You Made That from What? Welcome to the 165th Metamorphosis Monday!

For this Metamorphosis Monday, I'm sharing some neat little transformations you can make right at home.   I was inspired by this wood tray I saw in a local Ballard Designs Outlet recently on THIS shopping trip.

Come a bit closer and take a look.  Not the greatest pics since they were taken with my camera phone and it's dark inside Ballard Designs...but I think you'll get the idea.)

Collect some vintage yard sticks and rulers and make a fabulous one-of-a-kind tray or table top.  Don't forget to apply a few coats of polyurethane or wax to protect the surface from drink spills and rings.  I've been keeping my eye out while antiquing but haven't been able to find any neat old yardsticks.  They seem to be pretty scarce these days.  You could also take new yardsticks, beat them up a bit and age them with stain or paint to get a vintage look without the cost of vintage yardsticks.

Pinterest Inspired Yardstick Ideas:
Here are come more things you can do with yardsticks.  All these are from Pinterest.  Click HERE to visit my "Yardstick" inspiration Pin Board, then click on any photo on the board to follow the pins back to the original source.

You can make a backdrop for wall hooks.  Really, all you would need to do is nail or use a liquid nails wood glue to attach old yardsticks to a board.  Then just attach your coat hooks through the yardsticks into the board.

Pinterest

Love sunburst mirrors?  Make one from rulers and yardsticks.

Pinterest

I love this!  Fun!

Pinterest

You could even make a basket!  When you think about it, rulers/yardsticks are just thin strips of wood. So anything you can make with strips of wood, you can probably make it with yardsticks.

Pinterest

A Use for Those Old Ceiling Fans That No Long Work:
Check out what Lucy did with discarded table legs and fan blades.  The table legs became the body and the old fan blades became the wings for these whimsical dragonflies!  You can read her tutorial HERE.

 I am kicking myself right now for donating this rickety old fan when I changed it out for...

...a chandelier in my bedroom.  (You can view this mini-renovation HERE.)  Really wishing I had kept the fan blades now.   I could have made a couple of dragonflies for the walls of my  screened-in porch.

Trash to Treasure:
I've shared this neat "trash to treasure" metamorphosis once before on BNOTP, but I had to include it again in this post since it fits right in.  Remember this scene from our tour of the home in the movie Practical Magic, HERE.  See the wind chimes hanging in the tree?  They are made from discarded flatware: spoons, knives, forks, etc...

A few weeks later I was shopping in downtown Marietta, Georgia and found these wind chimes hanging outside a local antique shop.  They instantly took me back to the movie.

This would be so easy to make from discarded tins, beads and those odd pieces of flatware we all have.  Just string some beads on nylon thread/fishing line, attach flatware to the end, and punch a few holes in the bottom of your tin.  You'll need to tie the ends of the nylon thread around something inside the tin to keep them from slipping back through.  Popsicle sticks would do the trick.  This tin even had a handle for hanging the wind chime.  Very cool!

Wind Chimes and Votive Holders from Discarded Bottles:
Recently, I was shopping in Big Lots and came across this wind chime.  Let's take a closer look.

It's basically an old bottle with the bottom cut out.  Then jute was tied to a ring at the top (see above pic) and shells were attached.  A larger ring was tied to the other end, along with more shells.  The large ring is what makes the "music" when the wind blows.  By the way, it's easy to drill tiny holes through shells.  You can see how I did it in THIS tutorial when I created some beach themed bottles.  There are several tutorials online showing how to cut the bottom out of a bottle.  Just Google it and you'll find them all.

When I saw those wind chimes in Big Lots, it reminded me of another fun craft idea I had seen when I was in Macon for "Christmas Made in the South."

They aren't wind chimes...can you tell what they are?  Let's get a little closer and see how these are made.

Again, we have bottles with the bottoms cut out, but this time votive holders have been hung inside the bottles from chain.  You would have to drill holes through the edges of the votive holders to attach the them to the chain, unless you could find some already designed with holes.  I think the right drill bit would do the job.  I drilled a hole through a flower pot once using a ceramic bit I bought at Home Depot and it worked great.  So they probably make drill bits for drilling through glass.  Maybe a ceramic bit would work for this, too.  Ummm...anyone out there ever drilled through glass?  If so, please share!

Note the ring at the top inside the bottle.  That's what keeps everything in place inside.  They have added jute to the tops and bottoms of some of the bottles, similarly to how I did in my beach bottle tutorial, HERE.

I love the addition of the beads and etching on the outside...very pretty.  It would be easy to attach beads to the outside with a good epoxy adhesive.  There are lots of tutorials online showing how to etch designs into glass if you wish to decorate a bottle with etching.  Wouldn't these be pretty lit up in the evening, hanging on a porch or from a pergola for a summertime party?

So there ya have it...a few fun crafts you can DIY this spring!  If I end up making any of these, I'll be sure to share.  If you make them, send me some pics at betweennapsontheporchatgmaildotcom!  I'd love to see!

Looking forward to all the Before and Afters!

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