Gearing up for Spring

While gearing up for spring,

I visited the dollar store and found some treasures.

Then I saw Kimm at Reinvented had posted a trash to treasure link and had to join. Check out the second project I've posted for some serious re-useing and recycling of materials for an awesome doorhanging to spruce up your porch.

I love the trend of using words cut from wood around my house. So this plain boring wood went from blah to beautiful with a coat of paint, some sanding, and a few fibers from my scrapbooking supplies. Nothing says spring like a relaxing day at the park or out in the backyard.

I also "needed" new spring door decor out front.

Afterall, I had an upcoming Boutique at my house. You can't very well sell swim suits if you still have a Christmas Wreath on the front door.

I made this for all of $3, my time, and a few supplies from around the house!

The flowers were a selection of three dollar store sprays that I meshed together and hooked together with a few kitchen twisty ties and packing tape. Easy.

I looked for several days for the perfect hanging pocket to hold them on the door and in the meantime found an adorable vase made from sticks. While examining it, I realized that the same principle could be applied to my front door so I came home and got to work. The vase from the store used styrofoam and then hooked sticks all around the round styrofoam base to make a vase.

I didn't have styrofoam and wanted a pocket so I made my own from a cake mix box turned inside out. I tapered the bottom corners and taped the box back together with the brown side out. Then I covered the whole box with glue and started adding sticks that I cut from an old bush down by the railroad tracks. I was getting a bit impatient for it to dry so I just drew an entire line of glue horizontally across the middle and tied a cute bow to hold everything in place. I could have also used mod podge here, but I already had the glue out. I did not add any sticks to the back so it wouldn't scratch the door.

In the box/vase, I put a few rocks to weigh it down and stuffed it with newpaper before inserting my dollar store flowers. I also added a little bit of moss on the top of the newspaper to hide it.

Last of all, I used a length of wire through the back to make a hook to hang it with and hung it outside. And If I decide later that I want it in the house...it will stand on its own.

What do you think? What preparations are you making for spring?