repurposing - Oopsey Daisy

From Belly Sweater…. to this!

January 7, 2011 11 Comments

Can you believe it?!

I'm back! Ladies and gents (well, mostly ladies!), it's been a long road just to get this one lil' post up! My computer made the long journey back from the fix-it shop in Tennessee, but all of the files were completely wiped out. Thank goodness for Apple's Time Capsule that automatically baked everything up. But holy moly, it's been a lot of organization and time out of my day. I feel a million trillion years behind, but thanks for your patience!! Hang in there. I'll get my show on the road. Eventually!

Before I share this little project with you, I have to share a bit about my husband. He is a big-time hoarder. We have a whole collection of hotel soaps. More batteries than I can carry in a plastic tub. Don't get me started on Sobe drinks or light bulbs. He also has almost more clothes than me, even though I would love to buy him a whole new wardrobe! He has an entire collection of sweaters that I call "belly sweaters." I finally convinced him to give away a couple of sweaters!

I debated about what to do with his sweaters. I actually laid in bed one night thinking up projects. Then it hit me--why not recycle this sweater to enhance Little Man's wardrobe?! I searched for a tutorial and found this amazing tutorial at Made to help me sew the ribbing around the neck and arm holes. Dana is a genius!!

Little Man is now wearing a sweater vest made from his Daddy's very own sweater. And he knows it. He wears this vest with pride!

If you're wondering what happened to the other sweater... well, I'm not a perfect seamstress! I used the first one as my guinea pig, vowing to make this one perfect. I should have taken a picture of Mr. Daisy modeling the sweater so I could show before-and-after's.

Getting dressed to go to church is so much easier when I remind Little Man that he's wearing his Daddy's sweater!

Like Daddy, like son.

(After all the cute pictures, he was due for just one grumpy picture!)

PS A new year, a new watermark for my pictures. What do you think??

Filed Under: repurposing, sewing

One Last Summer Project!

September 3, 2010 15 Comments

Hello Oopsey Daisies!!

I'm back!! It's been a slow week on the blog for a couple of reasons. First of all, I put in about 15 hours in a mad rush to finish my quiet book!! Since I don't even own a sewing machine, I've been practically living at my Mom's house as I've finished it up. I was just about ready to move in, toothbrush and all! But as of late last night, it is complete! I am bursting at the seams to share the finished product with you. So stay tuned for that!

Also, I ran out of photo storage on blogger. I paid for an upgrade, but it took 24 hours to kick in! And blogging without photos?! I just couldn't do it! But thank you for your kind comments throughout the week that have motivated me to come back as soon as possible!

I feel sheepish sharing my last summer craft with you, considering how Halloween has already completely taken over blog-land!! But I am going to justify this project for a few reasons:
1. I wear flipflops year-round, even here in Colorado. So this project is relevant to me year-round!
2. I will also share how to repurpose this project even after the summer season is over.
So with that justification, let me share my upcycled flipflops with you!

I saw so many cute ideas for flipflops that I wanted to use all of them!! So after buying a cheap pair of flipflops at Wal-Mart, I started taking my scraps and created little flowers and rosettes. I absolutely adore the zipper rosettes!! I also made satin rosettes and red pinwheel flowers. Love those polk-a-dots! It has been so fun to interchange embellishments!

I hot-glued a piece of felt to each flower/rosette, and then hot-glued an alligator clip to the felt. Using clips, I could interchange my embellishments to match my outfit or even my mood! (Not to mention they can also double as hair accessories!)

I really, really love the combination of red, black, and white together. So I have worn these little beauties a whole lot this summer....

But I love the simplicity of the white satin layered flowers. These were super easy to make. I just layered satin circles, burned the edges, and hot-glued them all together!

And then this dark, chic combination! Love, love, love the dark zipper rosettes with gold teeth!

So what can you do with these embellishments after stashing away your summer flipflops??

Well, I have a few ideas....

These make super cute hair accessories! (Don't make fun of me for the pictures I attempted to take of myself!)

Even my new Coach purse looks cutsified with a little embellishment!

And this red pinwheel looks just charming on my finished Quiet Book.... here is your sneak peek!! The full reveal is coming on Monday!

Filed Under: accessories, repurposing, summer

Baby Food Jar Lid Game

July 2, 2010 50 Comments

I wish I had been one of those incredible mom's who made all of her baby food by scratch. Occasionally, I made my own cooked fruits and vegetables for Little Man, but usually his cuisine came straight from the jar. Please don't judge me. I vow to be better prepared for Baby #2.

