Wallpaper Samples

  (Found at any wallpaper retailer, Kmart, Home Depot, etc)

1. Use as matting for frames.
2. Make into a gift bag.
3. Make into a hat box or gift box.
4. Cover folders or make into folder.
5. Make a nice room set: cover trashcan, pencil holder, etc
6. Make a desk cover (cover a rectangular piece with a dark leather-looking "frame" with triangular corners)
7. Make gift wrap tubes, tie with thread, and place into gift wrap holder.

Tiny Beads

  (Found in my special Bead Box)

1. Make a small beaded purse. Cut out a rectangle about 0.75 inch wide and 1.5 inches long from a thick piece of fabric. Sew the beads on to this fabric before stitching (or gluing) up the sides. Sew (or glue) on a ribbon (or yarn) strap.
2. Trim the top and bottom edges of a lamp shade.
3. Attach clear tiny beads to white thread, then sew or glue thread strands to a lamp to make a Tiffany-Style lamp.
4. Fill a crystal clear vase with jewel-toned beads. Then fill vase with long-stemmed flowers.
5. Fill a mason's jar or a glass bottle with beads as seeds or ingredients.
6. Fill a cup or goblet with several crystal-colored or blue colored beads as ice cubes.
7. Make a necklace with clear or white dental floss (or thin jewelry-making wire), tie the ends together.
8. Make a treasure chest either from wood or cardboard. Attach a lid with a thin piece of leather or cloth. Line inside of box/chest with velvet or dark-colored cloth. Fill with jewel-toned or crystal beads.
9. Decorate a dress or outfit with tiny beads. Use the flatter, tiny beads as buttons.
10. String beads together on a long garland to decorate a Christmas tree, a window, a banister on staircase, a door, outside bushes or trees, etc.
11. Use a yellow bead as a flame or bulb.

Pre-Cut Pictures

  (Found in my special Pictures or from any free Clip Art Book)

1. Some pictures are already framed, so you can go ahead and hang them on a wall with tape or poster tack.
2. Make a picture mat from thick cardboard or construction paper.
3. You can find little picture frames everywhere.
4. Or, you can make your own from thin strips of wood.
5. I've found adorable pewter frames at local decorator/antique shops ranging in price from $4 to $20.
6. Bend a piece of brass wire into a frame.
7. Office Supply stores carry self-laminating paper, which you can use to cover the picture.
8. Clear nail polish lightly coated on will add a glossy finish.

Plastic Decorations

  (Found in several of my Holiday Gift Sets)

1. Some of the plastic decorations are on sticks. Insert the stick into a flower pot (with dirt or foam on the bottom to hold stick upright).
2. Place decoration in window (we did this with a flat plastic tree and it looked great on the other side of the window)
3. Wire a strand of lights around the plastic decoration. (Again, we had a plastic tree and we outlined it with Christmas lights and stuck it in the window)
4. Some decorations look better without the plastic stick, so carefully detach the stick with your hands, scissors, or wire cutters.
5. We had a pumpkin on a stick which we detached and set on the front porch. Another pumpkin was decorated with a thick black marker.
6. We also had some plastic bats which we removed from their sticks, attached to some black string and hung from the ceiling of a room box we decorated for Halloween.
7. Plastic snowmen and santas were stuck in the grass mat we had for the front yard (under which was a thick foam core and finally the hardwood workbench).

Chains

  (Found in my special Jewelry Box)

1. Small beaded chains can be hung from ceiling light fixtures or ceiling fans. (You can easily make a ceiling fan with one of big beads (Super Bead Box) and four cardboard blades and a piece of metal, wire, or tubing to hang the bead from. Glue the big bead onto the wire and glue the blades behind the bead. (You might want to stick the wire through the blades to allow them to move). If the bead isn't yellow or white, you can paint it.)
2. Snip a small section of chain, attach two ends together with the help of pliers, and you have a nice necklace.
3. Chain lost it's goldness? Paint it with gold, silver or bronze paint. Model paint works best. Paint chain on wax paper.
4. Use chains on a bottle cap as handles. Deeper bottle caps can make cute buckets.
5. Use chain as a purse strap.
6. Use chain as a bell pull (either for front door or for butler)
7. If you have a store or bank, use the chains to direct customers. Attach to free-standing posts for more realistic effect.

Flowers

  (Found in all of my flower grab bags)

1. The daisy bouquet that is now available looks beautiful in a wooden candle holder. Mine is painted grey. The pale daisy colors contrast wonderfully against the muted grey.
2. Fill a pot with foam to hold flowers upright.
3. Wrap strands of green easter grass around the bottom of a bouquet's stems to keep flowers together and to sit better in the pot.
4. Snip flower heads off stem and fill a square basket and use as a table centerpiece.
5. Snip flower head (leaving a little wire on head) off stem. Shape a piece of foam (we made a pyramid) and stick flower heads into the foam until it is covered. You may want to glue green "grass" onto foam before inserting flowers. Place foam on a table.
6. Wrap two silk flowers around a parasol.
7. Wrap several flowers around the brim of a straw hat.
8. Stick one or two flowers in the side of a hat (wrap a piece of thin ribbon around brim to cover stems).
9. Wrap some wire stemmed flowers in a doll's hair and shape into an elegant hairdo.
10. Dried flowers can be crumbled and placed in a glass jar, used for aromatherapy or apothecary needs.
11. Fill a small bowl with crumbled dried flowers as potpourri.
12. Making a wedding scene? Scatter dried flowers on the carpets.

Rocks

  (Found in my special Rock Bag)

1. Fill a small pond (you can easily make a pond by saving the blister pack of a razor or other product and inserting into a soft grass mat. Glue the mat onto the clear plastic "pond") with little rocks (you may need to glue the rocks into place on the plastic) and fill with clear resin to make a pond.
2. Make a garden trail by pouring little rocks through "grass" or along a path on a grass mat. You make form the path first with some grey paint. You may want to glue the rocks down to keep them from moving and getting lost in the carpet.
3. Line the landscaping around trees, gardens, and the house. (Fill the landscaping with "dirt", "moss", "wood chips", etc.)

Collectible Tin

  (Found in my special Christmas Gift Sets)

1. Besides using them for storage and decoration, we can cut a window in one side. Glue a piece of clear plexiglass over the open window and you've made a really nice display box.
2. The big, round tins can be set upright on their side and insert in an overturned lid (placed flat on the table). So you will be forming an "L". This setup can be used for many different scenes.
3. In one scene, you can line the frontal tin lid and the bottom of the upright box with straw and grass and make a mouses' home or a barn.
4. Line the corners with spider webs and form a graveyard in the lid with dirt and grey stone "headstones".
5. Glue a picture of a door (which you can find at most hardware store catalogs and pamphlets) in the bottom of the tin. Glue on a window and outline with curtains.
6. We made one scene by gluing the end of a square piece of sheer fabric to the top of the tin, then snipping an opening up the middle (about an inch or two from the top). The ends of the sheer fabric was glued to the tin's lid. This makes a curtained "room. Inside this curtained room, we glued a big picture of a majestic mansion and curving staircase on the back of the tin and set a small white table up inside the tin with a wedding cake and champaign glasses on top. The wedding couple stood to one side and a vase of roses sat beside them. A couple of roses were hung at the top and ends of the sheer fabric. Real romantic.

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