Here we are.  The start of a new season!  This is always one of my favorite weeks.  Everyone is still in and they’ve all brought their A game.  And from the looks of it, this season is going to rock!

Here’s a reminder of who the crafters of season 13 are:

Ann Marie @ White House Black Shutters
Cameron @ Cameron Homemade
Hannah @ Young & Crafty
Autumn @ It’s Always Autumn
Maria @ Chuy Creativity
Jamie @ Three Scoops of Love
Kataryna @ Sew Chibi
Lauren @ Lucy Baby Designs
Jessica @ The Domestic Fruit Loop

Make sure you get your vote for favorite Stash Busting project in the sidebar before Thursday night.  And make sure you’re getting your own project ready for the linky party Thursday!

And now … the projects!

Craft #1 – Pallet Planter - Hannah @ Young & Crafty

This whole project cost me $8. I had all of the materials. The only thing I bought was the fern! That is my kind of project. Not to mention, the husband will be so happy that all of those pallets aren’t in the garage anymore.

Craft #2 – Never Never Land - Lauren @ Lucy Baby Designs

Stash busting! Man, let me tell you I have a stash.

I have a ton of wood, paint, scrap book paper, fabric, and recyclables. All of which are not very organized. Yikes! I was excited to go through some of this stuff and pull a project out of it.

When I was a child my mom used to sing “Never Never Land” to us before bed. Not because we loved the movie “Peter Pan” but because she was a hippie who listened to Todd Rundgren. Just a side note-if you are unfamiliar with this version of the song, I highly recommended finding it on Spotify. It will give you a little insight on the music I was raised on! Anyway, I really enjoying making things for my kids rooms and since this is such a fond memory for me, I thought it would be nice to paint for one of their rooms.

I love painting on wood as opposed to canvas. I love the shabby chic look that it produces. I don’t like anything to be too perfect.

“I know a place where dreams are born and time is never planned”. When I read it I hear my Mother’s voice singing it. I am so happy with how the silhouettes turned out, especially Wendy’s. Doesn’t it make you want to find the second star to the right?

Craft #3 – ‘Stache Busting - Jessica @ The Domestic Fruit Loop

This week’s challenge was indeed a challenge for me. Most of my supplies are purposed for specific projects with all of the general stuff belonging to my daughter. Other than fabric and sewing notions I don’t keep much of a “stash” for making projects. While I enjoy fabric-based crafts most, be it upholstering, sewing, or styling, I felt like using that fallback would lack the fun and creativity expected in this task. In a twist (or two dapper twists) on the theme, I dove into my fabric stash and, combined with some colorful straws and notecards, created stash-’staches!

I used various fabrics to make each one of a kind mustache. I glued the fabric to a blank card, cut out a standard mustache template, and attached a colored straw to the back using clear tape. Once my stash-’staches were created, I tested them out in the wild. I visited a local park on a busy Saturday morning with my ‘staches and a “Free Mustache” sign! I was super excited to see the genuine glee and enthusiasm that my colorful little ‘staches generated and was able to get some great pictures. On an unofficial scale of 1 to dapper, models utilizing my hand-crafted stash-’staches were rated by an ubbiased panel as decidedly dapper! I hope that my ‘stache experiment from my limited stash of supplies brings you the kinds of smiles and ideas that the ‘staches themselves brought to the park visitors!

Craft #4 – A “Discoverizer” - Kataryna @ Sew Chibi

Hmm… What’s that you say?! A “Discoverizer”?! Well let’s just start at the beginning shall we? For this week’s stash buster theme, I had a vision. A vision of covering a somewhat dangerous aspect of our new home in a fun-ctional way. My little one is constantly trying to play near this wrought iron railing feature that separates our living room from, well, nothingness aka an open staircase. I didn’t have a lot of time as there was a LOT of hustle and bustle around here due to a certain birthday party for my oldest that occupied most of my time. But! I did have a lot of fabric… and I decided to seek inspiration from a bolt of Ikea fabric I procured a little while ago an design an organizer. Every bit of this contraption was made from my stash or scrap bin.

So rewarding when you don’t have to spend a dime on a useful and beautiful project, isn’t it?! So, I thought, if I’m going to make a “shield” (if you will) I should probably make it practical and fun! So I decided to add various sized pockets, some small and some really big and all of the top edges of them are bar-tacked to stand the inevitable weight that will soon be bestowed upon them. For fun, I decided to make it a sensory station for my one year old (but as a double win my 5 year old loves it too!). I made a Velcro face to help her learn the different features of face. I made a “please touch” textural station made of different bits of fabric that all have a unique feel to them, plus a little zipper.

Then I repurposed an old tummy time mirror in to a peek a boo mirror and finally as a pièce de résistance I made a peek a boo Moono from Yo Gabba Gabba, my baby’s favorite show. They L-O-V-E it! It ties through buttonholes to make little knots through out the top of the Discoverizer and finished with a nice box pleated ruffle along the bottom front. So pleased with how it turned out!! I can’t wait to de-clutter the living room a bit! And it makes me relieved that I won’t have to be so worried about my little one as much anymore (well, in regards to the railing anyways!)  All in all, it took about a day to cut all the pieces, and a day and a half to sew the whole thing together!  Not bad, right?! Well, crafters?!  What do you think?

“Where’s Moono?… PEEKABOO!!”

Craft #5 – Mini Frame Pincushions - Cameron @ Cameron Homemade

Those dollar bins always seem to be chock-full of things I really need – but somehow I never seem to use what I come home with.  No more – today I have finally utilized one of my amazing dollar bin finds: turning sweet little mini frames into pincushions.  

