Cool Ideas: Sand Jars

 If you've seen my other posts, you'd know how much I love glass jars. It seems I can always think up cool ways to utilize them. Here's my latest idea.

Being from Hawaii, I miss the land and especially the beaches. I've always wanted to bring a little bit of home with me so I have that connection. I decided to bring the beach home with me. . . .I decided to bring home sand. Well, I did not only bring home the sand from 1 beach, I brought the sand from 6 different beaches home (go big or go home right? lol!).

Molokai, being an island, is filled with sand! There are hundreds of beaches so it was easy for me to get my hands on some. Sand is sand right? WRONG! The sand is unique to the beach it came from. Take a look at the picture above. These 3 different sands are from beaches next to each other and yet, they have very different characteristics. Sand may differ in grain size (course/fine), content and color of content (what the sand is made up of specific to the region), and shade overall (the darkness or lightness of the sand). Knowing all of this, I got to work on my project.

On my last trip home in March 2011, I brought home sand in water bottles.

I made sure to put their names on them with a permanent marker so I didn't mix any of them up.

I also labeled their caps with the 1st initial of the name of the beach they were from.

Great Tip! Here's a great tip if you are bringing more than 1 bottle of sand home on the plane. If you are on a trip and are bringing back a buttload of other souvenirs, it may be hard for you to bring back more than 1 bottle of sand especially if you have to pay the airlines those expensive baggage fees. Pack your sand (in water bottles, ziplocs or whatever else you can find) and label them. Go to the Post Office and get a small or medium flat rate boxes and ship your sand home. It will not matter how heavy the sand is, as long as it fits in the box (my baggage got very heavy bringing just 10 water bottles of sand home). This will save you time, $ and it will save your back!

Here are the steps I took once I was home.

1. I cleaned up the jar I was going to use by washing it and scraping the label off the outside. You may also spraypaint the cap if there is labeling on it.

2. Some of the sand I brought home was very damp. I got a tray that I had laying around, and I dumped the wet sand into it. (you can also use those cardboard soda boxes to do this part)

3. Then I smoothed the sand out evenly with a ruler (you can use anything to smooth the sand out).

4. I took my sand outside and let it lay out in the sun so it could dry thoroughly.

Here's a view from the back. I just put a piece of wood I had laying around underneath the trays so they could be propped up facing the sun. This helps them dry faster. Warning: if you have lots of cats in the area, make sure to keep an eye on your sand or you'll find a present they left just for you *;)

5. I labeled a sandwich size ziploc bag to store the sand once it dried.

6. Using the lid of the glass jar, I traced a circle on a clear plastic bag and cut it out. These circles are to put between the layers of sand so they won't mix into each other. Because you are tracing the lid of the jar you are going to be using, the circles should be the perfect size for your jar.

The circles should look like this

7. Pour the first layer of sand in the jar and then place a circle on the top of that layer. Make sure it is in the middle of the layer.

8. Pour each layer one after another. Using a tool (a little ruler or something that has a wide end) smooth the sand in each layer out and move it towards the glass (I wish I had a pic of this but I dont. Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it). Make sure the layers are pretty equal in thickness.  

9. Warning! Make sure you keep track of the order of the sand! First off, I put all my bottles and bags in the order I was going to pour the sand.

10. Warning! Make sure that when you put the sand in order, you pay attention to the look of the sand. If you have the sand from 3 different beaches that look almost the same, you will want to space them out evenly. What you want is contrast. A black or darker sand against a whiter sand will look better than 2 white sands together.

11. Warning! This may be the most important thing. When putting the last layer of sand in the jar, make sure the sand goes all the way to the top of the jar so that it pushes against the lid when you seal the jar. This will ensure that the layers will not move and mix up.

 12. I labeled the jars with vinyl that I had cut myself. You do not need to use vinyl. You may label the jars with tape, permanent pens, stickers and paper.

 12. Lastly, I labeled the cover with the place I got the sand from. I got all my sand from my island so I put Moloka'i (the island), Hawai'i (the state). You could also put dates, like the date of your trip for example:

Hawai'i Trip 

March 2011

Now I have jars of sand from my homeland that I can display in my home. I love, love, love my jars!!! I also gave some of my friends a jar as a present, they make great gifts! I also made some sand jars out of baby food jars for my kid's rooms. Because they are smaller, they require less sand and are perfect for  gifts for children.

