DIY Denim Bird Ornament: Day 3 of 12

It's Day 3 of the 12 Days of Upcycled Christmas Ornaments and today I'm showing you how you can make a shabby chic ornament in any design you can imagine from a pair of jeans.  In this case I'll be making a dove.

Remember this is also part of the 5K subscriber giveaway over on my YouTube channel. Here's the Rafflecopter for this project:

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Be sure to check out the last two upcycled projects:
Aluminum Can Ball Ornaments
T-shirt Yarn Candy Canes

DIY T-Shirt Yarn Candy Cane Ornament: Day 2 of 12

So simple, so cute, so upcycled...that's my kind of Christmas ornament!  These T-shirt Yarn Candy Cane Ornaments were so much fun to make that I had to make a few extra for my upcoming craft fair!  But fear not, I'm sharing the loving and giving you the step by step instructions to make some of your very own.  Not to mention giving them away as part of the "Twelve Days of Upcycled Christmas Ornaments" and 5K Subscriber Giveaway.

Head over to my YouTube channel to see how I made these cute little candy canes from a couple scraps of T-shirt yarn.  And don't forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway to win these and all of my other ornaments.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Miss Day 1 did you?  You can find my tutorial for the Aluminum Can Ornaments here.

Sparkly DIY Aluminum Can Ornaments: Day 1 of 12

Happy Black Friday y'all, the Christmas season is finally here!  Well, at least in my book it is anyway.  As a young child, I remember all the ornaments coming out of the attic the day after Thanksgiving and watching dad struggle to untangle the lights for the tree.  Once the lights were on my mom would hand one ornament to each of us kids to go put on the tree, and then another and another. And then that night, after we were all tucked in, my mom and dad would redecorate the tree so that it wasn't quite so "bottom heavy."

But now I'm tall, taller than my mom and I can decorate my own tree...the whole tree!  I still deck the halls with some of my childhood ornaments but there is always room for just one more. Well, hopefully twelve more because that's what I'm adding this year.  So without further ado, here is ornament numero uno of the Twelve Days of Upcycled Christmas Ornaments, they're made from Arizona Tea cans:

Don't forget, I'm giving away all of the ornaments that I show you how to make over the next twelve days in exchange for your help in getting me to my 5,000 subscriber goal over on YouTube.  You can enter twice each day of the contest, just check out the Rafflecopter below. You can see all the details in my last post here.

Here's the video tutorial.  Enjoy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Twelve Days of Upcycled Christmas Ornaments and a Giant Giveaway

Before we all head off to enjoy our Turkey Day with friends and family I wanted to tell you about a fun little holiday series AND my first YouTube giveaway that both kick off the day after Thanksgiving.  I’m calling it the “Twelve Days of UpcycledChristmas Ornaments” and the 5K subscriber giveaway.  Every day for twelve days I’ll be showing you a new tree ornament made from what else? Upcycled Stuff.  You’ll see me using aluminum cans, blue jeans, wool sweaters, T-shirts, Tissue boxes, silverware, cookie cutters, pallets and a few other various pieces of trash.  There will be something for everyone and I’ll show you how I made each one, step by step!

It's going to be loads of fun and I hope you'll avoid the Black Friday crowds and stay home and craft with me instead.  Here's a quick video that I whipped up that explains how you can enter to win all of the hand crafted ornaments that I'll be making during the twelve day event:

Until then, enjoy the holiday with those who are closest and I'll see you in a couple of days!

My Upcycled Storage Tote from a Kitty Litter Jug

I'm back at it again - trying to find some other way to repurpose all those kitty litter containers.  So far I've shown you how to make a strawberry pot, a toy box and a handy garden helper out of the larger bucket style litter containers.  Today it's storage from the smaller jugs!

