How-to Tuesday: Organizing Your Makeup Stash for $25 or Less

One of my most popular posts to date has been my Keurig K-Cup Storage tutorial from 2012. It has been awhile since I have put one together, and I found another great use for Sterilite plastic drawer sets - organizing makeup! This is crazy simple, and can be expanded (as mine is) or toned down (to a mini version) to meet your needs. For someone who looked at the prices of Kardashian-style acrylic organizers, but still had a need, these drawers are a lifesaver.

So, what do you need? I have a Sterilite drawer set like this one (the large one in the above photo), which I found on Amazon. I picked mine up at Target, for around $13. If you have a large collection like mine, you can pick up a smaller one for under $10. All that I did here is figure out the best way to organize each part, and was off to the races from there. I keep my brushes in drinking glasses set on top of the organizers on my bathroom counter.

In the large drawer set, I have, from top to bottom: foundation, blushes, BB creams, and other skincare items. In the second drawer, I have loose eyeshadows, eyeliners, and brow products. The two inserts are $3 organizer drawers I picked up in the bathroom decorating aisles at Target, and I use them to hold eyeliners, brow products, and mascara. The bottom drawer is for eyeshadow palettes. Just enough space.

I no longer have to worry about eyeshadow palettes everywhere, and have a much, much easier time keeping everything organized.


In the small chest of drawers, I have lip products (lipstick, gloss, etc.), skincare and toiletry items like toothpaste, and skincare items like face masks.

Like I said, if your collection is not as big as mine, you don't need to worry about the second chest of drawers, but I thought it would come in handy if I ever needed to stack them together.

There you have it! A quick and easy way to organize your cosmetics on a budget - and all it takes is a trip to your local Target store (or Amazon.com shopping cart)!

How-To Tuesday: Ladder Yarn Necklaces

A few months ago, I taught myself how to make ladder yarn necklaces, which have gotten pretty popular on the craft show circuit! In case you aren't familiar, they look like this:

All it is is just yarn, crocheted into a chain, tied together and adjustable via a bead in the back. While I was thinking of ideas for a HTT post, I thought this would be the perfect thing.

So, what you need is:

• ball of ladder yarn (also called trellis yarn)
• ruler or yardstick
• scissors
• crochet hooks (large and small)
• beads with a hole large enough to fit yarn's ends

Once you get all of that together, we can get started:

Cut five 2 1/2 yard pieces of yarn. I like to roll them up into themselves as I go, so I can keep track of how many I have. Also, since I make more than one at a time, it keeps me organized.

Measure 9 inches from one end, and tie a slip knot. 

Use a crochet hook and the chain stitch (I found this YouTube link to help), chain until you reach 9 inches from the other side, and knot.

Repeat four more times, until all four strands are completed.

Hold all five strands in one hand, pull knots until they are even, knot together. Repeat on other side.

                                     

Use small crochet hook to pull ends of yarn through the bead. Knot after you reach the bead, cut strands evenly.

                       

There you have it! Let me know if you try it out in the comments!

How-To Tuesday: Instagram Photo Display

Why hello there! Fancy meeting you here! I have been getting back into the craft season, and haven't had any time to dream up new How Tos, but I thought a simple one featuring something I did in my own home would be great as well. And the best part? It's pretty cheap, and easy, too!

All you need are:

• Printed Instagram photos
• Nails
• Yarn
• Miniature clothespins

Prior to a few months ago, you had to use online services to print your Instagram photos. Now, you can upload and edit photos on your phone using a couple of options: the Walgreens app (which I couldn't get to work myself), or the Printicular app. After trying to use the Walgreens app over and over, I used the Printicular app and in one shot, had my photos uploaded and ready to pick up in an hour. And they aren't super expensive, either, at about $0.39 per print. And they look great!

The rest of the supplies you should just have around the house (besides the clothespins, which I picked up at Jo-Anns for relatively cheap). Now, for the steps!

