Recycled Gift Card Wall Hanging

Part of my materials stash consists

of discarded gift cards from a coffee house. 

Every day dozens of these used plastic

 gift cards end up in the garbage.

I saw it firsthand when I worked there, 

and also saw potential where others saw trash.

This is how my collection started, 

and I asked others to

collect them for me too. 

I thought of using them for a mosaic art piece, 

and may do that in the future. 

For now, this is my coffee

star wall hanging. 

I used a strong pair of scissors, some super glue, 

and a hidden loop of fish line in the back for a hanger. 

I do have a few collector

cards that I'm saving for a special

center piece that I can work my design around.

Untangling the Cords

I have an old tin popcorn bucket under my sink where I keep our hair dryer and curling irons. 

It gets a little tiring pulling out the hair dryer only to find it's tangled around every styling implement you own. Especially so when you're in a hurry to get ready in the morning. 

It makes no difference if I wrap up the cords after every use, unless everyone in my household is doing the same. Can you hear my throat clearing in an accusatory manner?

My solution was to save a few empty toilet paper rolls to keep the little buggers separated. I covered them with scrap paper and. . . voila!

I know you're thinking, "This lady has WAY too much time on her hands!" 

It really didn't take me but 10 minutes total. I let the paper dry in place with clothes pins and I think it's a pretty cute solution to an irritating problem. 

Now the question is whether or not the rest of the family will cooperate. 

Baby Jesus Ornaments

The following are some other Christmas 

ornaments I've been working on. 

One of my neighbors has a bottle tree

that drops a lot of pods this time of year. 

Instead of stepping over them on my

way to the mailbox, I decided to

pick up a few and use

them for a project.

I made several "Baby Jesus"

ornaments out of them. 

I took a wooden bead and hand screwed

in an eye screw to give me a little bit

of a body so I'd have something to wrap.

I then wrapped the eye hook with a small

amount of batting and muslin and tucked

the little baby inside the pod. 

The face was added and some ribbon

to hang and the ornament was finished.

I'd recommend paint instead

of a sharpie. As you can

see the sharpie eyes bled a little. 

Isn't he cute?

The following picture will show

you how I packaged the ornaments

for gift giving.

It makes a very inexpensive, yet I think

thoughtful gift.