DIY Time Zone Clocks

Here is the latest addition to my master bedroom! I decided to decorate this room with maps and eclectic items to give it a travel theme since I love to travel. One night I was laying in bed looking up at the drop ceiling leading to my master bathroom, and cue lightbulb moment as I thought, "That would be the perfect place for a clock!" Then for some strange reason my brain took that a step further and  I thought, "Or maybe 3 clocks??" And that's what sparked the idea of time zone clocks, which fits perfectly into my travel theme!

The first thing I did was buy my clocks! I got an amazing deal on these clocks from target: 

$3.99 each in stores! 

When I first decided to do this project I immediately thought global. My original plan was to set my 3 time zones to: 1. Plantation, FL (duh!) 2. Sydney, Australia and 3. Johannesburg, South Africa. And originally thats what I did. Then I had to tackle the problem of how to label/indicate the time zones on the clocks. So at first I made some decal lettering to simply spell out the names of the cities:

I apologize for the quality of this photo :( It was taken with my old phone, good riddance! 

But, after putting it up I wasn't as crazy about it as I thought I would be :(

So, I took it all down except for the center clock, and it stayed like that for about a month. 

Then cue second lightbulb!! One day when my gaze meet the singular remaining clock  I thought, "I wonder if I could take that apart". Being a 4$ plastic clock from target I figured I probably could. So I took it down, and after some struggle I got the plastic dome off the front. Ten more minutes of struggle and I had the domes and hands off of all three clocks!

This is when I decided to get more personal with these clocks. As I have mentioned before I am from Wisconsin (best state!) and I am not sure if I have mentioned, but my boyfriend is from Puerto Rico. Granted there is not much of a time difference between Wisco, FL, and PR (only 1 hr place-to-place!) BUT it is a difference, so I ran with it! 

So, (finally, I know!) Here's what I did:

1. I printed simple outlines of my three places to use as stencils: 

2. I cut out my stencils, traced them on bright blue card stock (6 pack on sale for $0.14 at target!!!) and cut out my states (you could skip this step entirely and print straight onto your card stock if you have faith in your printer to run the card stock through without jamming, clearly I have no such faith in mine!):

3. Next I Mod Podged the states onto my clocks. Florida was the easiest because it just so happens the state of FL is the perfect shape to fit on a clock face, who knew?! For the other two states I ended up having to take the battery pack off of the back so the middle part of the clock that holds the hands wasn't in the way:

Then I was able to glue my paper flat and cut out the center hole with my Xacto knife. 

4. Last, I reassembled my clocks, and set the times!!

I love the pop of color the clocks add to this area of the room :)

Close-up of the best one :)

Florida and Puerto Rico don't look too shabby either!

I love how these turned out! And the best part is the whole project cost only $12.14!! 

Make It Your Own:

This idea could be customized to any state, country or city. In the case of a city, a cut-out could be made of the country or continent where it is located and then a star or another marker placed where the city is. 

Or, instead of a silhouette, a city or city code could be spelled out on the clock-face. 

The possibilities are endless!!  

Thanks for stopping by, 

-Liz :)

Flea Market Finds

Yayy for Flea Markets!!!!

Today my boyfriend and I ventured to a local monthly flea market here in South Florida (ok, I kind of dragged him there, but he liked it more than he wants to admit!) As far as flea markets go this was a pretty good one with an eclectic mix of old and new with everything from...

Jewelry...

to Books...

to Glassware...

to Collectibles...

to an entire booth dedicated to Salt and Pepper Shakers :)

(And yes those captions were ombre, thanks for noticing!!)

So, with so much to choose from its safe to say that deciding what to take home was a challenge, but I like a good challenge!! After about an hour and a half of winding up and down the rows, and after losing my bf about 5 times (it was so crowded!!) I walked out with a few cool trinkets that only set me back $6! (and that was without any haggling!) Check out my finds:

1.

I love old bottles! This is a really cool old glue bottle that is marked on top with the manufacturer, "KWIK STIK" and two patent dates: DEC.21.15 and JUL.15.19! Aka this bottle is from 1919!
Cost: $1

2.

This is a vintage advertisement for Cream Separators!! I love that I have no idea what I cream separator is, but according to the man who sold it to me as far as old advertisements go, cream separator ads are the "cream of the crop" (no pun intended of course!)
Cost: $1

3. 

I don't have too much info on this one besides the obvious, that it's an old (probably hand-colored) litho of a women at a writing desk. It was just so pretty I couldn't pass it up!
Cost: $1

4.  

This is probably my favorite find of the day! It's a cast iron, hand-painted toy soldier. I have another old iron toy soldier I got at a previous flea market, so it looks like I am starting a collection!
Cost: $2

5. 

Last but not least, is this cute novelty ring! It's not old or valuable but cute, so why not :)
Cost: $1

The last thing I got at this flea market was an advertisement for another flea market next weekend! I think I might be going that one solo, my bf might be flea marketed out for awhile! :) 

So until next time!!

