I love labels! I love all those great vinyl labels available today, but the price just soars out of my budget. Sadly I am not among the fortunate to own a Silhouette vinyl adhesive cutter do-hickey machine. However, fortunately for me, my creative, frugal juices started flowing and I came up with my own solution for making "vinyl" labels.
Here is a quick tutorial of what I came up with. The labels I used, I created using gimp but the Internet (Pinterest too) is FULL of free printables you could take advantage of.
I also used this method on other labels that I found out there on Pinterest while searching free printables. I cut these labels up and applied them to gift bags. Makes for a fun personalized way to say, "You are special to me!"
If you don't already, follow me on Pinterest and you can find these labels on my Printables board.
Hope you have fun sticking Contact Paper labels all over your home like I have.
One of the many projects I have in the works right now is my pantry. I would love to say, it is done and here is the reveal of all my hard work. However it is not finished. I have made a big step in my life and that is slowing down, being patient and taking my time with some of my projects. The pantry is an area, that as many of you know, can require a great deal of cash for all those handy dandy canisters or containers for food. I have set out determined not to spend even close to a great deal of money, so taking my time with the completion of my pantry is my only option.
Here is one of my thrifty finds for food storage. Why spend money on an empty plastic container when I could get one filled with crackers my kiddos eat?
Funny story about these crackers...
So as you see these are Winnie The Pooh crackers AKA in our family Pooh crackers. I was in a store one day and asked my daughter, "would you like to have some Pooh crackers?" The lady passing by shot a look at me and said, "gross!" I had to explain myself that they are Winnie The Pooh, not what she was thinking I was offering my child. From that point on, I make it a point to say his proper and full name.
Any how here is what these containers have been transformed into after a nice warm soapy soak in the sink.
Hint: If you are patient the label just peals right off after a good long soak. If you are impatient as I was for some most of them then this is what you will need to do
SCRUB!!!
To get rid of the sticky residue from the glue I used a product called Goo Gone.
The lids to the crackers formerly were blue so they had an encounter with spray paint.
Here are what these cracker containers have been transformed into.
For the labels you will need:
Black Burlap
Twine
A Sewing Machine
White Thread
White Paint
A Thin Paint Brush
Needle with a wide eye
Scotch Tape
How I did it:
Cut two pieces of burlap to the size you desire. Sew them together with white thread using a Zig Zag stitch. With your paint brush and paint hand paint your words. You could use a stencil, I wanted a country store feel for mine not manufactured so I choose to paint free hand. Then I cut my twine to the length where I wanted my labels to hang, leaving extra for the knots to be tied. At one end of my twine I wrapped a small piece of scotch tape. This allows the twine to thread through the needle easier. I then stuck the twine through my burlap label creating a loop that will hang around the plastic container like a necklace. Tie knots in the ends of your twine and viola you are done!
Having labels that are easy to change if the contents change is a great addition to these containers. Nothing permanent here! I love the versatility and flexibility of these signs. Another hint: You could have different words on the opposite side of the label.
So there you have it, one of my thrifty transformations for my pantry make over. Soon the whole pantry will be revealed. But for now, I hope you were inspired to be creative with what you have or what you could use for pantry organization.
Homeschooling my children is a wonderful blessing that bares with it a great responsibility. With so many different roles (wife, mom, teacher, homemaker etc.) that I play around our home organization is key to keep things running smooth.
Often times the way school lessons break down in a day, one side of a worksheet is completed that day, leaving the other side for the next school day. What to do with all those papers for different children? What to do with them so they are not forgotten or overlooked? Where to put them so each child knows what they have for that day? What to do with them so they are not in the clutches of the youngest sister who wants to try her hand at her big sister's worksheet? These were the questions that inspired this.
Individual pockets adorned with ribbon. Perfect for holding school papers to be done or to be completed, corrections to be made or homework.
Eyelets make this possible to hang over the door from metal hooks. You can purchase eyelets at any fabric store, I got mine at Hobby Lobby. I then used ribbon to hang the organizer to the height I wanted.
Now for a peak of what is hiding under the fabric. How I made it.