As you can see above, I've turned quite a few of them into storage for all of my T-shirt yarn.  But they also make great grab and go containers for when you want to take a started craft project with you.  I also use one in the car to store all the dogs leashes, water, bowl, poopy bags, treats, etc.  They are with me so often in the car that I need to have all that stuff on hand.  So, yep, I made a video tutorial for the Kitty Litter Jug Turned Crafty Storage project and I hope you'll take a peek.

If you have other ways that you use your litter buckets, I'd love to hear about it as I have an endless supply of them that just keep multiplying!

DIY Soda Can Earrings That Make a Statement

Statement jewelry seems to be all the rage these days and  I'm taking the term quite literally in this tutorial!  These earrings, made from spent soda cans, let you speak your mind without saying a word.

To make these Please Recycle Soda Can Earrings be sure to head over to my YouTube channel for complete instructions.  But before you go, you'll need a few inexpensive jewelry making tools:

Needle Nose Pliers
Round Nose Pliers
Flush Cutter

You'll also need a couple of beads, ear wires and eye pins.  These are fabulously fast to make and would make great holiday gifts for every eco-conscious female on your list!  So get busy and have fun with it!

The Best Little Product That You Never Knew You Needed

So, I don't typically do straight out product reviews.  It's just not my thing.  But if you're a pet owner/lover then you are going to love this little product, especially if you have pets that shed!  Heck maybe YOU shed.  If so, then this product is for you.

Meet the FuRemover Duo, the best little product that you never knew you needed.  If you own a dog/cat/rabbit or any other furry little creature then I'm sure you own one of those rolls of masking tape on a stick.  I know I do!  But this little silicone pet hair remover changed everything for me!  No more wads of masking tape to throw away or pay for!  And man does it work fast!  I whipped up a quick little video to show you just how fabulous it is, you can see it here.

I hope you love it as much as I do and if there are any other green products that you'd like to see reviewed, let me know!

**Disclaimer:  I have not been asked to do this review by anyone nor have I been compensated in any way. The opinions expressed are my actual feelings about this product.  However, this post does contain an affiliate link to the FuRemover Duo.  If you click the link and make your purchase through Amazon, I receive a few pennies commission....which help me bring more great posts like this one!**

Some Fun and QUICK Tips

In October I started posting some fun ideas for upcycling commonly tossed items over on my YouTube channel. The beauty of these videos is that they are fast, in fact they are all two minutes in length or less.  I've been posting about one quick tip every other week or so.  If you're not a subscriber, here's what you've been missing:

This is a good (upcycled alternative) to those skinny magnetic pads that you can buy specifically for list making.  My version allows me to keep a stack of scrap paper attached to the fridge that would have otherwise ended up in the recycle bin.  Here's how I made my Magnetic Shopping List Pad from a Clothing Hanger.

You may have seen it before while lurking around Pinterst, so I thought I'd show you just how to Use a Pop Tab as a Picture Hanger. As a bonus, I'll even show you the no fail way to remove a pop tab with the center ring in tact every time!

And just in time for Election Day - How to Turn a Political Campaign Sign into a Chalkboard.  Not only will you make something useful from something headed to the trash but you'll also help clean up our neighborhoods of all this campaign trash.  God knows the candidates don't do it....can you tell that this is one of my biggest pet peeves?

Seriously though, I remember a time when people would make their own signs on an old sheet or cardboard box and display it from a window or somewhere out in the front yard.  To me that says, "Hey, I passionately support my candidate!"  Nowadays though it's like visual white noise.  Some streets get so overrun with campaign signs that you just stop seeing them.  And the places that they are stuck in the ground are in these "no man's land" type of places; vacant lots, street corners, etc.  So, not only are they not connected to anyone actually supporting the candidate but they sit and sit and sit looooong after the elections are over. Geesh, it makes me nuts!  But I digress.

I hope you'll take six minutes to check out these quick tips and if you have ideas for other quick tips or want to learn how to upcycle something, just leave it in the comments below and maybe you'll get a video response.  Oh and DON'T FORGET TO VOTE.