Thanks for stopping by, 

-Liz :)

Vintage Flashcard Closet Doors

In my master bedroom I have a corner closet with two sets of white sliding doors, and although I LOVE the closet space, the large door panels monopolize an entire corner of my bedroom (so much wasted design space!!).

I also have two packs of vintage flashcards that I found at a thrift store back home, which I love but just couldn't find the right place for them.

And then it hit me! My two problems could solve each other!!

Here is my solution:

I used small binder clips to clip each card to the "shutters" on my closet doors.

These are alphabet cards with the letter and a graphic on each one so I hung them in order!

Close-up of b-f! These graphics are so adorable, definitely puts a smile  on my face every time I walk by :)

Close-up s-w! I love the patina on the "s",  And turtles are my fav!!

I love how this turned out! Super playful, but still subtle since the cards are neutral colors. And perfect for me as an apartment dweller; easy, and damage-free to install. 

Thanks for stopping by 

-Liz :)

Simple Stone Plant Labels

Last week I posted about my new container gardens, which are growing great by the way! Yayy! But in my herb garden I still had the herb labels that come with the plants, which although informative are not super aesthetically pleasing! So, the obvious answer of course was to d.i.y. some! I have seen a number of these done before on other blogs and pinterest, using everything from popsicle sticks to spoons, but I wanted to keep mine more natural so I decided to use...

Rocks!!!

It doesn't get much simpler than this! And in terms of $$, well rocks are free!!!

All you need besides your rocks is a paint pen of any color. I like the look of dark rocks with white lettering but you could do any color you want!

If you are worried about the paint washing off from watering, just give them a quick spray with clear sealant or brush a little outdoor Mod Podge over the writing once dry.

Rosemary :)

I used a larger rock I found right outside my door to make a cute label for my succulent garden as well :)

Even collecting the rocks was fun! Would be a great activity for children as well, take them on a nature walk/scavenger hunt and have them help you find some pretty, smooth rocks! :) Or just take a leisurely walk yourself and don't forget to smell those roses!!

Thanks for stopping by

-Liz :)

Lovely Lacey Wall Art

I have previously mentioned my struggle with my master bathroom. This was the one room in my apartment that i just could not seem to develop a clear concept or even color scheme to tie the room together. I think I considered just about every color to "pop" off my black and gray chevron shower curtain from yellows and oranges to blues and greens, I even considered going totally girly despite my boyfriend's protests to the land of purples and pinks!

And then I got an idea! The lace design of the washi tape I used on my medicine cabinet (see here), inspired me to use more lace! Check it out:

By painting the lace (see below), I was able to set a color scheme (blues and greens win!) while keeping it modern and not too girly!!

So for anyone out there who likes my lacey wall art and wants to know how to recreate it, heres how i did it:

1) First I bought some lace! I got mine from Joann's where you can buy lace by the yard. I got 1/2 yard of each kind of lace (each cost between $1.99-$2.99/yd). My total cost for lace was only $5!!

2) Next I cut my lace to size. I knew I wanted to mat it to 8x10" so I cut my pieces to about 9" to have a little wiggle room.

3) Next I painted my lace using a pouncer to dab on the paint like so:

4) Once all my pieces were painted I arranged them on a piece of white cover stock and secured the ends with a little double-stick tape

5) Last I got a pre-matted white-on-white frame from target ($17), matted and framed my artwork and voila!

Close- up :)

Looks great with my towels too! lol

Bathroom panorama! Love how the colors pop off the white-on-white frame 

Now I have unique statement piece to build this room off of :) And for less than $25!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Liz :)

My Inspiration Board

Hi again!

In this post I want to share my super-quick upcycled thrift store cork board that I am now calling, My Inspiration Board! lol. Which is basically, well... a board of inspiration! If you are anything like me (which I am assuming you are since you are reading crafting blogs :) ) then you probably also love thumbing through the latest issues of design/crafting magazines, like HGTV magazine, DIY magazine, BH&G, etc! And again like me, you probably see an awesome project that you know you want to try one day, but when that day comes, low & behold you seem to have conveniently misplaced the article :(! If this is sounding familiar than an inspiration board is the answer to your problem. Check out how I transformed a $2 cork board from Goodwill into my Inspiration board:

First of all, I would like to apologize that I do not have a before picture for this project! I just got a new phone (Galaxy S4, yesss!) and although all of my pics from my previous phone were backed up on google + it seems like a couple were lost somehow :(

Anyways!!! All I did to transform this board was to simply make a random geometric pattern with a ruler and a gold paint pen! I told you it was simple, but cool nonetheless! I also added an embellishment to the top:

My Mom found this eagle at a rummage sale along with some other old decorative pieces! Thanks Mom!! I did have to do a little work on it tho, it originally looked like this:

Kind of an off-white, taupey color, and it still had a lot of extra plastic around it that had to be broken off (along with a few pieces of the eagle itself, which had to be glued back on, oops!) But then after a quick coat of flat black spray paint it makes the perfect topper to my Inspiration Board! And how did I attach it you ask? Well, I didn't! It simply sits on top of the board leaning against the wall, that way if I ever want to use it for something else, no problemo! 