Luckily, I was smart enough to save most of my baby food jars. Now I am thinking of so many ways I can use them! Last week, I made Little Man a matching game using the lids of baby food jars!

I love how easy this was, and how cute it turned out! I popped the circles into the insides of the baby food jars. They fit nice and snug, but I also used mod podge to secure them.

I decided to make the tops of the lids cute, too, by tracing the lids onto scrapbook paper, cutting them out, and securing them with LOTS of mod podge. I knew Little Man would be rough on these, so I added a couple of coats of mod podge over the top of the paper, too.

Little Man loves his game!! (In fact he saw me typing up this post, and ran to the other room to go get it!)

There are a few ways we have used this game so far:

1. We practice our animal sounds (at least for the pictures of animals that make sounds). He has learned how to bzzz like a bumble bee!

2. I model matching for him, and he is learning to see that 2 pictures are similar and go together.

3. I simply tell him to "Find the lion", etc. and see if he can find a specific animal within the group.

4. He loves dumping out the game, and the sound of the lids on a hard surface!! But we are also practicing cleaning up. He loves to place the lids one by one back into the bag, just to dump it out again! I am loving that he is learning to pick up!

Some day, I am hoping he will learn to use this as a matching game. Some day. We'll grow into it, of course!

For this project:
* Clip art designs &/or fonts copyright Dianne J Hook. Used with permission from DJ Inkers.
* If you wish to make your own, you can download here.

Have a fun and fabulous Fourth!

Filed Under: baby, download, learning tool, repurposing

My Earth Day Project

April 22, 2010 6 Comments

In honor of Earth Day, I thought I would share a recycling project!! I am beginning to think that I shouldn't throw anything away. I tend to hold on to all types of containers until I am absolutely sure I cannot use them!! This was definitely trash turned into a treasure.

Because I live in a tiny apartment and all of my craft supplies are inside my son's closet, I run into a problem. I craft during naptime. Even though I try to plan ahead, I can't tell you how many times I try to sneak into his dark, quiet bedroom and try to avoid waking him up. Sometimes I end up army crawling along the floor because I have woken him up too many times to count!! Anyway, I needed a little container for the "crafting 911 essentials"--glue gun, glue stick, measuring tape, sharpie, foam brush, you get the idea. So I keep this little beauty on my kitchen counter where I do my crafting.

I made my "Crafting 911" container out of my son's last formula container!

I just wrapped the container in burlap, added a fabric strip and wrapped twine over the top. My favorite part is this lovely burlap flower.

So for now, this little container hides away my most important crafting tools in the "greenest" way possible.

Happy Earth Day!

Linking up to Wednesday's Creative Inspiration: Earth Day Style @ Roots & Wings Co.

Filed Under: Earth Day, organization, repurposing

Scrap Notebooks

April 15, 2010 15 Comments

I've had this project in the works for a few days, but finished it today. I was so excited that I wanted to share! My husband's "office" is his half of the bedroom... and he has accounts in 5 states. He is constantly faxing papers, and we have so many cover sheets and confirmation sheets just lying around. Sometimes "stuff" just takes over our counters! I am always trying to look for better ways to organize ourselves.

We have a lot of scrap papers. A lot. I have them all filed in a neat container that says "scrap paper." But I thought--why not make them into something cute??? I love me a good notebook and I love making lists probably even more. So this project killed about 3 birds with one stone. I am one happy camper!

I took all of my scrap papers and cut them into a few different sizes to switch things up a bit. I punched holes carefully so that all of the little paper squares would line up.

I used ONLY scraps for the entire project. I love when I can say that!! I used cardstock scraps for the fronts and backs of each notebook, threaded ribbon all the way through both sides (that took the longest), and then decorated! I used my flower punch, ribbon, cardstock scraps, some chipboard letters, and a few vinyl scraps.

I thought that my hubby and I both needed our own personalized notebooks....

I am sure my hubby will just love the flower on his. Hee hee.

And this little notebook I am especially excited for. This will be my idea notebook... I can be inspired to my heart's delight and write my lists of dream creations, supplies, and thoughts. Hip hip hooray!

So these notebooks will be replacing our not-so-cute sticky pads and making our counters look a lot more organized! I think I'll go get started...

Linking up to

Join us Saturdays at tatertotsandjello.com for the weekend wrap up party!

Show and Share Day at Just a Girl

Filed Under: craft, organization, repurposing