Author: Kathleen Wilson
Source: articleage.com
Fresh, Frugal Ideas! Here are some great ideas for bringing the
freshness, face painting stencils
, of spring into your home.
Sponge paint your walls, or a key piece of furniture. Blues,
greens, pinks, and yellows in pastel shades refresh a room, and
the softness of sponging gives an "impressionistic" appeal.
Take clippings from outdoor ivy, and root in water for FREE
houseplants. Buy inexpensive shade annuals and pot them up for
indoors- fuchsias, impatiens, begonias, and primroses are
wonderful for bringing in color, and deal well with the lower
light indoors.
Dress, face painting stencils
, up candles as natural works of art instead of putting them
away for the warm, face painting stencils
, months. Use a glue gun to attach organic
materials such as dried twigs, flowers, cinnamon sticks, worn
out potpourri, pressed leaves, coffee beans…use what you have!
Or, tie on raffia or ribbon and group candles on a shelf,
tabletop, or on a mirror.
Paint inexpensive houseplant pots to give your room designer
touches. Sponge paint over clay pots, or use a stencil or simple
pattern to give interest. This technique can also be used on
your outdoor pots. Hint: for a more elegant look, try using the
new metallic craft paints over clay pots. Simply sponging on
some metallic paint (try combing them) can look extremely
upscale.
Got an old wooden stepladder? Use it as a great plant stand to
bring the green indoors. You can paint it or leave it rustic and
weathered, depending on the style of your room. Full size wooden
ladders can look great on the patio.
Add spring detail to your window treatments by using, face painting stencils
, small
grapevine wreaths as tiebacks or swag holders. You can add more
interest by gluing on a small bunch of dried flowers. This is a
great way to reuse flowers from a damaged arrangement, or
leftovers from another project.
Buy artificial plant vines at the craft store, and drape them
over the tops of your window treatments, or wrap them around a
floor lamp. Watch the craft stores carefully, and you can
usually catch them on sale for just a couple of bucks.
Cover cardboard boxes with fresh floral fabric, and stack on a
table like hatboxes. If you utilize scraps from another project,
you will have creative, decorative storage, virtually free!
Give your kitchen a garden window by installing cheap, face painting stencils
, shelving
across the inside frame. This can, face painting stencils
, be nothing more than a small
wooden block nailed into the frame on each side, and a simple
board resting on top of them. Fill this with plants and
cuttings, and you will have big impact. Bonus; the plants will
thrive I the bright light, and moisture of the kitchen. Caution:
Do not do this in a south facing window…the direct sun is just
too much for most houseplant.
Paint small paper mache bird houses and hang them from your
curtain rod, or the bottom of a shelf or, face painting stencils
, cabinet. I found them
at my craft store for 50 cents, or you could easily make them
from small cardboard containers and paper mache paste.
Use those beautiful pictures from your garden catalogs to frame
into botanical prints, who will know!
Use, face painting stencils
, gold spray paint left over from the holidays, face painting stencils
, to transform
small clay pots and saucers into coasters and silverware
caddies. They stack well, too, and best of all, they're cheap!
Make and herb drying rack for your kitchen by nailing small wire
brads, face painting stencils
, into cheap lathing strip, or better yet, an aged piece of
wood you might find, even driftwood! You can make and hang just
one, or several together, face painting stencils
, to make a large wall arrangement. You
can gather flowers, herbs, even grasses to dry directly on the
rack from your own yard. I recommend using, face painting stencils
, a rubber band to
secure them, as plant material shrinks when it dries. You can
cover the rubber band with ribbon or raffia if you wish.
Save those clear bottles and fill with colored water for a
bright accent in a window. Use your glue gun to dress up the
bottle caps with organic odds and ends…beans, lentils, dried
flowers, you get the idea.
Never underestimate how much impact a small container of fresh
flowers can have in a room, even just a pretty cup full of
roadside daisies!
A couple of packets of seeds can keep a house in cut bouquets
all summer. Sunflower, cosmos, and zinnias are VERY easy to
grow, and are great in arrangements.
Replace heavy window treatments with a simple drape of gauzy
fabric, face painting stencils
, . This type of material is very inexpensive at the fabric
store, or keep your eye out for tablecloths that can be pressed
into service.(Watch those garage sales!)
Need more ideas for warm weather windows? Simply hang cloth
napkins or placemats over the rod. Experiment with overlapping,
laying them on the diagonal, or tying them with ribbon. Cherry
valance that ties right in with your kitchen or dining area!
Make easy, virtually free ivy topiaries. Pot up your ivy
cuttings (straight from the yard, or a neighbors) then form a
wire coat hanger into your desire shape. You may need pliers to
help you with this. Insert the hooked end into the pot, and
secure by pushing, face painting stencils
,, face painting stencils
, sticks, or bamboo skewers into the soil on
either side of the wire. Secure the wire to the skewers with
twisty ties, then cut the skewers of level with the wire. Wrap
the ivy around the wire from the base upwards, and continue to
tuck and wrap as it grows. Very soon the ivy will completely
cover the wire, and you'll never know it was a free coat hanger,
instead of a 20 dollar topiary form!
