DIY - ARTS & CRAFTS

(CRAFT 1)
I saw a jewelry stand just like this at Urban Outfitters for $34. Nikki and I looked at it, and thought it'd be simple and easy enough to make ourselves, and it was! It literally took like 5 minutes to put together. I got an old frame for $2 at the thrift store, took the glass and picture out of it, got half a yard (which was enough to cover at least 2 or more frames) of lace from Walmart, which was $1.25, and stapled the lace to the back of the frame with a staple gun. Done! And $3.25 is much more economical than the painful $34 Urban Outfitters wanted for it.


(CRAFT 2)
Monica showed me how to make this, after she saw a tutorial in DIY magazine. You just get strips of gutter topper, spray paint clothes pins, mount it on the wall, and pin pictures on it. Make sure you get topper made from galvanized steel rather than aluminum, a mistake I made. If you get it made from steel you can glue magnets to the back of the clothes pins and just stick em' on. If you don't, then you'll just have to settle for pinning them to the sides, or like me, tying the pins on to the topper (any string will suffice. I didn't have anything, so I used dental floss).

(CRAFT 3)
Alane told me that you can purchase chalk board paint from any craft or hardware store, and can easily transform any flat surface into a chalk board. I got this frame from the thrift store, which used to hold a picture of a cross-stitched donkey. My dad had some extra scrap plywood in the garage, and I sanded it down, and spray-painted it with chalkboard paint, which I purchased a can of at Orchard Supply Hardware for $4.99. I want to put in the kitchen of my house next year, so we can write our grocery list on it. If my roommates aren't really down with that, then I'll keep it in my room and write my to-do lists.