1. I cleaned and filled the baby food jars exactly the same way I did my large jars. Paint the lids.

2. I printed the names of the beaches on my home computer using a very small font. You can print on regular paper or labels. I suggest using labels so they stick to the jar. Using a ruler, cut the names out so they are in one straight rectangle.

3. Now that you have the labels adhered to the outside of the jar, you need to put a laminate-like coating on the label so it won't smear. I used packing tape to do this.

1. Place a strip of packing tape over the label and trim.

2.Make sure to keep the tape smooth over the label.

3. and 4. Using an exacto knife, kitchen knife or scissors, score or cut the tape along the outside of the label with the blade.

5. Grab the edge of the tape and peel. It should peel off easily along the edges of the label.

Here's the sand jar in baby size. How cute!

Enjoy your little bit of Paradise!

Brandi-Lee

Shopping Spree! (the paint aisle)

Hey Everybody! So I was stuck at Walmart one day while waiting for the hardworking Walmart employees to give my car an oil change and. . .don't laugh. . .I decided to whip out my trusty camera phone and show ya'll some of my favorite aisles to peruse (<----love using that word!).

Yes, I'm pretty sure people thought I was mental snappin all those pictures of wonderful Walmart merchandise but I was doing it on behalf the cause! (The "knocking it off" Cause that helps impact lives around the world by sharing ways decorate for "as free as can be") LOL!

The first aisle on my list. . .The Paint Aisle. These are the things that are in the paint aisle that I either look at, want, have used, or think is cool. I've chosen to focus mostly on the spraypaint.

K, here's my first picture. . .

This is a pic of all those wonderful 98 cent Walmart brand spraypaints that Mileka and I use so often. If you have tried out different brands of spraypaint before, you will notice that the product fits the price. This paint is not the best one to use on all your projects, but if  you're looking to save some moolah and tackle smaller projects, it fits the bill. You will probably use more paint to get better coverage but with the awesome price tag, you will still come out ahead.

I guess I'll tell ya'll about the differences in finishes. Do you see the spraypaint covers above? There is a distinct difference in the look and feel of the finishes on the covers. It's like when you order photo prints from the printers. They ask you to check which finish you want on each print. If you want a "shinier" picture, you choose glossy. If you want a smoother, less glossy picture, you would choose matte. Think about the project you are doing. Would it look better done with a glossy finish? or a satiny/matte finish? The good thing is that YOU get to choose which one you want. Oh, almost forgot to mention that the color of the cap, is also the exact color of the paint.

*Cue the Angels singing

 K, picture the heavens opening and a beam of light shining down upon this spraypaint. My personal opinion is that Krylon is the very best brand when it comes to spraypaint (I love Rustoleum as well).

With greater quality comes a bigger price tag. I believe it's worth it depending on what you're willing to spend for your project. These last a lot longer than the cheapy brand meaning 1 can goes a long way!

This Krylon paint is specially formulated for plastics. I've used it on many different shiny finishes that other paints would just run off and it has come out beautifully and "sticks to the surface" wonderfully! I think this one is my favorite! When purchasing spraypaint, always make sure you read the back of the can to see what kind of material that particular paint will cover.

Here's Flourescent paint to mark areas that need to be seen.

Here's paint that has a metallic look.

These Rustoleum paints have an awesome trigger sprayer that reduces hand fatique (I'm sounding like a commercial now!) and lets you spray at any angle. These have a hammered finish and because it's Rustoleum, it stops rust on your metals. This paint is an all-surface paint and will spray on wood, metal, plastic, masonry and more! Awesomeness!

These paints (above and below) have a textured, multicolored finish sort of like stone. The bottom one re-creates the natural look of stone!

So Cool!

I thought this was cool as well. If you have chips or scratches on your appliances, you can fill them with this epoxy touch up. Who comes up with these things!!

How awesome is this? You can paint these onto different surfaces to create a chalkboard finish! I haven't used the spraypaint yet but I love the paint in the can. This sucker lasts forever! Fun, fun, fun for children's rooms! I've seen  painted pantry doors for menus and entire walls made into a chalkboard so the kiddies have a place to scribble. Tape the surface off (with painter's tape) just like you would when using regular paint. Use your imagination with these. Imagine where you would want a chalkboard, and paint one there!

