CreativeSteph13

DIY Tissue Box Covers - make functional cute, not boring!

Customize your home decor with a little DIY and make your own Tissue Box Covers. There are all sorts of options to choose from - wood, paper, material... I'll show you how I made one with scrapbook paper and I've included several other creative ideas to help inspire you.

I chose some metallic scrapbook paper to make a cover to match my powder room colors and used an old clear tissue box cover as the base. You can find inexpensive ones at thrift or dollar stores.

Measured and cut out the sides and the top.

Four individual sides. One top (with the opening traced) and a bunch of decorative circles.

Used Mod Podge to glue down the sides first. While that was drying, got started on the top.

For the top I carefully cut out the middle of the opening leaving enough to cut and fold back individual tabs to cover the entire inner edge and Mod Podged them down. You can use clothespins to hold the tabs down while it dries. Note: If you want to just trace and cut out the circle opening, make sure to use a little extra Mod Podge so it doesn't lift up when you pull out a tissue.

Mod Podged the circles onto the sides.
You can also decorate with labels, flowers, accents, embellishments, etc.

More IDEAS!

Book Pages and a Chalkboard Sign via Make the Best of Things

Wooden Mod Box Cover via Crafty Nest

Sew a Decorative Cover via Make it and Love it

Lego Box Cover for the little ones via Dream a Little Bigger

Tutorial for Cardstock or thin Cardboard for ultimate customization via Split Coast Stampers

Happy Creating this week!

Love, Steph

DIY for the Office - Transform Magazine Holders into Recycle & Shred Boxes

I love to recycle, but I don't necessary love the blue plastic bins for recycling. NOT. CUTE.

I made a cheery recycling box for under my kitchen sink here and that made me realize I needed to create something for my office. Throwing paper into piles on the floor wasn't really working very well any more.

I spend quite a bit of time at my office desk and typically have a ginormous pile of paper that needs my attention. I wanted a quick (and stylish) way to sort papers. A place to put papers to recycle and a place to put items to shred. At my fingertips.

Supplies

Two wooden magazine holders (got mine at Ikea)

Spray Paint

Scrapbook or Decorative Paper

Bookplates or something to hold labels

Mod Podge

Primed and Sprayed wood magazine holders.

Cut paper to fit the front of each of the holders and Mod Podged it. (used a few coats)

Printed up labels onto scrapbook paper.

Attached Bookplates.
These were adhesive but you could also use screw on label holders, etc.

Let the recycling and shredding begin.

What a great feeling to get RID OF PAPER.

Happy Organizing!

Love, Steph

Easy Craft Room Organization: Button Storage

You know I love buttons. I use them in all sorts of art and decorating projects and over the years I've accumulated a few (OK, more like thousands) of them. And they seemed to expand exponentially when I am looking for a particular color. So after too much digging through bags, I decided to organize them so they're easy to find and pretty to look at.

Found an old spice rack at the Salvation Army.

Spray painted it black (three coats).

After cleaning out my parent's spice cabinet (there wasn't a spice they didn't have and most of them were waaayyyy old), I had a bunch of leftover spice jars. Originally found them at World Market.

The biggest part of the job was sorting the buttons. I ended up pouring them all out on my dining room table and watched movies while I put them in piles. Yes, the excitement never ends in my house.

Loaded up the jars and colorized them. I learned to colorize when I worked retail in college and it has stuck for all these years - even my closet is colorized from light to dark. #loveOCD

This particular spice rack holds 18 jars and I was able to pretty much fit all the buttons into it. I did need an additional large jar to hold my black buttons (seem to have a million of them).

Voila!

One part of my Craft Room is organized - yay!

Happy Organizing!

Love, Steph

Excellent Adventures: Paris - Musee d'Orsay

On our travels, we visited so many museums in Paris, but one of my favorites was the Musee d'Orsay. Over 3 Million people visit each year (and it felt like a lot of them were there on the day we toured.)

Built in the center of Paris on the banks of the Seine river across from the Tuileries Gardens.

The museum was installed in the former Orsay railway station that was built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition. Can you imagine waiting for a train in a station as beautiful as this?

It houses collections of art from 1848-1914 and includes works of Van Gogh, Monet, Gauguin, Cezanne and Degas. We spent hours seeing so many different works of art - could've stayed for days and days.

Water Lily Lamp by Louis Majorelle

Van Gogh (one of the original "selfies")

Paul Cezanne

Look at the architecture and lighting in this ballroom.

Jean-Baptiste Hugues

Beethoven Bronze by Emile-Antoine Bourdelle

One of the Bronze Ballerinas by Edward Degas.

Happy Exploring!
Love, Steph

More Excellent Adventures:
Blenheim Palace

Kensington Palace

Kew Botanical Gardens

Sisters

Woodburn Tulip Festival

Portland

Blessings From Above - New Art + a little instant gratification

After I wrote about the sweet surprise my dad had for my mom here, I wanted to capture that special feeling and put it on canvas. Something that would remind me of the deeper and long lasting love of family and encourage me to be the type of person who thinks of others and tries to be a blessing in their lives.

(Even if you have to be a little sneaky - thanks dad!)

So I created this canvas called Blessings from Above. I love looking at it everyday!

(I'm trying something new and have added an Instant Digital Download section to my Etsy Shop - that way you can buy art online and download art straight to your computer and print it out yourself - instant gratification - online art - no waiting! )

Hope you have a blessed week!

Love, Steph

Excellent Adventures: Blenheim Palace

One of our favorite (or favourite if we're British) places we visited on our Excellent Adventure to London was Blenheim Palace. One our way to the Palace we toured the Costwolds and stopped off in Cogges Farm and Bampton (two locations where they film Downton Abbey). We even happened across a pre-production crew getting everything ready to film the following week.

Blenheim Palace was built in 1705 as a gift to John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough and military commander, to celebrate the victory over the French in the War of Spanish Succession.

How'd you like this for your front door?

Just in case you wanted something to read.

Inside their Chapel with the famous Willis Organ.

One of their door handles.

Birthplace of Winston Churchill in 1874.

2000 Acres of Gardens: Rose Garden, Water Terraces, Italian Garden, Secret Garden, Marlborough Hedge Maze, Butterfly House, Lavender Garden and many more.