Trash to Treasure Craft Project - Wooden Scrapbooking Paper Organizer

The Photo Above is how it looked when I purchased it. Ewwww!

Last month we went to the Flea Market and while I was there I spotted this really ugly, puke green office paper organizer. It kind of looks like it came from a 1970's office and was used for holding mail or paper. Not really sure which! It was in terrible shape and was painted an ugly puke green color. It had a ton of nicks and scratches too!

The asking price was $10.00 but I asked the man if he would take $3.00 and it was sold! I brought that thing home and got to work on it. I knew it would make the perfect wooden wall shelf to hold all of my 8 1/2" by 11" sheets of scrapbooking paper.

We are still remodeling my sewing & craft room and I know this will look fabulous in there once we are done.

The first thing I did was wipe it down...it was filthy dirty! Once it was dry, I took a palm sander around all four of it's sides. I couldn't get the palm sander into each of the cubby holes so I ignored those during the sanding process.

Once it was done being sanded, I took a spray can of white primer and sprayed the entire thing with two cuts of primer. I left it dry for 24 hours. Once it was dry, I painted the entire thing with white matte indoor paint. Once try, I sprayed it with an acrylic sealer. I left the sealer dry for 24 hours and it was done!

The Photo above shows the new and improved scrapbooking paper organizer! Yay!

As soon as my craft/sewing room is finished, this will be hung up onto the wall near my scrapbooking table. Now all of my smaller scrapbooking papers will be organized by color hue and perhaps size. Each cubby hole will hold an entire 8 1/2" by 11" sheet. Yay!!!

I need to hit the Flea Market again next week and look for some more things that I can transfer into useful things in my craft & sewing room. Enjoy!

Craft Project - Scrabble Tile Framed Wall Hanging



My future son-in-law is turning into a really crafty guy and today, I just had to show you all what he made for my daughter as a Christmas present this past year. Even though he gave it to her for Christmas, it would make a great Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Easter, Wedding or Birthday gift too!

Scrabble Tile Framed Wall Hanging

Supplies List:

Wooden Frame (your choice of size, his is very large)
White Photo Mat (or color of your choice)
Piece of Heavy Duty Cardstock (color of choice to fit inside the photo opening of the mat)
Lots of Wooden Scrabble Tiles
Glue Dots ( adhesive used in scrapbooking & cardmaking)

Directions: For the project, he spelled out their names, daughter's name and words that are related to love, trust, friendship, etc. (sorry for the flash in my photo). He spelled out the words he wanted and then arranged them onto the black piece of heavy duty cardstock using the glue dots on the back of each wooden tile to hold them in place. He then took the left-over wooden Scrabble tiles and just randomly placed those letters onto the white photo mat as shown in the photograph above. He then assembled everything and slipped it all into a black wooden picture frame. On the backside of the frame, he wrote a love letter to my daughter directly onto the back of the frame which is super sweet!

My daughter has her new piece of handmade "art work" hanging up in their family room and I think it's absolutely GORGEOUS! My photo doesn't do it any justice thanks to my flash on the camera bouncing off of the glass. I will try to get a better photo of it and update this blog post when I do.

Wood Staining Made Simple with Flood.com

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Flood® Wood Care for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Since we have moved into the new house, we have been busy remodeling and getting everything ready indoors.  Now that Spring is here, it is time to get the outdoor projects going!  One this that I would love to have is a beautiful overhang with a comfortable wood bench for lounging, stained in a wonderful rich redwood color, just like in the pictures.  I have the perfect spot in my backyard that I am going to have my hubby build the lattice style overhang so we can have some shade from the hot sun.  The beautiful bench would be a welcome place to sit and relax to enjoy the cooler evenings.

Thankfully the wood stain from Flood® Wood Care makes it easy to finish a beautiful project like the ones I want, super fast with beautiful results. Flood means Staining Made Simple because they are designed to restore, protect and beautify natural woods and other surfaces. I was over on their site looking at all of the awesome projects, inspiration and DIY tips for starting and finishing a staining project.  They have a Staining made simple guide to help you get the results you want quickly and easily.  Check it out on their site.

Plus you can enter the Flood Better Backyard Sweepstakes for a chance to win a $1,500 gift card or one of 12 $10 gift cards given away daily! All you need to do is like Flood® Wood Care on Facebook to enter, and share the sweepstakes for more entries! Also, follow Flood Wood Care on Twitter for helpful tips about staining and other ways to make the most of your outdoor living space.
Take a few minutes to plan your next staining project with the help for Flood.  We did and I cannot wait to see the end result!

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Craft Project - Beautiful Beach Craft Nature Bowl for your Home Decor

My husband and I are pretty passionate about traveling, so when we hit the road for a vacation, day-trip or just go out hiking for the day, we look for natural things in our environment to collect and bring back home.

Twenty years ago we started this "nature" or "natural" collection of things and over the years we have collected things like: duck feathers, bird feathers, pine cones, acorns, dried flower petals, sea shells, small river rocks, small pieces of drift wood, etc. If the item has a hard surface like a seashell or river rock, we will take a Sharpie marker and write the date onto it along with where we found it.

We place all of these "nature items" in what we call our "Family Beach Nature Bowl" which is an old pasta jar with wooden lid. It's quite large and at one time, it held 1 gallon of dried pasta noodles. We simply washed it out and decorated the bowl with some dried raffia to keep with our "nature" theme.

