Some trash to treasure

Well, winter has arrived with a vengeance! It was +1 C yesterday and it's now -18 C and predicted to be that and lower (with wind chills of up to -30) for about 10 days. Brrr! Sure glad Mom lives right next door so it's a quick walk to see her. BTW, she's doing well and looking forward to Christmas.

Anyway, our potluck Christmas dinner is next Thursday (Dec. 15) so I decided I better get started on my Christmas scene for my giveaway at that.

I have a couple things to go in it but needed to find a container for it so I pulled out several things that 'might' work. One was a gift bag from the top of my shelving unit. It seemed a bit heavy and I was surprised to see that it contained several things I had shown at our Show and Sale several years ago as examples of trash to treasure.

So I'll show them to you now and get to the possible containers later.

These chandeliers are made from fish hooks with three barbs on them. (I got them at Canadian Tire.) I clipped off the actual barbs with wire cutters. WEAR EYE PROTECTION WHEN DOING THIS. Another thing I would suggest is using the wire cutters and the hook inside a paper bag so when the barb flies off (and it will) it stays within the bag and doesn't fly off into  your body (ouch!) or onto another surface where it will hide until you find it with your foot or hand.

The lights themselves are just beads from my stash. The white ones were painted with white nail polish. The ones on the right are petal shaped with gold faceted beads inside.

A stock pot for your kitchen is made with a 3/4" copper end cap from the plumbing department at the hardware store. The handles are "eyes" from sewing hooks and eyes. These are glued on with super glue but you could solder them on.

Copper end caps come in several sizes Smaller ones can be used as saucepans. Handles from those can be made from the long strips from fasteners like these from a stationers cut to size. I've done it but can't find one to take a picture.

This lamp shade is made from half a table tennis ball decorated with finger nail art and edged with gold pen. The light bulb is simply a 1/4" clear (in this case faceted) bead on a head pin that is put through a hole in the tennis ball and through a bead cap. The end of the head pin is cut off and hooked through the end of a chain and crimped.

These two cakes are simply bottle caps that have been 'iced' with spackle. The cake top on the left is from http://www.printmini.com/printables/lizv/roundcakes1.html

These bowls are caps from bottled water. I don't know what brand they were from and I must admit I haven't seen them in a long time. The two on the left are coloured with glass paint and trimmed with a gold pen.

I have thousands of the small push pins but only about 30 of the large ones. Found them years ago at Zellers (!) and London Drugs but haven't seen them lately. The pins are easy to remove. Just hold the pin itself and heat the pin with a match or lighter then pull it out with pliers.

This table lamp was made with two push pins painted with gallery glass and a clear bead on top for the bulb.

Another shade made from a table tennis ball. The top is a bead cap and seed bead attached with a sequin pin which in turn fits through the clear bead. The trim on the shade is a strip of red and gold ribbon.

 This little hat was made from plastic back blue velvet ribbon with a sheer blue ribbon around it and trimmed with a small button and some feathers. BUT the reason this was in the trash to treasure was the hat stand which is made from a golf tee topped with a 3/4" foam ball.

A quick, cheap door handle, especially for a false door. It's from a halogen light bulb - just break it loose from the bulb.

Drill a small hole in the door and glue the handle in place.

Just a few quick ideas. If  you need further instructions, just email me and I'll try to help.

Now I need to put these things away and get back to finding a setting for my Christmas gift.