mini clipboards, that is all

Everything is cuter in smaller sizes.  So when I went to the Ashfield Fall Festival (it's like being in a Yankee Magazine article, but you can smell the apple crisp), I snapped up some mini clipboards at the annual crap sale there. 

thanks Larry and Gail...

...and the warehouse crew

At first I thought of wrapping the entire board, but I couldn't remove the clip, and I also liked the idea of some of the board peeking through.  
Very happy with the results, and have now started searching for more boards at the Goodwill and Salvation Armani.  These would be great as creative ways to display small pieces of artwork or photos, and the cookbook one would be great to prop up in a kitchen to hold recipes.  You could also use them to hold to do lists, which is what I used to do in middle school.  Yeah, I was a dork.  And I loved me some clipboards.

ask every woman!

yes, those are two hot dogs, to the

right of "summer"

1950's children's grammar book

color war!

(I checked to make sure it hadn't

morphed into an offensive term)

who doesn't love a great rendering 

of a hedgehog?

(as in voyage)

why can't I figure out how to make this

go the other way?

great baby shower project!

Handmade baby blocks is far from an original idea (someone named Martha Stewart has a tutorial for it), but it's a goodie.  It's fun, creative, and easy to personalize.  It would make a great activity at a baby shower, because no baby can ever have too many blocks (ok, let's get real here for a second - decorative baby blocks are for the parents, not the babies), and it's an easy, fun and quick project.

I made these for my new (3 days old!)nephew, whose name is Otto, but whom my son refers to as Babyotto.  When my sister-in-law was here in November, Gus could not figure out why Babyotto could not come out and play.  He's going to be a hell of an older cousin.

I repurposed two books - an old Richard Scarry and a new Eric Carle that I scored from the Twist goodie bag.  My only regret about this project is that I started cutting up the books while Gus was still awake.  Not so good when I spend a great deal of time explaining that books are precious and not to be destroyed.  He doesn't quite get that the exception to the "cutting up books is bad" rule is when you are repurposing the books in such a cool way.  He'll learn.

I didn't have a theme in mind, but once I started reading the Eric Carle, the seasons became an obvious one, especially because there are 4 seasons and 4 letters in Otto's name.  Brilliant, right?  

We'd love to bring this fun project to the next baby shower you host (assuming you live within driving distance from our Happy Valley).  Shoot us an email!

you have to look closely to see the 

letters o t t o overlaid on the beautiful

Eric Carle drawings 

awesome Richard Scarry drawings that 

nicely reflect the 4 seasons

and here is Eric Carle's take on 

the seasons - I couldn't have planned this

if I tried!

two personalized sides:  Otto's birthday is on the

winter block, and on summer is a baseball field 

and some stats about his parents' 

beloved Cincinnati Reds

amazing decoupage workshop today!

What a great decoupage workshop today!  19 girls, two houseparents, 60 frames ready for decoupaging, vintage fabric and buttons, decoupage paper, reclaimed maps, magazines and books, Scrabble tiles and ribbon.  What more could you ask for on a snowy Sunday in February?

Email us to plan a private decoupage party for a baby or bridal shower, a birthday party, or just for a fun night or afternoon out!  We can decoupage anything that doesn't move...

Check out these amazing frames that the girls made today!

love the way the flower flows off the edge and also into the frame area

the goods

vintage sheet music and fabric

Scrabble tiles!

buttons!

decoupage party

Reclaimed Crafts is so excited to head to the Bement School this Sunday for a decoupage workshop; what a creative and fun way for 20 friends to spend a snowy afternoon!  We'll be decoupaging frames using vintage maps, recycled books, postcards, magazines, wallpaper, buttons and Scrabble tiles.  

This is such a creative and simple project, and with all of the materials we have collected, it's easy to personalize the frame for the people in it and whatever the picture portrays:

This is a picture of Gus driving Pop Pop's boat (don't tell the Coast Guard).  The frame is decoupaged with a nautical map that I scored at Goodwill that - wait for it - included the area where Pop Pop drives his boat.  How cool is that?

The summer theme was inspired by our recent trip to Barbados.  I actually freehand sketched the bucket and shovel (I was channeling Ed Emberly).

Here's a close-up of the location of this picture stamped onto a variety of colorful decoupage paper, and a stack of summery vintage buttons for a little 3D action!

This was a holiday present for my husband.  The frame is decoupaged with a local map that is layered with all sorts of other personal references as well as some birds, Gus' current obsession. 

I love the punch of color the birds supply, and the way the cardinal's head peeks up and over the frame and into the picture area.  I've also stamped the date of the picture onto some paper salvaged from an old calendar.

This would also be a great project for a baby shower (what new parents don't need tons of frames to show of the 10 billion pictures they've taken of their gorgeous babe?) or for a bridal shower (the frames could be used as favors or to display table numbers at the wedding).  Showers are always more fun with crafting, and the projects are such amazing memories and keepsakes of a special day.  Let us help you organize a craft day for a special occasion! 

Stay tuned for pics of all of the beautiful frames we craft on Sunday!

decoupage class at Arts & Industry

What a great class!  It was a gorgeous day, with bright sun streaming through the floor to ceiling windows, inspiring creativity and productivity.  Check out the gorgeous decoupage projects!

metal tray with nice decoupaging detail:

Ikea mirrors scored at a garage sale:

so Key West!

love.  those.  maps.

amazing decoupage detail

stunning fully wrapped metal tray

action shots (funky retro tray in foreground)

Join us on December 4th for our coaster class.  Repurposed ceramic bathroom tile + decoupage paper and vintage maps, magazines, books and fabric = gorgeous, useful drink coasters.  Makes a great gift, or keep them for your own entertaining!  Email jendieringer@gmail.com for more details and to sign up!

Can't. Stop. Decoupaging.

I want to decoupage everything that moves (cats and baby Gus emit sighs of relief).  This project was inspired by a beautiful decoupaged plate I got at Twist several years ago. 

It began by scoring a bunch of large square glass tiles from FreeCycle.  I then sat down with a bunch of magazines, some old books and my alphabet stamps and started decoupaging.  It looked a little high school (you know, when you cut out a bunch of pictures and words from Seventeen and Glamour Magazines and put them all together and gave them to your friends...or maybe it was just a Long Island thing?).  So with Laurie's help, I changed some stuff and came up with this summer-themed square with a very preppy paper background:

While I loved the design, it kind of still felt like a glass tile with decoupage on it.  Pretty, not practical, and we at Reclaimed Crafts are all about pretty AND practical.  And lots of Mod Podge.  Then Laurie, thinker of big, creative thoughts, remembered the vintage glass stoppers we got at Brimfield even though we had no idea what we'd do with them:

Feet!  Of course.  They were meant to be feet, so that Decoupaged Glass Tile would become Pretty Summer Cheese Plate.  And so, with a touch of Gorilla Glue, it did.

My map obsession grew when I found a maritime map at Goodwill.  It wasn't just any maritime map, it was a maritime map of Long Island, where my stepdad has his boat.  His boat clearly needed a tray for cocktail service, and it needed to be decoupaged with the maps of where the boat was going.

And then there are all of those vintage road maps from gas companies long gone.  Perfect little present for my mom, the compulsive organizer, to clip her papers neatly together.