I found these two sculptures that I made in a ceramics class in college. They are abstract figures depicting my husband and I when we got married and they have been collecting dust ever since. When I was cleaning up some of the clutter in my house I also found this "shadow-box-shelf" that I bought a long time for an entirely different reason and never used. Well, I put one and two together and waaaalaaah:
I know that displaying my figurines in a box isn't that creative, but I am really excited that I was able to display them for free. Who isn't excited about the word Free??
Another thing that I am really excited about are these things:
I am not sure what their technical term is but they are party favors (I assume for a kid's party) and they are plastic cones with a textured piece of clear plastic at the end. So you can look through them and see the world in different forms of distortion. I received these as a favor for a bachelorette party that I recently attended and immediately put them up to my camera to see if it would focus through them. And indeed it did. I should also mention that I was using a "pocket sized" digital camera (Sony Cyber-shot) with the front lens measuring about 1/2" in diameter. I don't think it would work with a large camera lens, but it would be fun to experiment. Here are some fun pics of the 2 different "lenses".
So, like a big dork, I am going to be looking for more of these so that I can really play with my pics. And I am definitely going to keep these in my camera bag for all occasions.
And as I have stated before... I have no time, BUT I have even more to share. I recently purchased a mirror from a garage sale for $6 and I LOVE IT. It was originally a brass color, but the frame is plastic and whoever had it before, spray painted it with a high gloss black paint. I think that maybe that person didn't like how it turned out? It didn't look like it had been hung before and looked almost brand new. But as they say, "one man's trash is another man's treasure" and oh what a treasure it was.
So I decided to hang it next to my "Jewelry Box". I also found this frame at a garage sale and it was just a frame; no glass and no picture. It looked like it was made in the 70s and although it was made out of wood, it was painted to look like a more expensive and interesting wood (you know, with painted on wood grain). There was also a part of the frame that was covered in a faux suede that accentuated it's 70s-ness. I think I bought it for $5? and I painted it in a high gloss black and covered the fabric section with a zebra print fabric that I just had laying around the house. Then I had my husband build a shallow box behind it and hinge it to the frame. I cut a piece of Styrofoam to fit the inside, covered it with black fabric and placed it inside. For less than $10 I have a great display for my jewelry and even though it looks like a piece of art on my wall, it is also functional because the frame opens like a door on the front. :-) I used dress maker pins to hang up each of the pieces of jewelry and I LOVE IT. I made this long before I found that mirror and when I saw the mirror, I thought that it would be a perfect addition to my wall... which I am just starting to realize is exclusively yard sale finds.
At the same yard sale that I found the frame above, I also found 4 small framed Norman Rockwell prints. They didn't have any glass in them either and the backing was just cardboard. I think I bought each of them for either 25cents or 50cents. Either way, they were a great deal. So I also sprayed them with high gloss black paint and until recently I was using them as photo frames. I backed them with a stiff piece of black card stock and displayed large wallet sized pics (printed on my home photo printer) inside the frame, held in by black photo corners. I didn't have glass for the frames and by using the photo corners, I could change out the pictures as often as I wanted to.
But, when I hung my mirror, these photo frames weren't quite working. I remember seeing a DIY "recipe" for an earring holder made from a frame, screw eyes and wire. So I changed one of my frames into an earring holder and I really like how it turned out. I used what I had... the screw eyes were too large and the wire I used was a scrap piece of heavy duty picture wire, but I like how it gives more of an industrial look. The frame is small so it doesn't hold a lot of earrings, but I don't change my earrings that often so this size works perfect for my small collection.
I like how all the pieces look together and I am itching to find some more functional ways to transform the 3 other small frames.Well, that is all for now... maybe the next time I am super busy, I will have equally as much to share ;-)
