Recycling Solves Simple Problems

More and more, I find myself finding uses for items that have already been purchased and used once. Is there another use for the used? Everyone seems to be coming up with some ingenious ideas for things that would ordinarily end up in the landfill, and that's a great happening!

Here is the dish with the stone spray, now sporting a coat of gold metallic glaze.

In a pinch, use it for wrapped candy or shelled nuts. Who doesn't have shelled nuts in a dish hanging around at this time of year? Somehow, without one bristling with nut crackers and picks and shelled walnuts (that no one eats), it's just not the holiday season. Sort of lower case and dull.

We have a love affair with bath soap in this house. The lower ledge of the tub had been filling up with pieces and parts that hadn't made it to the soap sock (made with a real sock!), and the risk of them spilling into the tub had been growing daily. Finding a soap dish to hold all those pieces and parts was a lost cause, and I gave up looking. I didn't want to chance getting a glass dish. None of the plastic bowls suitable for the job matched my bathroom. So, I went into my 'zoning' mode and let my brain sort it out without me.
It finally did.
My stash of gently used, fairly heavy plastic dishes is towering in my studio, filling up an apple tote. One day, I pulled out a round bowl and immediately decided this would make the ideal soap dish for the tub ledge. But, it needed some decoration. There is a narrow dividing wall in my bathroom with a pretty glass panel painted with art nouveau flowers. This design has been in the back of my mind for a long time, and someday I intend to decorate the shower curtain and toothbrush holder with those same flowers.
Why not start now, just to see how it goes?

The 1st step

Matching colors was easy, so I started with the bronze metallic for the petals. Copper metallic was the shading color, with expresso and royal gold for the remaining parts.
Here is the finished soap dish:

Disjointed, I know, but who said I had to follow the flower pattern exactly? There is no clear spray on the tray, so we will see how long it lasts. And who needs more chemicals on their skin? Certainly not me!


This little project isn't recycled, but it wanted to be featured on this post.
I purchased a package of small Christmas sun catchers at the dollar store. They were cute. I didn't already have them. And I knew just what to do to spiff them up.

Cute, aren't they? They came with their own tiny pots of sun catcher paint, but that wouldn't do. Nope. Not for these cuties destined for the bedroom window- to catch the sun!
I used some metallics, but I wanted glitter on them, too. Their window faces south. Enough said. All of my many pots of glitter clutter my work desk right now, and they fit the bill. Using tiny paint pots I had recently bought at the dollar store, I starting mixing. Over the past couple of weeks, I have discovered a few mediums to suspend glitter in, but this time I used Mod Podge Gloss as the medium. Each pot is half MP,  half glitter. More glitter, more bling! They're now ready, sitting on the shelf waiting for decorations to be hung.
It was one of those 'I need to do some no-thinking painting' days, especially after a major disaster with a frosted glass ornament.

Can you guess what this will be?

One hint- the middle piece is cut from an empty milk jug. Note the paper clip.

You'll see the completed project in the next post.

Toodles.