1. Decide where you want to place your photos, and pound your first nail in the wall. Use a level to place the second as far away as you want it, but don't pound it in all the way.
2. Tie a knot in your yarn around the first nail, and extend it to the other nail and knot the other end, as well. 
3. Pound in your nails the rest of the way.
4. With your photos and your clothespins, pin as many of your photos on the yarn as you want.
5. Repeat if you want to do a second side!

See, I told you it was easy! Let me know if you try it out and what happens - I would love to see!

How to Tuesday: Cat Tower Re-Do

A few years ago, a neighbor of mine built a great cat tower for my cat kids. All real wood and carpet, it has been a joy to have in my home. Of course, though, as the years have passed and the carpets deteriorated with the constant scratching of multiple sets of nails, the posts were looking a little worse for wear (the carpet completely worn down to the posts in a couple spots). Our carpenters at work were going to re-cover the tower for me last year, but I didn't want to take it out of my place, even for a day. So, I took to Google and figured out that I could re-cover the carpet posts with sisal rope fairly inexpensively, and it sure beat buying a piece of fiberboard crap cat furniture that I (and they) would hate every day and that wouldn't last nearly as long.

So, I set off collecting supplies! Here's the list of things you'll need:

Sisal Rope
Hammer and Small Nails (or staple gun)
Box Knife
Wood Glue

Seems pretty simple, right? What I would do, though, is before you pick up the rope, especially, comparison shop! The day I had the idea I spent $5.99 each for balls of 50 feet, and a couple of days later found balls of 100 feet at Lowe's for about $1 more! As for the rope, I picked the 5/8" diameter, but you could go smaller - though you'll need more. How much you need will depend on what you're trying to cover - for the front posts on mine, it took right around 150-200 feet. Everything else is pretty easy to find. I chose to use Gorilla Wood Glue, but any wood glue should suffice. As for the small nails, anything less than 1" should be fine - I used all small nails out of a picture hanging kit that I picked up at Target and had no issues.

Here we go, the steps:

1. Rip the old carpet off of what you're trying to re-cover with a box knife so you're left with a bare surface.

If there are staples or anything in your way, either pull them out the best you can or pound them into the wood. I cut straight down the side of mine and pretty much just yanked until the carpet came off. If you have older, flakier carpet, you'll want to have a trash bag and the vacuum handy!

2. Apply a liberal layer of glue to about the first four to five inches of the surface.

Why do I say four or five inches? If you don't have help (like I didn't), you will need to hold the rope taut and if you have too much area, it's hard to get the glue to stay sticky long enough to get all the way up a post.

3. Pound a nail into the center of the rope at the back of a post to start with. Pull the rope taut as you wrap, and add another nail every four to five wraps.

I started with a nail so that as I pulled the rope, I wouldn't have slack. The tighter the pull, the closer the rows will be together.

4. As you go, use your hammer to pound down on your rope, so you can fit more on and have a tighter wrap.

5. Repeat the above steps. Nail, wrap, repeat. And before you know it, your cats will be enjoying the fruits of your labor like Vegas is here!

Overall, it looks scary, but it was pretty easy to accomplish, and Vegas and Reno definitely appreciate my giving their favorite perch new life. In place of nails, you could definitely utilize a nail gun, but either way works. I didn't want to use too many nails since I didn't want the cats to get their paws stuck and hurt themselves, but thankfully, I haven't had any issues.

If you try this project, I would love to see how it turns out, as well as any feedback or questions in the comments!

How-To Tuesday: Tie Dyed Baking

If you know anything about me, I like to live a colorful life. That extends to all facets of my life, especially my baking! Anything that comes out of my kitchen is bright and colorful, even if I get some interesting looks and comments when my baking gets to work. For an example, some photos of past baking projects:

That's the outside of most things I make, but inside they're bright and colorful (like in the first photo). I am going to use an assortment of photos from past cupcakes and cakes in order to illustrate how to do it yourself! 

Depending on what you want to make (a cake or cupcakes), you will need the appropriate pan and supplies, and a box of white cake mix. 

1. Mix the cake as usual and separate batter into different bowls, depending on how many colors you want to use. So, if you want to make a two color cake, two bowls - four colors, four bowls, etc. Use either gel or regular food color and color the batter to your liking.