These are clear coats. They seal and help protect basecoat from scratches, water damage, etc. Some clear coats also help protect the finish from UV rays. The lacquer clear coat, has a very high luster coating kinda like those japanese rice bowls. Very Shiny!

Yay!!! One of the most wonderful sights that you could ever see in the paint aisle. Whenever you see a red tag, it means you will save money on paint. The paint may not always be the color you may want but it's always good to take a look because you never know!

This price tag is for 1 entire gallon of paint in this color. What a great find! This'll last me forever!  Most times they get rid of paint that the customer feels is a "tint'' off. Does that little tint off make a big difference? You be the judge of that. Sometimes they are just getting rid of paint that is old stock or they are discontinuing. Whatever the reason, you always come out the winner!

Well, there's the paint aisle for you. Hope you learned something from this post. Stay tuned for other posts from the Walmart aisles (I had a whole 3 hours to kill there!!!). Have fun painting!

Brandi-Lee

Awesome Finds: Wooden Board Project

So, I bet you're all wondering what I did with all those wonderful wooden boards (from my awesome finds post) that I rescued from certain death. Well wonder no longer 'cuz imma gonna tell ya!

What used to look like this. . . 

Now looks like this. . . . .

 (I still have 2 boards left that I'm going to use for my own house)

I made these gifts for my mother and father-in-law, my sister-in-law, and my sister to give to them when I visited Hawaii. PS I am posting this from Hawaii! Hi Ena!

Not bad huh? Was I lying to ya'll when I said that I literally find trash and turn it into treasure? And this, my friends, is not an isolated incident. I've done this over and over and over so many times that I could write a book on it. Why do I say this? Because I want ya'll to know that anyone, YES, ANYONE! can find stuff ANYWHERE and turn it into something Beautiful! 

How, you ask?

1. Change your mindset. (find out more about how to change your mindset here) You have to believe that YOU too can produce similar results. You need to believe that even you have the ability to make things beautiful (just say "Yes, I can!). When you've allowed yourself to accept these things, you can then move on to #2.


2. Open your eyes. You cannot expect for things to magically appear on your doorstep. You need to keep your eyes peeled no matter where you may be. You may be driving down the road and see something out for free or in the trash, or you may be shopping and see something for an "as free as can be" price. No matter how you do it, remember that there is more than 1 way to acquire what you want or need. (find out more about how to get "stuff")



3. What you see is not always what you get. Train yourself to look at things differently. Do not let appearances deceive you! What may be hideous to the untrained eye is beautiful to someone that sees the hidden potential. People will always throw out their "trash" but always remember that "One man's trash is another man's treasure".


4. Do it! Projects do not complete themselves. This may be the most important thing of all to remember.The reason I say this is because you may have all your "stuff" ready to go, but if you don't physically get up and do something with them (because you "don't know how" or "you can't make things beautiful" or "yada, yada, yada and every other lame excuse you can come up with") it'll lay there and collect dust and you will be where you were the day you brought them home.


I hope you will take these things to heart and finally decide that you are gonna decorate and 'aint no one gonna stop ya!. The only one that can stop you is YOU!


Good Luck--Brandi-Lee

Sock it to Me

Socks, socks, whose got socks?

We all do!

Whose got socks with holes?

We all do!

What can you do with holy...I mean hole-e socks?

Check this out...

Supplies:

• socks (with holes:)
• scissors

1.   Socks with holes.  The cuter the better.

These are (were) my favorite Christmas socks.  They have seen better days.

I totally wore out the heels!

2.  Cut off the top tube at the ankle.

Then cut off the heel and the toe.

Now...get creative

The top tube can be worn as leg warmers that begin at the ankle (picture above).

or...

You can cut a slit (a little ways) from the bottom so your heels stick out (picture below).

 

or...

You can wear it on your arm.

 

Repeat the process on the foot section

(the small section where you cut off the heel and the toe).

They will only go to the wrist.

Pieces may be too large for tiny hands.

I had to cut up the side, cut a couple of slits, and tie the ends together

to make them smaller for my 2 little ones.

TADA!

One pair of socks made 4 GLUBS (as my little kiddies like to call them).

sock it to me!

cost = FREE

Mileka:)

Dedicated to...April P. 

You are a blast!