Following are some great ideas for DIY kids furniture that’s also totally low-cost.

1. DIY Inexpensive Kiddie Table & Chairs!- I LOVE this set, it’s one of my fave DIY kids projects.
2. DIY Kid’s Chalkboard Table – so much fun, and great for indoor and outdoor play.
3. HOW TO: Eco-Refinish Children’s Wooden Furniture – grab any old dresser or bookcase and make it look amazing with a few easy steps.
4. Eco-friendly & affordable DIY play kitchen – many amazing ideas; trust me you will LOVE them all.
5. DIY kids cardboard furniture – really cool.
6. Perfect kids storage container with lots of extras.
7. Make a cool train table – for train and rail obsessed kids.
8. How to Build an Easel – a little tricky but doable.
9. Easy homemade bean bags – great for lounging around.
10. Build a deluxe playhouse – this last one is a little more in depth, and not so much furniture, but fun and really if you have tools and minimal skills you can do it. It’s also cheaper than they say (200-500) if you can locate free or salvaged wood (check Craigslist).

For more inspiration see 10 Fab DIY Playspaces.

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Ideas for saving old frames…

Paint - of course a super easy fix when it’s just cosmetics that are the issue. Remember to remove the glass, or cover it with paper before painting. Also, try odd colors. For example, silver metallic paint doesn’t look that flashy, it actually looks awesome when used to frame black & white photos. If you’re super handy with a paint brush or sponge you can find an image to work off of (like the one above) and stencil a design on your frame.

Clean up – clean old wooden frames with a little bit of denatured alcohol and some linseed oil. Sometimes just getting the gunk off a frame will perk it up enough to use.

Distress your frame – I like distressed everything, and large frames especially look good this way. It’s not a polished look, but works for casual homes.

Clean up the matting – If you’ve got a decent frame with an icky looking mat, all you need is some extra wall paper (in a small design style, or plain) to cover the old mat. You can also of course buy a basic mat replacement which is cheaper than a whole frame.

Make it 3D – You can use puffy paint on a frame, decoupage dried flowers on, or attach items like buttons, brass stars, and so fourth to make a frame that pops out. These are cool for things like children’s art and photos.

Missing glass – Unless you’re handy with a glass cutter, don’t use old glass to replace the broken glass in a frame. Glass snaps easily, so if you do use a glass cutter be careful. If you can’t buy replacement glass for a frame, use the frame for something that’s a-ok without a frame, like your kids art or a sunprint.

What other ways can you think of to save old frames?

[image via stock.xchng]

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1. Make a homemade salt body scrub – you can make a basic salt scrub by just mixing salt and water into a paste or you can get fancy and add fresh herbs, essential oils, or olive oil to make a more luxurious, but still cheap compared to boutique, type scrub. See a recipe for sugar scrub – you can use salt instead of the sugar.
2. Fix your gunky sticky iron by sprinkling a bit of salt onto a piece of brown paper (like a grocery bag) and run the iron over it.
3. Put a bunch of ice cubes in your coffee pot, add a good shake of salt, swirl the salt and ice for a nice clean pot.
4. Clean your greens – take a big bowl and fill it water, add some salt, add your greens (kale, spinach, lettuce) and swirl in the bowl. The salt scrubs off the dirt. Just remember to rinse your greens after.
5. Sprinkle right away on still hot spills inside your oven. Wait for the oven to cool and use a damp cloth to clean the spill, it’ll come right up.
6. Get rid of watermarks on wood – make a little paste of salt + some cooking oil, rub the paste slowly into the watermark (like a cup ring on wood), allow it to sit a few minutes then wipe with soft cloth.
7. Toss over your shoulder to ward off evil – JUST KIDDING. Just making sure you’re still awake

Do you have any other cool uses for salt? Share in the comments.

[image via stock.xchang]

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This table and chair set was made by blogger Maya Luna and instructions are posted at her crafty cool blog, Maya Made. The set is made with easy and cheap items that can be reused again such as cardboard, a pizza pan, and fabric (think old scraps of fabric). You can make this for very little money and then recycle or reuse the items when you’re done. A green and thrifty project!

I think this is an excellent child-minded DIY project all around. If you take a swing at it, let me know in the comments.

Learn how to make this adorable table and chair set!

[image via Maya Made]

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To make a juice can shaker, you’ll need:

• A juice can and lid (We use Welches)
• Beads, pebbles, beans, or rice
• Hot glue or tape

Thoroughly clean the can and the lid. Pour the beads or other items into the can and hot glue the lid on. If you’re allowing a child to do the project, have the child tape the lid on with a piece of duct tape instead. That’s all there is to it.

