A little project, or the benefits of yard sales



The bubblegum house from hell.

 Here's a little project I finished this past week. A friend and I went yard saleing a few weeks ago, and we both came back with some fabulous treasures. She ended up with a vintage chair that she scored for $2 (nice!) and I had a multitude of little weird things that I planned on turning into craft projects.  At one sale, I ended up filling up a box of random items, and this was one of them -- a Lil Kids Tiny Toy Shop. Hideously pink, but I love the form. Look at the little shelves! And the arched doorway. And the little roof! It had potential.

So I did what any self-respecting crafter would do: I hauled out the spray paint again. (Not that this is becoming a problem or anything. I do not have an addiction to spray painting things now. Nope.) And what color would convert this pink nightmare into something fun? Why yes, the answer is black. Very good! 



Pumpkins! Get your pumpkins here!

 Here's our converted house -- it's now a pumpkin stand. My first vision was to turn this into a little garden shed or something, but with the Halloween season fast approaching, it didn't take long to convert the idea into a holiday decoration.

Projects like this are a great way to use up the little doo-dads that you have kicking around.  Granted, I bought all the cute little pumpkins at my favorite craft store (Absolutely Everything in Topsfield, MA), but the rest I had in my stash. The patterned stuff is all paper and a fabric ribbon, the skull is a bead that I received in a swap, the bucket that the skull is sitting in is something I had picked up from Home Depot.  (Josh says there's an actual use for them, and thinks it's amusing that I saw them and said, "Aw, little pots!" They were in the washer and nail aisle.)



We've got big pumpkins and small pumpkins!

 I had moss kicking around from several other wreath projects, so that had to go in here. I like that it makes it feel like it's being overgrown.  Much like our front garden. (Ha.)



And some fancy stuff in bottles -- probably magic potions.

 I made the signs and window boards out of grungeboard from Ranger. The bottles I picked up at the AE yard sale this year, and they were originally clear so I colored them with alcohol inks and added glitter. The number 13 is actually a weird magnet thing that I also got at the yard sale, and I needed something there on the roof.  An unlucky number seemed appropriate.



 



Don't mind our broken windows!

  I have also had this stained glass window thing from Jolee's sitting around forever. It's one of those things that I have always thought was super cute (thus why I bought it probably about five years ago) and just couldn't find the right place to use it. It has finally found a home. (Or rather, a pumpkin stand.)

And there you have it -- trash to treasure. Well, I think it's treasure. It's certainly better than the bubblegum mansion I started out with. It was seriously fun to make, so for that reason alone I'm pretty happy with it. Josh seems to like it a lot too, so hopefully this is just another argument for the benefits of yard saleing. (See, I actually did something with some of the stuff I bought! It's not just junk I brought home!)