Tractor Seat

Here's another case of turning someone else's free trash into your treasure. 

Some people can look at a pile of broken bits and have a vision for something fabulous in their home.  My aunt is one of those people.  She loves anything that is old, natural, and worn out.  If it has rust...she likes it.  So, when someone got rid of their old busted up tractor...my aunt saw a perfect shelf in the seat.  She cleaned it up, propped the seat on a handmade rug and uses it to hold holiday decorations or whatever strikes her fancy.  Not that you come across tractor seats often, but if you happen to...here's one idea for putting it to use, with a touch of style.  By the way, the cute little handmade rug that it is propped on was made by my aunt as well.  It is a sheet rug and you can see how she made that by checking out the blog about it.  Click here to find my post explaining how to crochet your old sheets.

Shelf Pumpkins

Sure you can buy lots of pre-fab witches, wolves, monsters, and ghosts.  But, Crafty Life and Style hopes you are filling up the house with handmade Halloween decorations this year.  If you like to leave subtle little reminders of the season around the house...here is one idea, shelf pumpkins. 

Here's what you need:

1-12x12 piece of orange fabric.

2-5x6 pieces of green fabric (or infant socks)

1-black marker

1-scoop of bird seed

1-package of cotton balls or other stuffing

3-tan rubber bands

Several strips of tan and green raffia

Glue gun
Scissors

Sewing machine and associated products optional

First lay out your 12x12 orange fabric.  Place the scoop of bird seed in the center and spread into a small circle for the base of your pumpkin.  This will help weigh down your pumpkin and hold it in place on your shelf.  Fill the center with cotton and begin to lift the corners of your orange fabric, bunching up the sides to form a round ball.  Keep pushing down your cutton as you pull the fabric tighter and stuff as much filling in as you need until the pumpkin is the desired size.  You will have extra fabric on top.  Just wrap a rubber band tight around the top to hold your pumpkin together.  Then, cut the excess fabric, leaving a small "stem" at the the top of your pumpkin.  Now, wrap the raffia around the stem, tie it in place, and reinforce with glue.  Now you are ready for the legs.

There are a couple of options for the legs, depending on whether or not you have a sewing machine.  If you want to try to sew it...here's what you can do:  Lay a 5x6 piece of green fabric.  Fold it the long way, with the inside facing out.  In order to create a point on the toes, you need to draw a sew line similar to what I show below.

Once you are done, flip the fabric so the inside is back on the inside.  Put some cotton in the botton of the foot.  Then, tie it off with a rubber band about 1 1/2 inches from the bottom.  Tie raffia around the rubber band, use glue to secure it and make a ribbon with the raffia.  Repeat the process for the second leg.  Once the legs are ready, fold the legs above the feet until their flat.  Flip the pumpkin over and sew the flat end of legs to the rump of your orange ball.  Put the pumpkin right side up and draw your face on as the final step, so everything is even.  If you don't have a sewing machine and want to avoid sewing the legs...you can try to ad-lib with a pair of cute infant socks or stockings.  In the end, you have a cute little pumpkin to sit on a shelf at work, home, or in your car.  Thanks to Crafty Grandma for this one.

Dumpster Diving

Get your gloves, a flashlight, a face mask, and most important...an open mind.  This is the ultimate recycling.  If you love going green, dumpster driving may make you feel like you are saving the world one recyclable at a time.

A friend recently confessed to me that she joins several other people to scour select neighborhoods for high-class trash.  The "pickers", as they call themselves, go on the hunt when municipalities schedule their bulk trash pick-up days once a year.  People clear out big old items like chairs, toilets, and patio furniture...then throw them to the curb for haulers to take away....unless my friend gets to the pile first.  This is a slowly emerging nationwide movement by green-minded and downright thrifty folk to find furniture, toys, tools, and anything else they can rehab and keep or sell for a little extra dough. 

These are not people who are living off of the bread line.  They are resourceful and their dumpster diving is carefully organized, competitive, and strategic.  Divers start with a map, identifying a target neighborhood scheduled for bulk pick-up each week.  They hook up a trailer, grab anti-bacterial soap, and pack a couple of high-powered flashlights because some of the best finds come out at night.  Some pickers are focused on gathering scrap metal, others want things for their own homes, and some just look for items to wash up and sell online or at a garage sale.  The nice homeowners even package up extra pieces and leave signs to let pickers know if their items are in working condition.

My goal was to find a project I could get crafty with, to prove that you can literally make trash look lovely for just a couple of dollars.  I spotted a simple wooden box with tiny shelves and glass doors on top of one of the first trash heaps we passed.  I was sold.  Here's what I used to fix it up:

Supplies:
Mod Podge
A small brush
2 pieces of 12x12 paper
A paper trimmer
Scissors

I picked a bright and glittery paper with bold colors because I knew I'd be using the display case to store ribbon in my craft room where anything goes.  You can pick any paper with colors suitable to the room where you'd display your project.  I measured the wood surfaces I wanted to replace with my patterned paper and cut strips using a paper trimmer.  I pre-cut all my paper in advance so I didn't have to worry about my mod podge  drying out before I was ready to apply the paper.  I spread a generous layer of MP on the surface of the left door, quickly placed my strips...smoothing them out with my fingers to prevent air bubbles underneath, and I topped it off with another layer of MP to seal my paper in place.  When the MP dries, the white streaks become clear.

My paper was two-sided and I decided to incoporate both patterns.  I also put some paper inside the shelving to add depth and layers.  Admittedly I had all of these supplies on hand, so it didn't cost me a thing to make this project.  Since I used so few supplies I can't imagine it would cost a thrifty person more than $2 to make and I spent about 2 hours putting it together while I watched television one night.  Dumpster diving certainly isn't for everyone...but you can rehab your own trash.  Next time you prepare to throw something out or put it in a garage sale because you are sick of it...consider sprucing it up.  You can give it a whole new look with some scissors, paper, and mod-podge.  You just might turn that trash into cash.