2. Once you have your batter colored, make sure you have a spoon for each color. If making cupcakes, spoon each different color into each to your liking, and if making a cake, spoon or dump batter into a bullseye in the center of the pan.

For cupcakes, drag a knife through each liner when you're done to marble the different colors. 

3. Bake and frost as usual!

How To Tuesday: Nail Fail!

Tonight, I was 100% ready to try out nail water marbling. I got out my nail polish and other supplies, and was ready to write a tutorial on this pretty popular new nail style.

Hypothetically, it seems pretty simple. You need nail polish, a small bowl, room temperature water, and a stick to stir the marble effect into. Once you get the marble effect you want, you dip your nail into the polish and are supposed to have an awesome effect. 

...Unless you're me. Then, you wind up with a barely-identifiable blob of purple and teal. And you somehow scrape all of the polish off of one of your nails. I realized that I forgot the final step of the dip process, which is pulling the excess away before you pull your nail back from the water. Whoops. 

Undeterred, I decided, "Okay, let's try Scotch tape nails instead!" So I painted them a single color, and figured that I would wait for them to dry and do a simple geometric design. 

That is, until I realized that I hadn't waited long enough and pulled off almost all of the first color I painted. Since it was already screwed up, I figured that I would pile on a bunch more of a second color just to see how it would look.

...And it looked bad. So I took it all off and maybe I'll pay better attention to the directions next time, and maybe not get quite so frustrated. Oh well - every DIY can't be perfect, now can it?

How To Tuesday: Fabric Canvas Wall Art!

Since things have been changing rapidly around my house these days, I decided that the previously undecorated bedroom needed a little something (especially since it's just mine). I wanted something simple that wasn't too time consuming, and that anyone could do! I think I found a great solution (at least for one of the walls in the room).

You will need:

• 1 yard of fabric
• canvas (mine was 22x28, but you can use any size)
• glue (I used E-6000, but you could use hot glue)

Now that your supplies are collected, let's get started!

1. Take your fabric and put it over the canvas (or canvases) you plan to use. This will help to get the design straight so that it looks the way you want it to. Also, if you feel like it, iron the fabric first. 
2. Starting on the top side, glue down your fabric. First, glue down the top and the bottom, then move onto the sides. 
3. When gluing the sides, be sure to pull the fabric taut so you don't wind up with ripples and lines (especially when you haven't ironed your fabric).
4. Cut off excess fabric from sides if necessary. 
5. Fold over corners so you have a nice, finished look. 
6. Hang and enjoy!

This is an incredibly simple, cheap project. If you need to spice up a room in your home, I would definitely suggest trying this out. Canvases are always on sale at local craft shops, and a yard of fabric (especially with a coupon) is super cheap! I personally would have used hot glue for this if doing it again, but I've never used E-6000, so wanted to give it a try.

Post your opinions in the comments - and if you try it, I'd love to see a photo!

How-to Tuesday: Keurig K-Cup Storage!

If you checked out my earlier post today, you know just how much I love our new Keurig Elite B40 single-cup coffee maker. In my excitement to try all kinds of different flavors, I rushed out and bought a huge variety pack, as well as a couple of other packs. This led to Mount K-Cup on my kitchen counter:

When I priced out the different drawers and carousels that Keurig makes, I was a little surprised that anybody in the world would pay that damn much for a metal drawer or metal carousel. I knew that there was a way to make something that would serve the same purpose for about half the price, so I set out to do just that!

You will need:

• A three-drawer storage box of some variety (I got mine for around $12 at Target)
• Scrapbook paper
• Self-adhesive letters
• Scotch tape

I'm sure you can predict what's about to happen here. Just in case you can't, here goes!

1. Slide your scrapbook paper into the front of one of your drawers, and mark off the height of the drawers on the paper - this will be important.
2. Fold the paper lengthwise three times, just in case you make a mistake and need extra (I know I accidentally bought 8.5x11 sized paper!)
3. If there are indents in the fronts of your drawers, mark those as simply as possible.
4. Grab your self-adhesive letters and write out what you'd like your drawers to say! (Mine say 'coffee', 'tea', and 'etc.', but use any words you'd like.)
5. Fit the drawer front into the drawer and Scotch tape into place (I tried other ways of doing this, and none worked better. 
6. Repeat for the number of drawers in your container!