Let’s be honest – my pictures are all on my hard drive with no plans of being made real any time soon.  And these frames are really too small to hold all but the most zoomed out portrait…however, they make perfectly darling pincushions.  

I think the square one is my favorite – something about the messy zigzag, the turquoise and yellow color scheme – it just speaks to me. 

To really kick things up a notch, I added coordinating pins – just dip regular pins in some acrylic paint and let dry.  I think I will be sending these to all my favorite sewing goddesses!

Craft #6 - Pretty packaging for your tasty treats - Autumn @ It’s Always Autumn

When I started thinking about what to create for this week’s theme I spent some time considering what sort of “stash” most people have. I don’t have a stash of designer fabrics (although I wish I did!), but I do have a fairly large stash of scrapbook paper, and I bet many of you do as well. Scrapbook paper is so pretty I think we all tend to buy more than we’ll ever get around to using in our scrapbooks, so I figured out another use for that stash: pretty packaging for your tasty treats.

I love baking and candy making, and I often end up with more treats than my family will (or ought to) eat on our own. But I’d feel silly plunking down one or two leftover brownies on a paper plate and giving such a sorry-looking package away, so instead the extras get tossed. Even when I’ve made treats for someone specific, I always regret that the presentation (styrofoam and tin foil anyone?) isn’t nearly as special as the sweets themselves.

That’s why this project was born. I started by figuring out how to create a fun cupcake-shaped container using one sheet of 8.5×11 paper, then went on to create three more treat boxes. I’ve designed free printable templates for each box as well as a page of printable tags to help me (and you!) quickly turn that stash of lonely scrapbook paper into professional-looking packages for your homemade goodies.

Simply trim a few inches off one side of a 12×12 piece of scrapbook paper, print out a template, make a few cuts and folds, and in minutes you’ll have one of the packages seen below. Even better – print out a slew of templates, then cut and score folds one night while watching a favorite movie, and you’ll have boxes that can be assembled in 30 seconds next time you’d like to brighten someone’s day with a sweet treat. And you won’t spend a dime!

The truffle box, brownie box, and cookie sack with see though cutout (created using a page protector) can all be constructed from one sheet of paper each. The cupcake box takes one sheet of paper for the box and another sheet for the top. All templates will be available in PDF form on my blog for you to download and use.

Put the finishing touch on your pretty packages with one of six “sweet” tags that I’ve created, which will also be available for free download. Choose from: “Eat something sweet {you deserve it}” – “You’re sweet, but this is sweeter” – “Most of the time life is sweet, but when it’s not there’s always chocolate” – and three more sweet sentiments.

Craft #7 – Distressed Wood Photo Display - Jamie @ Three Scoops of Love

When it comes to stashing things, my husband would tell you that I’m an expert.  I decided to use up some of the wood scraps that I refuse to throw away to make a Distressed Wood Photo Display.  I also tend to pick up interesting finds at garage sales and thrift stores and stash them away because I know I’ll have the perfect use for them someday.  I usually end up with drawers and boxes full of random junk that I rarely use, so this was the perfect excuse to dig out these old railroad nails that are stamped with the year that they were originally used.  Lastly, I am guilty of stashing photos on my phone or camera and never printing or displaying them.

My scrap wood was aged with steel wool soaked in vinegar and then heavily distressed.  The railroad nails from my stash now hold a length of jute for hanging some of those photos.

Craft #8 – Watercolor Painted Wreath - Ann Marie @ White House Black Shutters

Once upon a time I thought it was a really good idea to buy 20 yards of white muslin. Why? I am not quite sure. I challenged myself to make it exciting and use some of the muslin up.

Inspired by a painting from my toddler, I took the fabric and painted it with watercolor paint. When I got the artist’s permission, I cut the inspiration painting into flower shapes and added them to the wreath. The other rosettes are scraps cut from a canvas dropcloth. The result is a hand painted wreath that got my little artist involved. Total cost? FREE. Yards of white muslin left? 19. Woo hoo!

Craft #9 – Jewelry Hanger - Maria @ Chuy Creativity

I was not sure what to make and well there is one thing I’ve been wanting to make for a while and decided why not now.  I make a lot of jewelry and  my daughter gets first pick all the time, I’ve done lots of jewelry boxes and these work great for bracelets and rings, but I wanted to make her something that will hold her earrings and without taking space from her dressers, so I decided to make an earring holder she can hang on the wall in her room, I might make her a smaller version with magnets that she might want to use in her school locker, if she wants me to.   Well below is a picture of the materials I used, not shown here is the red shoe lace I decided to use as hanger.

1. the lid from a shoe box – opened all the edges 2.  A piece of some window screen I had 3.  A roll of black and white duck tape 4. 2 sheets of duck tape 5.  Westcott’s cutting tools 6. Westcott’s non- stick cutting board 7. Glue gun and glue sticks 8. Pencil

First thing I had to do after opening all the edges of the shoe box lid, I had to mark with a pencil the area I was going to cut off the lid , now the reason I opened the edges of the box instead of cutting them off, is that when I add the hot glue to attach the screen I will fold it over the screen so it will hold the wire.

Now all I had to do is add a hanger and well I went with a red shoe string, I cut a small piece and attached to the back with more of the zebra duck tape. The earring holder is now done and ready to be used.

Here is the finished project, is simple and very handy. I will be making a much bigger size in the future, but for now this will be a good size to hold the earrings I made for my daughter.