Re purpose, Reuse projects and other crafts

Re purpose and Reuse projects

Our lives are all about Re purpose and Reusing objects on this page I will give you ideas and show you things we have done here at the house.

Jan 14, 2016

The barn build is coming along. We started out with a stack of lumber from a barn we tore down.

We have now separated this into piles.

We even used the old tin from the roof.

We are building right off the old barn.

This will be the area of the barn that will house our goats.

Been a long process of cleaning up these boards and using them.

This will be the 1st stall in our new edition.

The new edition looks like this now. We have one sliding door done and are working on the other.

We also now have a place to put our equipment for our small farm.

We have saved some money with re using the wood from an old barn, but time is a factor to put into the equation when using old barn wood. What you do not think about when doing this is the fact you need to clean the wood up from all those nails. We have gone to cutting them off to use the lumber.

This has saved time but we also have to now clean the pasture from all the nails. Things to think about when salvaging wood for a project. There are still so many things to do with the barn, but wanted to show you the progress and problems with up cycling thing and reusing them.

Also some new things that are being built with old things are these.

Been using old jars to make into candle holders. Used old postcard copies and decoupaged them on the glass. Have made beautiful candle holders.

I also have been drilling through Chine.

There was a small learning curve to drilling through china, but I think I have it now. We have some new things coming out of the garage this year and I hope to be on here soon with some pictures.

May18, 2015

Been wanting to do this for years and had an opportunity to make it happen. A husband with a couple of hours for me! I had all the objects drilled and ready to go for this day. Many of these up cycled projects are the 2 of us working together to work out the kinks that need to be worked out to make an item perfect. This is one of those projects. He has the know how to make it happen, I have the idea and inspiration.

This bird house came out great and couldn't have done it without him.

October 6, 2014


This Summer while traveling through the mountains, I came across some old porcelain knobs. I knew when I saw them what they were going to be and we now have started to make them into their new purpose in life. They are now......

Bathroom towel racks!!! Just so awesome, I want one for my bathroom. I may make one soon for ours.

June 4, 2014

Wayne and I the other day had a chance to work on something together. I had pulled an old enamel strainer from the trash one day at work and had an idea, NOW IT HAS COME TO LIFE!

I had gotten an old lamp from the Goodwill, because no one was going to love it and I thought I could give it some new life in the future, and it did.

A friend had given me a 1950's Atlas Jar, and I saw my lamp come to life. With this lamp came an old suitcase that had some junk in it, well I also used some of the junk in the lamp!

I love these old licence plates, I had a double and used this on a piece of old barn wood, for the base of the lamp.

Wayne helped me drill the hole in the bottom of this mason jar, I was a chicken after having 2 glass plates break on me, I thought it was me!

So this is what it looks like. I'm so proud of our little lamp.

Just a bunch of pretty Junk!

Love it.

May 19, 2014

We have said how we love to recycle things here on Cranberry Acre many times. My husband had come up with an idea which was just great. He used an old picnic table top and made a new picnic table out of very large stumps and it!

I will be looking for some foam and will be making some seats to put on the top of the stumps. We will get there, but it looks so awesome.

May 7, 2014

We've been playing with cups and glass again!

Remember those cups I picked up at a Yard sale. Well here they are with a new and I believe improved life!

We made hanging bird feeders out of them.

I am so much in love with these things.

The little ceramic cup and cernaic bowl, are now a birdhouse, with a bird feeder!

When looking for some new cups, my husband and I came across a lot of cut glass, crystal, some pretty odds and ends, so we created these yesterday.

I just love Up cycling things!

We even gave an ashtray a better life.

April 28, 2014

Little update on those cups and saucers I had purchased at a yard sale, they are now bird feeders. After messing up on three, I think I finally have the hang of it now!

I added a silver spoon to this one so the birds can sit on it to eat. This one I will keep!

I also experimented with drawing on them and baking the cups, to set the drawing on them. So many ways to dress these little bird feeders up, I just love the possibilities.

April 8, 2014

Mason Jar oil lights

I have made a few of these and have decided to share them with everyone. I like to test objects that I make before selling or telling someone how well they work! This one is mine,

It works great! I light it every night after dinner to light up my kitchen. I love the look of it. I have only done these with the Zinc lids with the milk glass backs. I have drilled the lids and preserved the glass.

Keeping the Vintage look is important to me. Sounds silly to some, but old things seem to all have a story to tell and when you hold these items you get caught up in the history. Instead of destroying the item I try my best in honoring it the best I can, by keeping it as intact as I can, but still useful.

These will also be in my Etsy store for sale.


April 7, 2014

I have picked up some new items that will soon be pretty and useful in a new way! Love Yard sales and Thrift Stores!

These pretty Wedgwood cups and platters will be something new very soon. I will share their new life in the world when I am done, but I only spent $2.00 for 10 pieces! What a find.

I also found these at the yard sale.

Spent a little more than I wanted, but still a find for $4.00! These also will have a new purpose and will show very soon.

Old Silver spoons, which my sister and I found at a thrift store for $3.00!

These are getting used with my tea cups.

I love going out and finding this stuff, but it also means my poor craft room is getting cluttered with this stuff waiting to be built. Oh well all in time!

Flour sacks

Last year I came across this flour sack and just loved it. I didn't know what I would do with it but the price was right,so I bought it. I wanted to frame it, but do to lack of wall space decided it need to be something else.

So it became curtains in our living room!

I love these curtains so much.

 Same year one of my best friends had given me two more flour sack towels , so my kitchen now has a new set of curtains.

These make the best curtains.

A fun thing to do.

I thought I would share a fun thing to do with your whole family. Tile decorating! I had seen on Pinterest, where people were doing plates and coffee mugs this way, I had tiles from a different art project and thought to myself, why not draw on tiles? I sat down with some Sharpie markers,

and started to draw. I doodle all the time so this was a great project while I sat down with the kids at night.

This is what you need:

Some nice white tiles ( I use 4x4 tiles because this is what I have) or use some old tiles that someone wants to throw away!

Rubbing alcohol

Sharpie Markers

Baking sheet

Oh yes an Oven!

Directions:

First you will need to wipe down the tiles with Rubbing Alcohol and let them air dry. This is when I doodle on some paper to see what I may want to do on the tiles in front of me. Now you draw on your tile. Don't worry about making a mistake, I found that the Sharpie marker will wipe off pretty well if you do, but this also means you need to make sure you do not drag your hand across the tile as you draw, it will smear! While you are doing this pre heat your oven to 350 degrees. I cover my baking sheet with aluminum foil, because I also bake with these and sometimes when they are washed by the kids, and things are left behind, which makes it sticky! You can do whatever you feel like doing, I just know my baking wear sometimes isn't washed they way I want them :), so we cover for this project!

( I know in this picture it wasn't covered, I just placed the already finished on a cookie sheet to show you what to do)

Place the tile on the baking sheet and bake for 30 min. This is very IMPORTANT, after 30 mins, turn off the oven and leave the tiles in there to cool. I say important, because the first batch I did, they set the marker, but when I washed it, the marker came off. The ones I left in there to cool overnight I have washed with a cloth, NOT a scrubby pad, several times and the maker has stayed on.

I am going to use mine as artwork in the house, by framing the tiles with old barn wood. I have a glass cutter for my drill press and I am going to let the kids do some as Christmas ornaments for family, as presents. We will just glue down some felt to the back of them and also glue some decorative ribbon alone the edge to make it look pretty. I could also see these being used as a back splash or coasters, I believe you could do whatever with these and turn them into great keep sakes for someone. Have fun we have had a blast!