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.

Paper Napkin Decoupage Tables

I recently purchased a couple of tables from 

my local Goodwill and decided to redesign them.

Unfortunately I didn't get a before picture, but

they were both plain wood with a medium stain. 

I decided to do a paint and paper napkin decoupage

design on both of them. 

This is how the end table turned out. 

Here's a shot of the coffee table and end table together.

The paint color is a pretty robin's egg blue that

I picked up from the "oops" paint shelf at Home Depot for $2.00.

I can't go into Home Depot without checking out 

the "oops" paint shelf. It's a great way to stock up

on your paint supply. 

I watched a couple of Youtube videos on decoupaging 

with paper napkins. I gleaned a couple of take 

away tips from watching those tutorials and came

up with a tip or two of my own. 

Most decorative paper napkins have 3 layers. Try

and use just the very top, thin, almost transparent layer.

The second tip was to use a sheet of plastic wrap to

stretch over the top of your freshly glued design to

press out any air bubbles. 

I also discovered using

an artists paint brush and starting in the center

of your design (over the plastic wrap) to brush

out the air bubbles worked well. Using the

handle of the paint brush as a rolling pin

also worked to smooth out the design.

Happy Creating!