Thursday, June 12, 2014

DIY: Budget Friendly Foam Soap & Dispenser

Hello! I wanted to share how I have been making my own foam soap for years! Soap is one of those things I have not purchased in such a long time and I want to share my secret on how I make mine. Foam soap is so easy and budget friendly!


Supplies needed for dispenser:
  • Mason jar (1 dollar)
  • (1) hammer and nail
  • Exacto knife
  • Sharpie
  • Scissors (sharp enough to cut metal)


The first thing you need to do is to use a nail and hammer and make small holes on the top lid. I am just trying at this point to get the pump to fit enough to draw my measurements.


Next, using your exacto knife, "connect" the dots and push the pump right through.


This is how it looks when you push the pump through.


Using your sharpie draw the circle where you need to cut.


Lastly, using your scissors, cut all the metal off and push the pump all the way in. Tada!


Supplies needed for foam soap:
  • Foam pump (1 dollar)
  • Liquid soap (3-4 dollars)
  • Water (almost free!)
To make the foam soap, pour a very little amount of the liquid soap onto your container. Less than 1/4 of the container, like shown in the picture below.


Fill the container almost all the way to the top (leave enough for the pump to fit in). I like to stir the soap and the water together. Screw the lid and pump that your own foam soap! Never pay for foam soap again!!


Thanks for reading!



Thursday, May 29, 2014

DIY: My Shabby Chic Craft Closet

My craft closet space has also been one of those DIY projects that I started a year ago and have continually worked on it throughout the year. I am happy to finally be able to blog about it! I'm so in love with how it turned out. This post is filled with tons and tons of small DIY projects! I love it. :)


I have always had a passion for crafting, but it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I really started to become passionate about my DIY's. That's when my craft supplies started to pile up. I had no organization for all my supplies and it became such a hassle to find anything in the boxes and laundry basket where I kept all my things shown above. I just knew I had to do something before I went crazy. Haha. I hope the "before picture" shows what I was dealing with, it was a complete mess!

The first thing I did was remove the unnecessary wood that was used to hold (nonexistent) shelves, this closet only had one shelf and I used it as a table to hold my sewing machine, that's what originally gave me the idea for the craft closet!


After I finished removing the wood, I painted the walls while my husband cut the wood for the shelves and glue my tabletop.


He used a piece of thin plywood as a base and glued (4) 1x4's on it for the tabletop. After a full 24 hours of drying and having some of the heaviest books I own sit on top (Star Wars and History books won, who knew?). My husband built the shelves for the tabletop to lay on top, and it fit perfectly. LOVE!


I stained the table with Minwax wood finish twice to get the darkest effect.


I will then prime the shelves with a white coat, then I finished it with a coat of my favorite Valspar pink paint! Don't they look so gorgeous?? :)


Next, I painted my pegboard with an ombre effect. I love how it turned out! I used three colors to make this possible. A dark color of blue, a lighter color of blue and white color paint.


**After this point I stop taking pictures of the process, SORRY! I will try to explain the best I can.**

I wanted to have three top shelves to hold my craft items. The very first shelf  is much wider than the rest because I wanted to store my yarn, spray paint and paint cans. The second and third shelf I wanted to store much smaller items so the shelves are not as wide. On the second shelf, I have small containers of Valspar paint from Lowes. On the third shelf I have craft glitter, paper cutters, and acrylic paint.


Next to the shelves are file holders where I store sandpaper, stencils, iron-ons, stickers, 6x6 scrapbook paper, and 12x12 scrapbook paper. I found a three piece acrylic file holder in Office Depot and the cute file folders at the dollar spot in Target.


I am using a tension rod that I bought from Kmart to display my pretty ribbons. I bought almost all my ribbons from TJ Maxx. They had a few packages of ribbons for a really good price!



Next, I used a pegboard to store most of my sewing essentials. I painted the pegboard with my favorite Valspar mint green paint. I LOVE IT!


Side views. :)


On the left side, I have 3 mason jars that I painted and sanded down for a distressed look. I have one holding small paint brushes, sharpies, and color pencils.


Next to the mason jars I keep ear-clips, my extra blouse buttons, hooks, and safety pins.


I also have an inspiration board where I pin inspirations from magazines to my cork board.


And right underneath I have a chalkboard with chalk to scribble lovely things.


On the right side, I have three frames that I made specifically for sewing.


The first two small frames I used floral fabric and stuffed it with polyester stuffing to hold the needles and pins. 


The third frame I made it into a thread holder. I did this by using a piece of plywood to fit on the frame, drilled holes and glued small cut round sticks of wood at a slight angle.


The purple heart next to the thread holder I keep all my studs and spikes, snaps, pins, and jean buttons. I found this gem at a thrift store.


I bought my sewing machine at Walmart. It's the Brother Computerized Embroidery and Sewing Machine, SE-400. I absolutely love it! I completely recommend it if you are looking for a good embroidery and sewing machine.

Behind my sewing machine, I keep two small baskets to hold a some more of my thread and ribbons.



The shelves holding the tabletop is next. In this picture, I am demonstrating how I am able to hide the sewing machine wire underneath using command hooks.


I keep contruction paper here.


I keep large mason jars in the back with pompoms and rhinestones. The smaller mason jars contain magnets, pegboard hooks, and command strips.


I keep fabric scraps in the large rose box and jewelry making supplies in the smaller rose boxes.


 I keep my embroidery equipment here.


I keep colorful felt here.


I keep colorful thread in a big jar, in the purple container I keep all my buttons, and a picture of me and my son.


I keep some of my fabric here.


 Lastly, the pegboard on the door.


All kinds of scissors!


 I keep two rolls of brown wrapping paper, embroidery hoops, and scissor decor.


I keep hand punches, decor tape, duct tape, and paint tape.


I keep clipboard that I painted with chalkboard paint, hand hot glue gun, glue, Mod Podge, Gorilla glue, and other types of glue.


And this is it!!


For tutorials shown in this picture:
  1. Shabby Chic File Cabinet Redo
  2. Shabby Chic Office Chair Redo
  3. Simple & Crafty Decor
I hope you got through this crazy long post and enjoyed it! If you have any questions about anything in this post, please do not hesitate to comment with your questions and I will try to answer it all. I hope you have a great day.

Thanks for reading!




Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...