Lantern Center Pieces

A couple weeks ago I was sitting in our office with Mr Garden.   My desk is right next to the window and I saw the new neighbors out front weeding and stuff.  It was trash day and he kept hauling stuff to the curb.  I noticed a box of what looked like exterior house lamps.  Since I rent and my landlord is a cheap ass I love to find stuff like this that I can modernize the place with that doesn’t cost him anything out of pocket.  I have learned if it costs him money the answer is always no.

Then I saw the guy walking down to the box on the curb and I threw an old McDonalds wrapper at hubby’s head.  “Hey babe I bet he’s writing FREE on that box!”

Since Mr Garden had already introduced himself to them he agreed to walk me over and introduce me as the wife who stalks their trash from the windows.  Perfect!

And sure enough he did write FREE on the box *grin*.

They didn’t end up being the kinds you can mount on your house.  They are for pillars around a courtyard or at the end of the driveway.  So they needed to be repurposed into something free standing.  And why not a centerpiece?

Chic Magnets

Recently I saw a blog that did a tutorial on stamping tiles to make coasters.  She bought a sheet of multi sized tiles meant for building a mosaic.  It just so happened there were 4 coaster sized tiles along with 6 bars and 6 small square tiles all together.  So wanting to use the entire sheet of tiles what else to do but make magnets with the rest. 

But if you don’t want make coasters I found that for a dollar less you can buy an entire sheet of just the 2x2 tiles!  Now get out a bunch of your favorite stamps.  I am putting these in my Etsy shop so I wanted themed stamp sets.  And here is how they turned out.

When you are finished let the ink dry over night and hit it with some mod podge or spray poly to seal them again any moisture.  Get out the hot glue gun and put your magnets on the back!  Aren’t they cute?  They are for sale in my Etsy shop for $10 a set (6).  

~Sommer