Trash to Treasure Link Party!

Ohhh, I love days like today!

A good challenge.  Sharing inspiration and creativity.  Trash to treasure.  It's all so much fun!

Just before Christmas, my blog pal, Amanda, and I held a last minute blogger meet and greet.  We hung out at a local thrift store where we did some chatting and digging for buried treasures.  Before everyone left, I decided a challenge would be fun.  I asked that everyone that grabbed some goodies, send me pictures of how they turned it into their personal prize.

Here is what I came home with:

Holiday decor was 50% off that day, so I snagged this beauty for a dolla.  I wanted to be able to use it year round, so the snowman sadly had to go {sarcasm my friends}.  And go they did, with a couple of coats of white spray paint and a piece of fabric lining the bottom, I was left with my new treasure!

I just love love love my new little tray.  I am excited to use it all over the house.  In the family room to hold remotes.  In my dressing room to corral girly jewelry or in the office as a stationary station.

The whole process was super simple, I just gave the tray a couple of coats of spray paint, cut the fabric to size and used some spray adhesive to adhere it to the bottom of the tray.  Then, I used a small craft brush to dab the edges of the fabric with some Mod Podge, just to make sure it doesn't fray and is really suck down.

Here she is corralling some stationary items:

One of the best dollars I have ever spent.  It's so bright and cheerful.  And because I just used a scrap piece of fabric and leftover white spray paint, I was able to keep this at a one dollar budget.  For those wondering about the stationary holder, that was a previous Goodwill find for $.50 that also got some spray paint.

I also challenged the pretty ladies that were with me to share their makeovers, so here they are now with how they turned their Goodwill thrift store finds into treasures in their own homes:

Kimberly found a hurricane:

After adding in some lovely smelling coffee beans, she now has a stylish way to corral her makeup brushes.

Corie scored this awesome mail holder:

She gave it a coat of spray paint and cut out some letters with he Cricut.  She used Mod Podge to affix the letters as labels to each slot!

Heidi found an awesome galvanized steel bucket.  She knew she had the perfect place for it:

Her current stationary holder was working to keep her essential paperwork in order, but the file folders would sometimes tip.  Not anymore!  She just popped the holder inside the new bin!

Amanda found a stand that she saw some potential in....

A little spray paint later and she had a lovely piece for her counter which she can use for serving or to hold a bowl of goodies!

And what did the other host, Amanda, come up with?  Well, she always wanted to make a book safe.  You know, a top secret place to hide her personal possessions.  So she found a giant hardcover book for $.50.

She glued the pages together {tutorial on her blog here}, and cut out her secret storage area:

These gals had a lot of creativity and now have fun new additions to their homes thanks to some thrifty finds and a good challenge!

Now it's your turn!  I am so excited to see what you all have been working on at home!


And a button for you:

<a href="http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2012/01/trash-to-treasure-link-party.html" target="_blank"><img alt="IHeart Organizing" src="http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad14/iheartorganizing/Blog%20Images/trashtotreasurebutton300.png" /></a>

So what do you think of today's makeovers?  Anyone feeling inspired to head to a thrift store and whip out the spray paint?