Wordless Wednesday Featuring More Shutter Displays

My Fabulous Fleamarket Finds

Today was the first day in a long time that I actually had a day off; well sort of.  It's not a normal full time day job work day and I didn't have a fair, festival or farmer's market so I kind of got to do what I wanted to do today.  After a beautiful morning swim, I hit a ton of yard sales and found some pretty cool stuff!

I am quickly learning that I have a little obsession with shutters.  I found these great little shutters that I plan to make a tabletop display out of them.

...found lots of great little containers for candle making, too.

And look at these pants!  There are some worn out spots but look at that gorilla, my favorite animal!  I think they'll make really cute bags or maybe a pillow.  Not sure, what do you think?

 
These old Christmas tree wooden "cranberries" have some pretty beat up sections but there are still tons of good beads for the takin'.

 How about you?  Any great flea market finds lately?

Wordless Wednesday Featuring a Cassette Storage Riser/Mending Kit

I picked up two of these at a yard sale; one for cash the other for supplies

The two make great risers for the necklace stands in the back of the table!

OLD Shutters Turned Jewelry Display Rack

I kicked off a pretty busy month of fairs and festivals this weekend at the Simpsonville Labor Day Family Festival.  In preparation I pulled together a fun little display for my upcycled jewelry out of two old shutters, I was pretty proud of it, what do you think?

Here's what they looked like when I picked 'em up for $10 from Craigslist:

 

Besides being filthy, there were big chunks of wood missing.  So, off to the hardware store for wood putty and hinges.  After applying the wood putty I ran over the surface of the shutters with a few different grits of sandpaper and had something that looked likes this:

Then I added a couple coats of spray paint (using my Goodwill sheet as a drop cloth):

Destiny has to be the center of attention ALL the time

Added a couple hinges and some shelf brackets to keep the display from falling backward while customers were browsing and viola!

Well, ALMOST viola!  I then decided that I wanted to be able to write right on the display so I added some chalkboard paint across the top of each shutter.


And ladies....I did it all by myself - ez peazy! Want to learn from my mistakes?  OK!  I was so careful to make sure that the slats of my shutters were all facing upward (so that my product would hang from them) that I didn't realize that one of my shutters was backwards.  So, while the slats were facing the right way it was still upside down and you can tell if you compare the trim along the top; one side is thicker than the other.  But really, who's going to notice?  If they do, I'll just tell them it was artistic liberty!

What else would I change?  Definitely by the time I hit the Apple Harvest Festival in Westminster, SC next weekend, I'm going to cover the entire trim with chalkboard paint.  There's just something about chalk!

Give it a try and then post a link to a picture of yours below!  Good luck and happy upcycling!