What I Know--{Delicate Construction}

Yay, it's Friday, which means another dose of 'What I Know'! I'm excited to introduce you all to Michelle. She's pretty awesome. Check her out..

HELLO ALL!!! My name is Michelle and my blog is Delicate Construction!! I love offering crafts, kids projects, ideas and tips for busy ladies and one of my favorite ways to do that is through my 10 New Uses Tuesday posts!! Each week I take and item and brainstorm 10 new ways to use it in a variety of areas.

Lindsay asked me to stop by today so that I could let you into my head on how I come up with those posts! Now, I will be honest, my head is a very sporadic place but I think I have figured out an easy to understand way to describe this process to you all!

I wanted to come up with a new object for this post as well so I can apply the steps to the item, today I am going to do one of the harder ones I have ever come up with...

Classroom Bulletin Board Border

I know, not everyone has this stuff just lying around the house, I don't either... but let me tell you a story.

I was setting up my classroom last week, and the direction that my Director would like our preschool to go is one of a more natural and creative environment- not the typical bright colors and signs that you usually see in classrooms (do a google image search for "reggio inspired classrooms" if you want to see what I am talking about). So lately she has been VERY anti- bulletin board borders.

Like, gives you the "look" if you even mention them. :)

So, she had two unopened packages of them that we had found in the cupboards and she was just going to throw them away... in comes me like I am pulling a kid out of the street "NOOOOOOOOOOO! There has to be something else we can do with them!"

And thus, 10 New Uses for Bulletin Board Borders was born. :)

That was not only and intro to the topic, but how my minds works... brace yourself, here we go.

Ok, first things first, I kinda just stare at whatever I am working with- doesn't sound like much but this is generally where I come up with the first few to get me rolling.

For the borders I come up with:

• 1. Painting, print making (let your kid paint then take another piece of paper to make a print to save)
  

• 2. Place mats or table runners (mine don't have a pattern on them, that is why I think this would work well for them).
  

• 3. Decorative cupcake liners (recently cut out some from scrapbook paper, but I think using this would be cute and easy too- plus it would work with the patterned ones)

Next, I consult my list of usually suspects- meaning generally I can make or find a use in these areas for a number of items and it helps jump start my creativity in that direction. A brief overview of that list is with examples of what thoughts come next....

• Kid's art (did that with #1)


• Table Decor (#2, but then came up with what will be #4- napkin rings)
  

• Organization (labeling is always helpful and you could probably make it work- not completely sold so this idea becomes a back up)


• Place Cards (cut slits in the top and roll/hot glue up and put a piece of wire in the middle to hold a place card, also great for holding pictures- will photograph later but it will become #5)

• Frame (could add to a frame or add a frame to a piece of artwork- #6)


• Sunburst mirror (you would be surprised how many things you can make into a sunburst mirror, but I wasn't feeling a border sunburst mirror)


• Wreath (originally thought this would work then tried wrapping it around a wreath and .... fail)

There is more to this list but they didn't seem to apply to this particular material so then I move back to step one. Now that I have had a boost or warm up in thinking of the object in different ways, I go back to just brainstorming.

This time I came up with:

• 7. Add to the edge of shelves in the pantry (I think this one is my FAVORITE)
  

• 8. Accent a homemade storage box from a diaper box covered in fabric (this is the first thing I made)
  

• 9. Stencil- would work well if you wanted to make one large curved ric rac type strip around or on something. The border comes connected in the middle in this case so you wold just need to separate it a bit and tape it down, then spray paint away- wanted to get a picture of this but the sun went away too fast, I imagine it will be a tutorial on my blog soon.


• 10. Banner for the mantle; cut it thinner and add triangle pieces of fabric, my black one with the orange fabric looks slightly Halloweenish- score!
  

Since I came up with ten, I am going to stop here. If I still need a few more, I would go to family and friends, google image search or pinterest. If I do this, I try to be inspired and take a piece of the idea and come up with something else. If I LOVE their idea, I don't mind using it, but I make sure to give credit where credit is due. For me, the purpose of this post is to be a creative exercise for myself, so the goal is to come up with the ideas on my own but hey- we are all inspired from many places- right?!

There you go, a glimpse into my mind and how I come up with my 10 New Uses Tuesday posts for my blog, I hope to see you soon over at Delicate Construction and if you become a new follower, please leave a comment and let me know so I can follow you back!

Now the list in full for your reading pleasure.

10 New Uses for Bulletin Board Border:

• 1. Painting, print making


• 2. Placemats or table runners


• 3. Decorative cupcake liners


• 4. Napkin rings


• 5. Place Cards


• 6. Frames or frame embellishment


• 7. Decorative shelf edging


• 8. Storage box accent


• 9. Stencil


• 10. Banner
  

Thanks so much for having me Lindsay!!!

Wasn't that so creative?! It's interesting to see how many different ways you can use a very common item. Thanks Michelle!