So last step obviously is to tack up some clippings from my fav magazines:

I also tried to group similar clippings together, for example this section is all ideas for how to display large groups of like items 

Love it! Now all my ideas are organized and I know right where to find them :)

Liz :)

Here's a Magnet, There's a Magnet, Everywhere's a Magnet!!

Hey!!

This post is all about, you guessed it, magnets!! This is such a simple idea, that you will never buy decorative magnets again!!

All you need is magnet backs like these adhesive magnet circles from Aleene's:

These are great for easily making magnets, they are super adhesive and don't need any extra glue to hold tight. They also come in stripes and rectangular sheets for custom shapes!

And any trinkets or odds and ends you find at thrift stores, antique stores, on sale at big box stores, or just lying around your own house! 

So just peel and stick your magnets to the back of your object and voila!

Check out what I used:

I used large wine corks from old wine barrels, old liquer bottle caps (from an antique store), and the metal western themed magnets were once button covers that I found at a thrift store :)

This adorable elephant magnet is one of about 12 old cracker jack prizes that I got for about $2 off of etsy! 

So start digging through those junk drawers and find some tiny treasures worthy of magnet status to personalize your fridge!

-Liz :)

More Upcycled Planters!

Hi again!

I am back in Florida after a month long vacation at home in Wisconsin! Sadly, when my boyfriend picked me up at the airport he hesitantly told me about the tragedy that had occurred in my absence... all my plants had died :( lol. Yes, worse things have happened, and yes I kind of expected this (even with my regular reminders to water them!), but nonetheless I couldn't help feel a small sense of loss! But with any loss comes opportunity to rebuild, so thats what I did!! This time instead of using many small containers for my garden I have decided to consolidate (so much easier to water!!).

My plan this time was to have three main containers, 1) a herb garden, 2) a succulent garden and 3) a flower box.

For the flower box I will be using a vintage planter that needs a little work, so stay tuned for the before and after on that one!

For my herb garden I decided to use a gorgeous vintage 7up divided crate that I found at an estate sale for $10 back in Wisconsin! Check it out:

Love the graphic! Even though its a little faded, just adds to the vintage charm :)

Four herbs so far: boxwood basil, rosemary, parsley, and peppermint! This container can hold up to 10 (the two middle ones on the sides have handles cut into them so would not be able to hold enough dirt, but 10 is plenty for me!)

And for my succulent garden I used an old wooden box (I believe an old tool box?) that I have had for awhile:

I used mostly succulents I already had that were still in their original plastic containers, and bought a few more to round out the garden :)

Close-up!

I also had to replace the plant in my hanging planter that I made from an old egg basket:

This beautiful bunch of yellow flowers looks much sturdier than the original white flowers I had planted (crossing my fingers I can keep them alive!!)

Close-up of hanging crystals! 

A little more inspiration for your container gardens at home :)

-Liz :)

Washi Tape Medicine Cabinet

Hey!

So the only room left in my apartment that is still pretty much untouched save for a couple small projects that I have already featured on this blog, (DIY Decals and Canvas Quote Tutorial) is my master bathroom (pretty much a standard size bathroom but it is "en suite" so thats pretty fancy!). Lately, I have been kind of obsessed with washi tape so this morning while brushing my teeth (inspiration strikes at the strangest times, am I right?) I got and idea!

To the right of the mirror above the sink in my bathroom is a medicine cabinet that isn't too bad on a scale from horrible to normal medicine cabinets. Instead of the awful mirror or laminate door it has a white shutter looking door, and this is what got me thinking! Why not add just a little something to take this medicine cabinet from standard to greatness, as far as medicine cabinets are concerned!

So here it is:

:)!

Wider angle for the full effect! And sweet reflection!

So as you can see I took advantage of the "shutter-like" door and striped it with this awesome craft tape from recollections that looks like black lace :). Sorry I forgot to take a before picture, but I promise this is a great improvement!!

If you are wondering how I did it, its so simple!!

First I just ripped off strips of tape slightly bigger than my slats and adhered them:

Then after I got all the pieces on, I got my Xacto knife and trimmed the edges like so:

And then Voila!! Super easy!! And great for renters like me, it will stay put but when its time to take it off, the tape isn't so adhesive that it will remove the finish!

Close-up of this awesome washi tape! Recollections brand, I got it at Michaels :)

Hope you enjoy!! Go and see what you can washi-fy! 

-Liz :)