Xmas Crafternoon with NVCL

Christmas was very crafty and festive last year with 4 upcycling workshops with 3 awesome partners-in-craft.

First up was my Crafternoon with North Vancouver City Library. We repurposed popsicle sticks into Xmas trees, wine corks into snowmen and then we got festive with pipe cleaners. This is one of my sample projects using an upcycled wine cork then a skewer, popsicle sticks, buttons and coloured Sharpies.

Here's one of my crafty peeps with her popsicle stick tree.

This project was very elaborate with a strings of pipe cleaners to add some extra Xmas vibes.

One of my long time participants popped in to make this rose.

We even decorated plates into Xmas scenes.

A few awesome completed projects...

A very sweet dude with his Xmas tree...

Happy Christmas!

A gang of wine cork snowmen with quite the hats on...

More trees...

And here's one of my superstar crafters with one of her projects...

These girls sure had fun!

Love this tree made by this cutie patootie.

More and more trees...

A tree and a sleigh out of popsicle sticks...

Loads of craftiness to share here...

A few more of my regulars being awesome...

Someone got to keep Jose's latest origami masterpiece...

And I got this awesome Xmas card from one of my most favourite crafters Alec. Yay me!

Thanks everyone for coming out! Love my NVCL peeps!

Spooky Halloween upcycling with NVCL

We had one super spooky Crafternoon at North Vancouver City Library last October. We had 80+ participants making Halloween lanterns out of upcycled Mason jars. It was hectic but super fun!

Things got a bit nutty since we ran out of Mason jars and had to hit the Lions Gate Hospital Thrift Store to replenish our supplies.

Here are a couple of the lanterns with spiderwebs on them...

One of my regulars getting into the spirit of Halloween.

We used up all of the supplies... Glass jars, cardboard, beads...

I got to see a few of my long time participants which was super lovely!

And of course Jose the one and only craft renegade showed up.

Thanks to everyone who crafted with me... And big shout out to my helpers who scored more Mason jars since the event was so darn popular!

Latest blog posts for the Salvation Army Thrift Store

Here are my latest and greatest Creative Expert posts for the Salvation Army Thrift Store blog... Enjoy!

January 2019

• 10 Ways to Add Colour in 2019
• 5 Ways to Brighten a Thrifted Lamp

December 2018

• Tis the Season of Donating
• Getting Fit on a Budget
• DIY Twine Wrapped Vase

Stay tuned for upcoming posts! Also find me in the Salvation Army's print publication Faith & Friends. I love my partners-in-thrift at the Salvation Army!

Upcycled Mason jar lantern

I'm playing catch up on a bunch of blog posts. I'm a bit behind in sharing some of my latest DIYs, Crafternoons and other crafty awesomeness.

Here's a simple project I made for my Halloween Crafternoon with North Vancouver City Library in October. It's a Mason jar lantern.

First you'll need a Mason jar of any size. The circumference should be wide enough for a tea light.

Next you'll need orange tissue paper. Your first step is to tear small pieces of the tissue paper for decoupaging onto the Mason jar.

Use a sponge brush to coat the Mason jar with Mod Podge then add the pieces of tissue paper. Add another coat of Mod Podge on top of the tissue paper to smooth out the paper and to seal it to the Mason jar.

Keep adding tissue paper until the Mason jar is covered. Allow to dry.

Once dry, use a black Sharpie to add a jack-o'-lantern face.

Now you can insert your tea light. I used an LED tea light for my lantern.

This is a very simple DIY and it looks pretty darn spooky.

Gotta love easy peasy upcycling projects!

Getting my crafty mojo back with a quick chair refresh

I'm getting my crafty mojo back... January started with some fun blog posts for the Salvation Army Thrift Store blog and then this chair update. I found this lovely at Urban Repurpose. The wood needed to be refinished and the seat definitely needed to be reupholstered.

I decided to sand down the wood and add tung oil to it... The grain is gorgeous!

The seat was dingy and kind of ugly.

First up was removing the seat and then sanding and oiling the wood.

I found this gorgeous wool upholstery fabric at my local Salvation Army Thrift Store for $3.99. I also had a bit more of my FAV fabric find.

I went with my FAV fabric for the upholstery.

I love this fabric! And it looks great on the chair.

So so SO happy with the finished piece.

Next up is this lovely... The back rest is proving too difficult for me so I'm going to get a professional to do it.

It'll be the perfect partner for the other chair.

And I'm using my recent thrift find for the back rest. It's going to look awesome!

Here's to a crafty beginning to the new year!

Culture Days Crafternoons with NVRC

Back in September, I was part of a Culture Days Crafternoon with North Vancouver Recreation & Culture. I worked with my crafty peep Helen on combining projects. Helen was felting wool with participants and my project was to upcycle shower curtain rings into hangers for the completed wool pieces.

First up was gathering supplies... Tom at Urban Repurpose donated a ton of these shower curtain rings for the upcycling workshop.

I wrapped the rings with pipe cleaners and I was done with my sample...

Easy peasy funky hangers...

This is Helen... Aren't we total crafty cuties?

I had a second project refashioning donated cardboard boxes. We turned these into treasure chests using felts, stickers and a bit of bling.

Happy crafter with her treasure chest...

I also had circular boxes to restyle...

More completed projects...

Pom poms were a hit for these cutie patooties.

A sample felted wool project... So sweet!

Swanky duct tape and gems really worked for this project...

Thanks NVRC, Helen from Craft Naturally, Tom from Urban Repurpose and our workshop participants. It was a super fun day!