the only one to use it I can overlook the gouges in the laminate.
The first 2 pictures are the before

Toothbrush rugs
A great site to learn how to do this is, that is how I learned
http://ragrugcafe.com/toothbrush-rugs-complete-video-instructions-part-1-beginners