There you have it! A very simple project, that allows you to store quite a few cups, that's cute and will go with any kitchen decor! You could even update the colors with the seasons, if you wanted! So, before you run out and spend $25-35 on a Keurig K-Cup storage solution, think of the good you could do at home with just a few simple supplies!

A thrifting adventure!

Last week, I went on a little thrifting adventure after work, and wanted to share! Milwaukee is a wealth of little shops here and there, some quality, some not so much. Then, you have the big-box thrift stores like Goodwill, where sometimes you’ll score on clothes, but not much else. When I thrift, I am usually looking for something to add to my religious art collection, craft supplies like embroidery hoops, or keeping an open mind (and open eyes!) for other fun, unexpected finds. I wanted to write this post and share a couple of my favorite thrift shops with you guys – as well as last week’s buys!

Likely my favorite shop in Milwaukee (at least the one I go to the most), is located in Hales Corners, a suburb, but is just a short drive down Highway 100. It is a Bethesda Thrift Shop, and there are twelve in Wisconsin, but this is the only one in the Milwaukee area. I love it for a couple of simple reasons: I always find something great, the items are always priced well, and the store is absolutely immaculate! There is nothing better than that when you’re out thrifting. I found a couple of great wall hangings featuring handpainted style kitties! So kitschy, but I couldn’t turn them down. I also found an old spice rack that I plan to repurpose for an upcoming How-To Tuesday!

A second favorite is also located on Highway 100! While it doesn’t donate to a particular cause and is for all intensive purposes a for-profit thrift shop, there’s something a little bit different about it…

There are Barbie dolls everywhere! On the walls, lining shelves, everywhere. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, they’re just there. 

I don’t typically have great luck here, but still like going in to poke around all the same. On last week’s trip, I found this adorable Enesco cookie jar with squirrels on it from the 1970’s! It was in great shape – best part about the buy was I couldn’t find the price (they typically write on the items with a grease pencil), so the store’s manager priced it at $6.50, and we eventually found the price, and it was initially marked $10! Such a cute, great find. 

If you are in the Milwaukee area and looking to check out a couple of different thrift shops, these are definitely a couple to look for!

Have you gone thrifting lately? What have you found?

How-to Tuesday: Concert Ticket Wall Art!

It is absolutely no secret that one of my favorite things to craft with is Mod Podge. It's so simple and quick to make pretty much anything awesome out of this awesome brush glue. As a kid, I started saving my movie tickets. That led to saving my concert tickets. Fast forward to a little earlier this year: I was sick of taping my concert tickets to every refrigerator I've ever had, so I wanted to do something else with them. I remembered that I had a canvas and some Mod Podge and voila!

You will need:

• A pile of old tickets (it doesn't need to be concert tickets)
• Mod Podge, either Matte or Gloss original, and the purple-labeled Hard Coat
• An old brush or sponge applicator
• Canvas to fit as many tickets as you have

It's all pretty simple! Here's your steps!

1. Grab your tickets, canvas, brush (or sponge) and Mod Podge. 
2. Organize your tickets however you deem fit on your canvas (I did one large rectangle, then a smaller one, and a smaller one yet, etc.)
3. Use your original Mod Podge (with either the yellow or orange label) and lay down some glue on both the canvas and the ticket. I would do one rectangle at a time. 
4. Once your entire canvas is covered, I'd do a layer of the Hard Coat just to make sure none of the edges come unglued.
5. Hang up and enjoy!

One tip I will give you on this is not to use a hair dryer to try and get the glue to dry faster. I did it (as you can tell from the random black splotch), and it changed the color of the heat-sensitive paper. 

And there you have it! Another fun way to use Mod Podge. Let me know what you did with yours in the comments, check back next week for another How-To Tuesday, and don't forget to follow if you're enjoying what you're reading!