Dangerous Kiwi

Garage sale season is upon us, and with that comes a great opportunity to start some new projects using items found at garage sales. Why are garage sales so good for crafts, especially recycled crafts? First, one woman’s trash is definitely another woman’s treasure. Also, garage sales are where failed hobbies go to die. This is a great opportunity for people who are just dabbling in crafts and might not want to make a full commitment yet.

Admit it, most of you have started a craft or a project, bought all the supplies for it, and then left it in a closet to collect dust until a garage sale 5 years later forces you to sell it at a fraction of the cost.

This past weekend I made a small loop and spent about two hours checking out a number of garage sales. I didn’t buy as much as I could have, but I saw a lot of stuff that would be great for crafts. Here is a rundown of some of the items I found:

Yarn – even full balls of yarn that have not been used.

Fabric -including old tablecloths, clothes, curtains and fabric remnants. This can be used for mod podge, making homemade coasters, clothes for your children’s dolls, and more. Also, don’t overlook the clothing racks. Sometimes you can pick up some old dresses/suits with great patterns that can be used to make some great crafts.

Dried and silk flowers – So much cheaper than brand new. Find some of these and you’re on your way to a great centerpiece.

Ribbon – lots and lots of ribbon. If you’re not sure what to do with ribbon, I’m not sure I can help you. There are few crafts where ribbon absolutely cannot be used.

Baseball cards – These could be used in a fun mod podge craft for young kids.

Picture frames – Frames are so easy to dress up or re-purpose. Use some of that fabric you found to cover them for a chic new look.

Cookie Tins – These are great for storage. You can usually pick these up for 25 cents and are handy for sorting all your crafting goodies.

Glasses, Vases, Candle holders – Paint them, tile them, tie a ribbon around them.

Mason Jars – Mason jars can be used to store dry goods (flour, sugar, salt) or turn them into a windowsill herb garden as seen on the feisty redhead’s blog.

Dishes – If you find some ceramic plates with nice designs and a cheap end table, you can use them to create a cute mosaic table, as shown at makeprojects.com.

Jewelry – You can pick up jewelry cheap and either re-purpose it, paint it, or take it apart for parts and use it to make your own custom jewelry.

Poker Chips – They were the cheap plastic kind but could make great craft supplies for kids! Try using them to decorate a picture frame or make a home-made checkers board.

Playing Cards – If they have a fun print on the back of the card, you can use these to make greeting cards or other crafts. I found some taro cards for cheap and will try making notepads out of them as seen on recycleart.com!

Craft, Sewing, Needlepoint, Knitting and Decorating Books – Sometimes I find some real gems and can pick up these books for .50  – 2.00, which is much cheaper than even used bookstores.

The important thing with garage sales is to not look at the things they’re selling, but look at what you could create with the things they’re selling. It will open up a lot of opportunities.

I found a great starting craft project on a WordPress blog I frequent where they made some beautiful paper roses. I thought that it looked easy enough for me to try and might be fun as well. No special equipment was required and it didn’t seem like too much skill was required either. Plus, I have a cute vase that’s been sitting on my kitchen windowsill for years and I have yet to put anything in it. This looked like the quick craft I needed to fill that empty void.

Now, it is dangerous to assume that something is easy enough for me to try. I am by no means crafty and have little experience even pretending to be crafty. I have great ideas and a lot of confidence in my abilities, but I don’t have the practice that it takes to make this stuff look good.

In addition to my general lack of skills in this arena, I also don’t have much in the way of craft supplies and also am trying to use as much recycled material as possible. This sometimes works out OK, sometimes makes it better than I imagined (ha!) and it always adds to the fun. Let’s take a look at how my paper rose project went.

Materials Suggested by Site:

• Paper
• Scotch Tape
• Scissors
• Rubber Cement
• Water Colors

Materials I had available:

• Junk Mail – mostly ads/circulars
• Scotch Tape
• Scissors
• Spray Adhesive
• Wood Glue
• Double sided scrap-booking tape

Step 1 - Draw out the shapes you will use for the petals.

This step I got down pretty well. I had some sturdy paper thanks to an ad for George’s Used Car Sale that would be my template and first rose.

Step 2 – Cut out a half circle in the middle. Start with a wider circle and then as the flower gets bigger make it more narrow.
Well, now step 2 is interesting because I didn’t actually read it. I often like to skim directions and just get on with it. Now I realize what I should have done and can understand the issues I had with my layers lining up correctly. If you are following these instructions, do not forget step 2.

Step 3 & 4- Put rubber cement on the edge of the half circle and on one edge. Do this on both sides. Now roll the piece, starting with the side that has the rubber cement. When you get to the end tape it.

Well, I did not have rubber cement, and during my first rose I did not have the spray adhesive or anything else, either. I just threw on some tape and hoped that would do the trick. The petals moved around a lot, but didn’t fall apart. I also decided I’d add some cardboard as a stem so that the roses would sit nicely in the vase. Since I had no glue, the best I could do is to try to tape it in there. The best was not enough.

Step 5 & 6 – Next take another shape, put tape on both ends and wrap it around the last piece. Keep adding more pieces and then curl the petals.

This is where I started to notice that the little half circle at the bottom of each “petal” did not really work quite right. If only I had read step 2. I did what I could to keep it going. I also, after 5 or 6 attempts at making the stem stick in the flower, gave up and threw the stem into my recycle bin.

I’m not sure what magic this girl used to curl the petals on the rose, but I found that it was close to impossible to curl them once I had taped them on to the rose. I ended up bending some petals over, but then they had creases in them. I’m not sure if there is some super secret method for curling the petals or some fancy craft tool that would let you get in there and not butcher the flower while curling, but I did what I could with what I had. For my second attempt at a rose I made note of my difficulties and curled the petals before taping them to the flower.

Step 7 – If you get to the size you want but the flower is a little lopsided, use the small pieces to even it out.

I tried this, but all the pieces I put in would eventually fall out. If only I had some glue…

Paper Rose Reboot

Instead of the sturdier ad I had previously used, this time around I used an ad from the big blue home & garden store down the street. I also made the petals more pronounced this time to aid in proper curling.

For this attempt I also tried to use my double-sided scrap-book tape instead of rubber cement. This did not go well at all, since every time I tried attaching the tape the paper tore. I then ventured to my husbands workshop and found some spray adhesive and wood glue. The spray adhesive was great for making everything in my work area stick to everything else. I would not recommend it. I hoped that since paper was made of wood, the wood glue might work out OK. As far as I know, I was right.

After all that, however, the end result was pretty good. I did not have any paint to add color to these or make them look more uniform, but they seem to look pretty good on their own. I also found some long zip ties that ended up working great as stems. I just pushed them through and stopped when the fat end was at the base of the rose.I could then trim the zip ties to the perfect length.

Overall, the Lowe’s flyer was probably a better choice for paper, since it gave it that tree-hugger recycled look and it was easier to work with. However, I needed a lot more cut outs to complete an entire rose. If I do this again, I may try with some other paper, such as:

• Phone Book pages (kicking myself for having recycled one just a month or so ago)
• Old Books
• Magazines
• Tissue Paper (not sure how the glue would work on it, though)
• Scrap-booking paper

The end result looks pretty good, although I should have a few more roses to balance things out. For now this will do until I am feeling crafty and ambitious again.

A recent article on the Washington Post discusses the many reasons to care about where your food comes from and how it’s processed:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-being-a-foodie-isnt-elitist/2011/04/27/AFeWsnFF_story.html

www.cafepress.com/dangerouskiwi

www.drinkingoutside.com

http://www.threadless.com/slogans/2143194/drinking_outside_it_s_better_for_you