Saturday, August 29, 2015

Thrift It/Gift It/Facelift It Challenge Reveal

So, some time back, Tania invited 5 of us to participate with her in a Thrift it, Gift it, Facelift it challenge. She gave us each a name and we sent them goodies to facelift.

Donna sent me mine and some gave me a little bit of a scare - I had no idea what I was going to do with them! Here's what she sent me:

Those shoe stretchers had me stumped. All I could see were hooves no matter how I turned them. So of course, I took one apart. hm, that's better. There is a big piece and a small piece to each one plus the handle. I painted them. Then I took another apart and painted those pieces. Now to put them together in an interesting way.

How about a card holder? Yes! I took the two smaller pieces, glued them together, then wound some twine about 1/2 way up. Stuck a fork in the top and voila! It can hold cards or recipes.

The larger pieces reminded me of wings. Let's see...an angel, a bird? I love owls so that's what I decided on. I used a wooden platter I had plus other odds and ends and here's my owl:
The hanger is one of the handles nailed onto the back. This lovely owl will go in my side garden on the fence.

One more to go - I know. I always need to prop up my reference photo when I'm painting so why not use the stretcher with the handle bent at a 90 degree angle? It was kind of wobbly so I wedged the other handle into the other end and now it's stable. It holds up a clip board perfectly. Whew, figured those out.

Next up was the old faded photo. It was so faded and just a bunch of men sitting on the steps of a house. OH! I know! I can turn it into a Halloween card. I painted a spider web and added some ghosts in the windows and turned the really faded man in the background into a ghost too. I painted a few other details too. Then I found the perfect graphics at The Graphic Fairy, printed them onto velum, and added those at the bottom and top corner. For the clothes pin, I added Halloween scrapbook paper and will use it to clip up my spooky photo.

The fabric was probably the easiest to decide what to do with. It wasn't big enough by itself but I had another piece of fabric that matched the small blue flower in it so I made a cute shirt using both.


Then there's the canvas bag. I had this larger bag I am using to put my stamps and ink pads in. I decided to use the little bag to put the ink pads in so I could easily find them in the bigger bag. I pulled off the lace since it didn't really go with my look, painted and added the details. Love my fox! Now, I can easily find the ink pads and it fits down into the big bag for easy storage.

Lastly, I pondered over the ruler. Should I cut it into several pieces and use it to make jewelry? Or a Christmas ornament? Then I saw a sweet saying on Pinterest - bingo! I made a sign from old fence pickets by cutting out a heart shape, then cutting the ruler into pieces to fill in the heart. Lastly, I wrote the saying.
This is probably my favorite out of them all. It will make a great addition to my love themed shelf/wall.

This was a fun challenge even if the shoe stretchers scared me at first. LOL. It really stretched my creative thinking. Be sure to visit all the other ladies to see what they came up with.
Vicky - Life on Willie Mae Lane - http://lifeonwilliemaelane.blogspot.com
Kim - Snug Harbor Bay - http://snugharborbay.blogspot.com
Kimberley - Seaside Ave. - http://www.seasideave.com
Donna - Distressed Donna Down Home - http://distresseddonnadownhome.blogspot.com
Tania - Little Vintage Cottage - http://littlevintagecottage.blogspot.com


22 comments:

  1. The old photo turned Halloween creepy is PERFECT! Great makeover of your items. :)

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  2. Great job Cecilia! Love the little owl the best, how creative!

    Thank you so much for agreeing to participate, it was so much fun!

    Tania

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  3. The ruler sign is my absolute favorite. Love it!

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  4. Kudos, Cecelia! The owl is adorable! That's really thinking outside the box! In fact, all of your transformations are awesome! Well done!

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  5. I love all your creations - my thrifty items are not even recognizable with their stylish makeovers. The owl is my favorite. The photo as a Halloween decoration is the right choice for the grumpy old men. You really stretched those shoe stretchers. The little fox looks at home on the canvas bag.

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  6. You really exercised your creativity with all those items. The owl is my favorite.

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  7. Those shoe stretchers certainly stretched my imagination too. (bad pun, I know). I see them often. I love what you did with them...and everything else too.

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    1. Lol, it's still a funny pun. Thank you for visiting!

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  8. What cute things you made and I now follow you. I found you on Kim's Snug Harbor Bay.

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    1. Hi Dolly and welcome! I'm thrilled to have you join me here at the farm.

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  9. Wow Cecilia! You really let your creativity shine here! Love all the projects but I have to agree, the ruler one is my fave too! Awesome job on all of it! Have a wonderful Sunday...:)

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  10. Hi Cecilia! :)
    I loved the shirt you made, so pretty!
    The ruler sign is just so stinkin' cute, I love that too!
    Those shoe things would have totally threw me for a loop, but you turned them into some amazingly creative things! :)

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    1. Thanks, Kimberley! They almost did throw me for a loop. It took me several days of really pondering to finally come up with stuff. :-)

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  11. Cecilia, you really had some challenges with these items, but you rose to the occasion and created some truly unique and creative things that you can be proud of! There's no way I ever would have been able to figure out what to do with these things!!

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  12. You really had your work cut out for you. But you really did an excellent job of re-thrifting the items. Love what you did with the shoe horns and the card, excellent job on it. I would never have thought of doing that!

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    1. Thank you, Veralynne! It's amazing what you can come up with when you have to! Lol. Glad you stopped in.
      :-)
      Cecilia

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  13. These are so creative, Cecilia! Love the owl and ruler sign best!

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  14. You are so clever! I LOVE that owl and what a fun challenge!

    Happy day friend!
    karianne

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    1. Haha, I felt more desperate than clever but I think I did ok. It was great fun!
      Hugs,
      Cecilia

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  15. What great things...so darn creative....love the owl made of shoe stretcher parts!

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    1. Thank you, Shirley! I love my owl too. I need to get it hung up on the fence.

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