We tried different filler items for different cans to create a slightly different sound for each one. If you don’t have juice cans, you can always fill a plastic water bottle halfway with rice or beans instead.

Do you make musical instruments from things you find around the house?

Photo by getye1

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With the number of people creating new garments out of old, I’d say it is definitely possible. Reconstructed garments, called recons for short, are very popular with crafters. If you’re afraid to just jump in and start cutting and hacking at your old clothes, you may want to do what I did and check out the recons that have already been done at Craftster. I especially want to do the sweet little girl’s dress from a man’s dress shirt. So adorable!

Photo by Emily MacInnes/Stock Exchange

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Anyway, some of the stuff really wasn’t that special, but a few things really had wonderful memories attached to them. I didn’t want to completely get rid of them, but I didn’t want to toss out clothes in my other closet to store them and I didn’t want to use up storage space in my attic, which is filling up fast.

So, I’m thinking the answer is to cut several five inch squares from each garment and stacked them in a single tidy pile until I can find time to sew a memory quilt. A simple charm quilt pattern will work best, I think. I won’t even feel guilty about cutting them up because there are a lot of scary 80’s shoulder pads in there!

You can’t get much thriftier than a brand new quilt made out of things you already had around the house, so I thought I’d share my idea with you.

Photo by Bethany Carlson

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Things that are nice, but not essential, are grommets to reinforce the holes and tags for the pockets. If you want to make an heirloom album that will last a long time, you probably will want to use some acid removing spray.

Simply stack the three bags together, with the one in the middle facing the other way. Fold them in half, punch some holes along the fold and use the yarn to bind them together. Glue on the paper scraps and embellishments to make the album pretty and then add photos to the pages. Make tags from some of the paper scraps and glue more photos to them or use them for journaling. Tuck the tags into the pockets.

(If you need a gift bag for your project, Mad Cropper has a post about a super cute embellished paper bag.)

By the way, for a much more complicated, but incredibly beautiful album, check out Marion’s amazing paper bag album:

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Here are some ideas – although I’m sure you can think of more.

Button hair bands: Cut a piece of extra elastic to an average hair band size (imagine if a hair band was cut open). Thread buttons through elastic to create a hair tie for your little one. OR your little one’s dolls.

Use for all sorts of dollhouse furniture and item ideas – pictures on the wall, table tops, garden stones, plates, etc.

Place small bits of magnetic tape on the backs of buttons and use them to create funky letters and numbers on the fridge.

Use them in scrapbooks. Most stores sell scrapbook buttons for insane prices; you can just use the real thing.

Make button beings (requires some extra scraps – but stuff you likely have).

[button beings via Family Fun]

Take an old (but small) glass jar, fill with water, add some buttons, a dash of food coloring, and some glitter. Hand to a happy baby or toddler. Make sure that you hot glue that lid on, and / or don’t leave the room while your little one plays with it. For extra fun pick a sunny spot to play in, because then the glitter really shines.

Of course you can always go super basic too. Make a bracelet, use in old juice containers or oatmeal containers to make a rattle or drum, use if you run out of game board pieces, or do what my son does and glue them on paper to create art.

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Have you ever realized that it was somebody’s birthday, but did not have a card on hand? I am always running into that problem. So, I decided to make it easy on myself and keep a card making basket handy in my art closet. Whenever I see some card stock on sale, I pick up a package. If I find a great sale at the local craft store, I grab a stamp or two, some ink or some paints to add to my card basket. Then, when an occasion pops up that I am without a card for, I just take out the card basket and whip up a beautiful little card. People love things that are homemade, because they have more thought put into them.

My kids have learned this little card trick and created their own card baskets. Whenever a friend or family member has a birthday, it is a joy to make a custom designed card for the occasion. We scour the web for pictures of the birthday person’s favorite things, print the pictures out and add them to a construction paper card. My daughter, who loves to paint, adds creative artwork to her cards. The babies, who are too young to lend a helping hand, lend their literal hands to make cute prints for baby shower cards.

We have saved a whole lot of money and made for some great art projects, just by eliminating Hallmark purchases. I keep every card that my kids make and put them into their memory boxes, for safe keeping. They love to go through their boxes and look back on what they have created. Our family and friends adore their cards, as well, even more than the gift that accompanies it!

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