Recycled Mirrors

This week is all about recycling here at Etcetorize!  Most of us have too much so let's look around the house, or the thrift shop, and see what we have that we can make useful again.

Starting with these super ugo little mirrors.

I guess if you like really yellowy goldy gold mixed with silver they aren't so bad.

I just couldn't think of a room in my house where I put them up though.  So I painted them a few coats of white.  (oops, sorry, I was having so much fun painting I forgot to take photos)

Then I used the mirror that was inside and used it to trace some pretty scrapbooking paper.

Throw it in the frame and it's a whole new and updated look that I'd be happy to put up somewhere in my house now.

When I get around to buying some ink for my printer, I'll print some pics off of my niece and nephew and print off some nice black and white photos to put inside.

What do you think?  Do you have something laying around that just needs a fresh coat of paint?  Leave a comment below and let us know what you're going to recycle!

Water Feeder

Now that all of the snow has FINALLY melted and I can spend some time outside I got out my trusty Outdoor Mod Podge and set to work on this week's fun butterfly project.

This is a fun and easy project that comes in super handy if you're going to be away from home for more than a few days and don't want your flowers beds to dry out.

Here's what you need to make your own water feeder.

Materials:
-empty bottle
-Mod Podge and sponge brush
-Pretty paper shapes

Steps:
1) Clean out your bottle and remove any labels.

I just used lots of hot water and this little scrappy thing.  If that doesn't work for you try using cooking oil~

2) Have all your shapes cut out and ready to go.  I had all sorts of butterflies left over from my canvas project I showed you last year so I figured I might as well put them to use.

It's nice if you have different colours and sizes but the look is all up to you.

3) Paint on your first layer of Mod Podge, adding paper shapes as you go.  Use your sponge brush to
make sure every little corner sticks down.

**Important!  Remember that your feeder will be standing with the mouth of the bottle down, make sure you hold your bottle upside down while adhering your shapes so that their right side up when it's put to use.  (Does that make sense???)

4) When your first layer is dry make sure to go back over the whole piece with a second layer to seal in all of your designs.

5) Once everything's dry, fill your bottle up with water and tip upside down into the soil where all your pretty flowers are.

Now you'll come home to full and well fed gorgeous planters!

What kind of flowers do you plant in your planters?  Any favourites?  I'm trying wave petunias this year!  I can't wait to see how they fill out throughout the summer.

I hope you've enjoyed Butterfly Week and have found some inspiration in all of the fun and fluttery projects~

Butterfly Pins

If you've hung out here for any length of time, you've probably figured out I have a small fascination with butterflies.

I'm not even sure why, because when I think about how they start out in life the whole thing sort of grosses me out.

In any case, I love the pretty colours, I love how they casually float across your path from time to time, and I love their magicalness (not a word, I know, but it's what they make me think of).

So, of course I had to have a pinboard devoted to butterflies.

What you might be surprised by though is that I only have a measly 26 pins.  I'm pretty particular about my pins.

But have you noticed a new button at the top of all your board lately?!?!?!

If you hit that little "Find Pins" button you are automatically taken to loads more boards that are the same or similar theme as yours!  This makes finding specific pics super easy!

I have a feeling my little butterfly board is about to expand, exponentially~

What's your most self-indulgent pin board?  Is it baking?  Home Dec?  or some other guilty pleasure?  Leave a comment, and a link, below!

Happy Butterfly Week!

Butterflies from the Past

I was going to try to make another new butterfly project for you, considering it is Butterfly week here.  But I've been on the road for work so much lately that it's been really hard to find the time.

So, instead, I'm going to remind you of some of my fun Butterfly projects from the past.

There've been a few~

Almost all of these projects come with step by step tutorials so click through here or head over to my Tutorial page to find out how to make all of these on your own~

Butterfly Gazing Ball

Fabric Covered Vase

Beadbuster Garden Ornament

Butterfly Bookmarks

Butterfly Candle

Butterfly Wreath

Butterfly Card

Butterfly Coasters

Butterfly Travel Journal

Butterfly Mobile

Butterfly Canvas

Fluttering Butterflies Top

Butterfly Paper Lantern

More butterflies to come!

I hope you're enjoying Butterfly Week!

Butterfly Cupcake Picks

Last winter while I was in hibernation and not leaving the house, I half-heartedly planned on creating another Etsy shop, focusing on handmade paper items.  I went to town...for about a week, and then got tired of it all.  That's just what winter does to me.

So, now I need to throw a party, or two, because I have more than a few sets of these cute little cupcake picks that I made.

I found unlicensed butterfly images on the web, printed them,embossed them, and cut them all out by hand.  Then I used my Silhouette to cut out the medallions and inked the edges.  I glued them all together on toothpicks and tah dah!  The perfect addition to any cupcake!

These are high quality cupcake picks!
Even the backs are covered~

I also made photo corners and paper buttons for scrapbook/cardmaking embellishments.  I still think it's a fun idea, but now that summer's here, and I've come out of hibernation, I just don't have time for the assembly line.

I LOVE this green set~

Maybe next winter~

                                                   Happy Butterfly Week!

 

Butterfly Board

It's Butterfly Week here at Etcetorize!!!!

                                    

I picked this weird little piece up at the thrift shop ages ago. 

The first time I saw it I thought it was interesting but put it back and the shelf and walked away.  But I had to rush back the next day to grab it because for some reason I couldn't get it out of my mind.

It has some notes in German on the back and I'm sure the cute little pictures on the front tell some kind of folk story, but really, I don't know what it's all about.

I didn't want to lose the cute little pictures so I covered them up and gave the rest of it a new coat of white paint, covering up those stenciled vines.

Then I cut some pretty but fairly plain cardstock to cover the pictures and used some repositionable adhesive so that it wouldn't permanently damage the original pics underneath.

Then I got out my trusty Silhouette machine and cut some butterflies from some gorgeous paper, stuck them on, and voila!

I used the Butterfly Garland design
from Silhouette and then just stacked my shapes.

It's still a funny little piece but I love it.  And no butterflies were harmed in the making of it~

What's the strangest thing you've picked up second hand?  Tell us about it below~

Happy Butterfly Week!