My DIY Projects That Didn't Cost Me A Dime!

This past weekend I decided I wanted to look around my house and see what I could "fix up".  found 3 projects to do! These projects didn't cost me a dime. I used stuff I had around the house that needed to either be thrown away, fixed, or that I no longer used.

About 15 years ago I was given mini cupboard for my Precious Moments figurines. It was collecting dust and I was about throw it out but I wanted to bring it back to life. The candle jar you see on the right was given to me on my birthday 2 years ago by one of my best friends. It's from Victoria Secret and it smelled amazing! I was going to throw the jar out but decided I could make something.

The jars pictured above were pasta sauce jars from Classico. I absolutely love their jars! They are so pretty and are the best mason jars for projects. I have a few more than these pictured but I only wanted to work on 2 of them. So for my next project I wanted to work on the candle jar.

I had to melt the remaining wax that was left in the jar. For that I had to boil water in a pot and place the jar in the pot. I pour the melted wax out in the trash. I added dawn dish soap to the boiling water and rinsed the candle jar to get rid of any residue that was left behind.

I painted the jar a nice tree bark brown. I made sure I painted 2 coats because the acrylic paint is a little see through.

I then mixed hunter green, brown, and a light green to get this nice mossy green color. I wanted the jar to look like the bark of a tree with moss on it since we are approaching Fall.

I had some orange and brown twine that I wanted to braid to wrap around the jar.

What I did was tie the braid together and then put a drop of hot glue from my glue gun to secure it. I cut 3 long pieces of twine to wrap around and and create a nice design. I tied that as well and glued that down to secure it and added a piece of some dried pine cone from my potpourri. It worked out great. Look at how my this DIY came out!

After I was finished with this little fast and easy project, I started working on the mini cupboard. The cupboard was originally white. It's about 15 years old that the white paint has turned yellow and some of the paint was beginning to chip.

I used some of my Scotch tape to cover the glass so that the paint did not get on it. For the paint, I used a chalkboard paint that I purchased at Target last year for $3 at the one spot.

As you can see from the picture below, The tape protected the glass from any paint getting on it. 

After the first coat, I let it dry for about 15 minutes and then I added a second coat.

I loved the final result. It looked like a brand new piece!

I collect miniatures and have had these since I was about 9 years old so they valuable to me.

I rearranged them in the inside the cubby squares. I loved this project. Bringing this old, beat up mini cupboard back to life was a great experience.

And for my final project, I worked on the Classico pasta sauce jars. This was by far my favorite project ever. I love these jars. I started buying this brand sauce just for the jars.

I had an old pair of earrings lying around the house that I was ready to throw away. These were given to me and I wasn't really a fan of them but I always kept them around because I wanted to use them for something, I just didn't know what project and how I would use them.

The brown twine I used in my first project, I used in this one as well. I had an awesome idea for it!

I used my wire cutter and cut the ends off of the earrings. I cut 2 long pieces of twine for each earring. I wove the twin in and out of the holes that were in the middle of the earring. The ends that were left over were wrapped around the earring as pictured below. When I was finished I decided to use my glue gun and glue the ends so that they wouldn't fringe or fall apart (unwrap).

I then placed it around the jar and screwed on the lid.

You can see that it's just hanging there so I can take it off and put it back on whenever I want.

This picture shows a more detailed shot of the twine woven in and out of the holes where the charms are hanging from.

The end result was just beautiful! It was more like a bohemian look and I am all for the bohemian look.

I decided to put the mason jars next to my mini cupboard on my shelf. I think they compliment each other very well!

Hope you guys loved seeing my DIY projects just as much as I loved creating them! Let me know what you think!