I used a large Diaper box from Costco. I trimmed off the flaps or edges and this created the base for my organizer. I cut out pockets to the size I wanted, (keeping in mind they will be hemmed and turned under so that in the end it is at least big enough to fit a piece of paper) and then turned the edges in and sewed a thin hem. I then placed the pockets on my main piece of fabric. I turned under each edge excluding the top opening. I pinned the pocket to the main fabric and then pined on my ribbon wrapping it around the pocket. I sewed on each pocket and only sewed the ribbon edges to the main fabric. Once the pockets were all complete, I then used my hot glue gun to glue the main fabric to the cardboard box (only warping and gluing the edges to the back side of the cardboard). I also used the hot glue gun to glue down the middle or center part of the ribbon onto the pocket.There you have it... very simple. You could hot glue the whole thing if you did not want to sew.
This organizer will most likely hang on the inside door to my classroom closet. The closet door remains open during school time. The top pocket for now will hold my oldest daughters books. The one she is reading for her book report and the one I am reading out loud to her. The other pockets hold school papers! Yay! A wonderful solution! You could also use this for printer paper, notebook paper, construction paper, story books, coloring books, magazines, mail, bills, school or craft supplies and anything else you can come up with! Labels or numbers on the pockets are possibly in this organizers future. If I do then I will show you the update in a later post.
Now for a bit of an update. Here is what now fills my Mason Jar by my chalk board... because I know you have just been dying for this update. :)
It is that time again... school! As many of you may remember our homeschool classroom has changed location for the fourth time, now to our family room. You can see more of that here. So far I have loved it... the location that is, not how it looked. I have been busy making some changes. First here is just a bit of a reminder of what it changed from.
The chairs finally got to go outside for a day of pampering! Something I have been meaning to do for awhile! Armed with a can of black spray paint I gave them a make over we are all thankful for! They look so pretty now! Well as pretty as school chairs can look.
Here is a look around the room. Some more before and afters of the changes made.
I changed the lamp and this very bare boring wall turned into this...
The basket on the wall (far right) also had a date with the spray paint.
With help from my happy helpers. The Golden Retriever is my wonder dog named Dexter and the Sheltie belongs to Mandy at Mandipidy.
Hanging right next to the chalk board on the right is this mason jar. It used to house spaghetti sauce and now will be the home to chalk... maybe flowers! Or as a good friend suggested maybe it's contents will change with the seasons. I used a curtain rod hook and picture hanging wire to hang it on the wall. I simply put it around the bottle as you would if you were going to tie a bow. Instead of a bow I just kept wrapping it around the jar and then took the ends and wrapped them tight around the hook. It was that simple. Now more of the room.
I love having a place for my kiddos to read books! I change out the books in the basket, especially since kids tend to pick the same book over and over again... until "yes we have that one memorized honey!"
Come back for my next post... I will be showing you the fun thing I did with my gallery wall! I am so excited and I just know you will be too! :)
Warning this post is not suitable for perfect homemakers with perfect kids. The images you are about to see may be disturbing to most moms.
Welcome to our unfinished basement. Our basement that has been once, twice... now three times organized and has taken on different purposes (see post here). Our basement that used to be a home to some of our friends (see post here ) as they were saving money for an apartment. With them lived two cats... cats that later I discovered I am BIG time allergic to. Leaving me unable to venture down into my basement the whole nine months of my pregnancy for possibility of a horrible Asthma attack. After our friends moved out I decided to turn the basement into a playroom. Brilliant idea... except all this happened days after finding out I was expecting and then realizing I could not go down there. So as I said, I had not been down there in a long while but, obviously someone was going down into the basement... because this is NOT how I left it.
I put my mom detective skills to use and I found those responsible for this messy situation.
Their sentence... two days of clean up and a lecture first from mom and then from dad. They said they were really sorry for what they had done. Even the part when they ripped apart a Styrofoam cooler into tiny, tiny little pieces. You can see evidence of that in photo one and two.
I love plastic bis! I have toys sorted by kind or by what is fun to pair together in play. I came up with this system many years ago and it works really well. It helps a child play with a toy the way intended as well as keep them from getting overwhelmed by so many toys all at once. Also trading out the bins is like Christmas all over again. I used Word and printed out labels using different fonts. I then used packing tape to attach the labels I made with printer paper. The tape completely covers the paper keeping it protected.
I now store the bins behind a gate to remind the kids of our house rule. One toy out at a time. To get a new bin of toys everything must be cleaned up first.
A tidy play space helps encourage imagination! Not to mention keeps a child out of trouble with the authorities!
I also used this method on other labels that I found out there on Pinterest while searching free printables. I cut these labels up and applied them to gift bags. Makes for a fun personalized way to say, "You are special to me!"