Two years ago my hubby found a dollar bill on the beach in New Jersey and he added the dollar bill into the bowl too...although, I have been trying to remove it since it's not a natural thing, he insists that it stay within the bowl! LOL

My photo of our Family Nature Bowl looks small, but trust me, it's a very large old glass pasta container. It's a great little "family craft project" that won't cost you a dime since you are recycling an old glass container and filling it up with mementos that you find out in nature.

We add small items to our collection every year and it's always fun to sit & talk about the things we have already collected and the new things that we are adding to it. We keep ours sitting on our fireplace mantle most of the year and then during the holidays we move it onto a side table, so that our mantle can be dressed up for the Christmas holiday.

If you love to travel and/or spend a lot of time outdoors (hiking, camping, walking the beach, etc.) then this is one easy and frugal home decor craft project that you can start right away and build upon it over the years. Enjoy!

Spring Gardening with Scotts Florida Select Mulch

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts Miracle-Gro for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Now that Spring has arrived, I am itching to get outside and work on my flower beds and vegetable garden. Spring arrived a little early here in Pennsylvania and I need to get in-gear and get my gardening started.

My Spring flowers just popped up out of the ground 2 weeks ago and next week we will be planting our annuals. I ordered a slew of petunias, impatients, gladiolas, lillies and other flowers which will be arriving soon. Once they are in the ground, I will need to get busy mulching.

I have been looking at the Scotts Nature Scapes mulch as an option for my garden this year. I got online and found out that it comes in 3 colors (classic black, sierra red and deep forest brown). It's made from all natural forest products with no waste wood. This type of mulch is great for maintaining moisture, preventing weeds and helps your landscape look beautiful all year long.

If you live in Florida, you can check out the Scotts Florida Select Natural Eucalyptus Mulch which is proudly made in the U.S.A. Eucalyptus mulch is a sustainable alternative to Cypress and it re-grows 4-times faster making it a great eco-choice! I am all about sustainable gardening this year! How about you? Plus, you can use the mulch around your trees, shrubs, in flower beds & even in your garden! You do want to keep it away from your home's foundation and don't place it right up against the tree trunks.

What is really cool about the Eucalyptus Mulch is that it's Florida plantation-grown and it's very easy to use. A 2 cu. ft. bag will cover a 6 to 12 sq. ft. area...that is a lot of coverage from just one bag. You can find the Scotts products nationwide in Home and Garden stores, so make sure you check them out.

What kind of gardening supplies do you need this year? I got my shovels, bulbs, fertilizer, rakes, flower seeds and everything ready to go...except for my mulch!

So lets hear from you! What kind of Spring gardening are you working on this year?

Crayola Experience - World's Only Interactive Crayola Family Attraction

Many of the children's craft projects that we publish here on the Passionate About Crafting blog involve crayons or some type of Crayola product. Today, we wanted to share with all of you some information about the Grand Opening of The Crayola Experience, coming soon!

To celebrate their 110th birthday, the 8 original crayons are throwing a birthday bash at the new fun-omenal Crayola Experience, the world's only interactive Crayola family attraction. Right now, they're out on a colorful adventure to spread the news, and you're invited to join the fun!

How can you join in on the fun? You can FOLLOW the crayons on their adventure, LEARN more about each color and enter to WIN a trip for 4 to celebrate their birthday and the Grand Opening of the all new Crayola Experience this coming May, 2013! Visit the Crayola Facebook page and click "enter now" for your chance to be first in line when the Crayola Experience reopens. The new Crayola Experience features four floors of new interactive exhibits and one-of-a-kind attractions that will bring the magic of color and your child's creativity to life! The winner will be among the first to experience the fun, along with a three- night, all-expenses paid stay. It's an experience your kids will never forget - and neither will you! Disclosure: The great folks over at Crayola provided the information & graphic for this blog post. Thanks Crayola!

Seashells and Candle Beach Coastal Cottage Table Centerpiece



I needed a new table centerpiece for the upcoming Summer season and since I decorate most of my home in a coastal theme, I decided to make one myself. My entire centerpiece cost me only $11.00 to make and I am pretty happy with the results. In addition, it took me less than 5 minutes to construct and I personally think it looks really nice sitting on my dining room table.

We do a lot of entertaining outdoors during the Spring and Summer seasons and I will be moving it outdoors as the need arises. Here is how I made it.

Seashells and Candle Table Centerpiece

1 Round Natural Palm Plate
1 Tall Battery Operated Pillar Candle
2 Double AA Batteries
1 Bag of Natural Seashells

You can find natural Palm Plates at various retailers, I got mine online from Marx Foods who sells Palm Plates in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. I also purchased my tall battery operated pillar candle online and forget where I purchased it but it stands 6" tall and takes 2 double AA batteries. I purchased my bag of natural seashells at my local dollar store.



You simply place your battery operated pillar candle in the center of the palm plate and then stack up your seashells around it. That's it...nothing that is time consuming or hard to do. I had some leftover seashells and I glued them onto some dollar store clear acrylic napkin rings to match my table centerpiece.

Now to find some nice fabric placemats to go along with it and I will be pretty happy! Enjoy!