Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am least crafty or artistic person around!
I have brilliant ideas in my head but when it comes to the actual creation of the ideas, it rarely ends up looking like I wanted it to. So when I say that these ways to up-cycle your charity shop bargains are amazingly easy, you can rest assured that they most certainly are because if I can make them, anyone can!
They’re just simple ideas based on things that we’ve done but I hope you like them….
This is a piece of wire stretched across the middle of a beautiful photo frame so Miss Frugal can hang her favourite pictures using pretty coloured bulldog clips.
We have a charity shop in town that always sells small pieces of furniture and, no matter how sad they look in the shop, can be easily up-cycled into beautiful furniture for your home. Here’s what we did with some tired looking bedside cabinets a few months ago.
This mirror was a 50p bargain a few years ago – probably because it was so ugly with a shiny orangey coloured varnish on it. A quick sand and it looks beautiful hanging in my hall, although it definitely looks like it needs a clean in the picture!
I shared this one in last week’s five frugal things post but basically, we used an old beaded necklace to make a hanger for sunglasses. We already had the necklace but you can pick them up in charity shops for pennies usually and you can use them to hang so much more than just sunglasses.
You can make some personalised wall art if you can find some cheap canvasses. One of our local charity shops has a big box outside for canvasses that would be perfect for this and they’re usually just a pound as they’re not very pretty!
You could make a sock puppet from some of the brightly coloured socks or tights you come across or even a homemade draft excluder for the Winter.
You could make slow cooker hot chocolate cakes which are baked in china tea cups which is a brilliant way to use some the beautiful teacups and saucers that you’ll no doubt come across.
And another great use for some of the beautiful teacups and saucers that you come across is to make candles with them like Tartan Thrifty has done here.
Which leads me nicely into the next part of this post – #FabulouslyFrugal.
The amazing tea cup candles from Tartan Thrifty was linked up with last week’s #FabulouslyFrugal and inspired me to share with you a few of the things we’ve done to up-cycle charity shop bargains in the past.
Have you done anything frugal, thrifty or money saving this week? If you have I would love you to link up with #FabulouslyFrugal this week – just add your post to the linky down at the bottom of the post.
Just in case you don’t know what #FabulouslyFrugal is all about, it’s a weekly linky that we started (myself, Jen from A Thrifty Mum and Mum in The Madhouse and Emma from Emma’s Savvy Savings ) with the idea of showing everyone just how easy to be thrifty or frugal.
It’s been quiet over the last couple of week’s so I’d love to make this week a bit of a bumper week!
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Nice crafts! Yes, indeed you are a crafty person.You can try some online practical tests on Maths and English for your kids at http://www.kidsfront.com/
Some great ideas for jazzing up the home. I personally like to use old blackboards or paint them on a wall myself then put a nice frame round it and write a cool phrase or draw a cool logo or something like that and make it look all old. You can get a really nice effect if you play about with it. Maybe even make some templates so you can make it look proper. I've done a few now for some of my local pubs and around my own home, in the kitchen and reception area.
Some good ideas could do with doing some craft work project to do myself. .
old beaded necklace to make a hanger for sunglasses beautiful
Great ideas – I love the teacup candle especially! Kaz x
Love what you did to the bedside cabinet…really impressive!
I have two bedside cabinets that I really need to upcycle and I keep putting it off as I can't face the sanding! Mich x
And you say that you're not crafty or artistic?? I can't agree with that. The cups look lovely and the sunglasses hanging on the necklace look amazing. You sure are creative! Thanks for sharing.
Such great ideas… love the cake in tea cups x
Yum! I cant wait to try the hot choc cakes. I tried the Shamrock Shake with the kids the other day, definitely a keeper!
Brilliant ideas! I want to do more upcycling and I am looking for a project to use chalk board paint on now
I love browsing charity shops, I just wish I had the imagination for upcycling. maybe I should just throw myself in the deep end and give it a go.
Some good ideas could do with doing some craft work project to do myself. .
I've always wanted to paint our kitchen cabinets but I've never been sure of what paint to use. I fear if I get it wrong it could end up being very expensive to put right!
What some fantastic idea, I wish I had more time to craft – I used to do so much of it. x
Well for someone who is not arty or creative, these look blooming brilliant x