DIY Salt and Pepper Shaker Set

 DIY Salt and Pepper Shakers From Miniature Liquor Bottles

Hey guys if you have ever wanted to diy a unique set of salt and pepper shakers? These are adorable…and can make great handmade gifts too! If you’re a collector of little glass bottles this is the perfect way to repurpose them with panache!

A couple of years ago I made a set of salt and pepper shakers using a couple of small 2 oz Jack Daniels whiskey bottles and gifted them to my husband’s uncle for Christmas. He loved them! Now that’s a really good man cave gift idea, if you’re thinking about it.

I used what they call the “sleeping pill” size which is like 4 oz or something. If you want to make your own salt and pepper shakers this way, those cute little liquor bottles served on airplanes would work well…They are usually made of plastic; I used a bunch of them to make this cool party light set.

I prefer glass and for that you have to get those “sleeping pill” sizes, as the miniature airplane or mini-bar ones are usually plastic.

I’m demo-ing using a pair of Jaeger bottles for this salt and pepper set.

Materials List

2 small matching bottles

Cordless drill and very small bits

Toothpicks

Optional: Mod Podge

Disclaimer: You don’t actually have to go to a liquor store; you can probably find small liquor bottles at your nearest thrift or antique store. A lot of people treat these as “vintage collectibles” so they should be easy to find.

I don’t want to encourage anyone to drink to do this craft hehehe. Oh yeah, little teeny airport and travel size bottles such as those that hold shampoo or mouthwash, would also work great!

Let’s Do This: How To DIY These Cute Salt and Pepper Shakers!

1. Step one….Wash out your empty bottles. Whether or not you want to keep the labels on is up to you; I wanted to preserve mine so I applied a coat of Mod Podge to both the front and back labels of my Jaeger bottles. If you want to remove them this post has some good advice for getting them off easily!

2. Unscrew the caps and check for one of those little protective papery liners. You can easily pry them out using a flat head screwdriver or nail file. As an optional tip, if you want to give these as gifts keep the liners (if you got them out cleanly) and after you fill up the shakers you can replace them to keep the salt and pepper from leaking out.

3. You’re going to probably need a good workstation setup. I’m using these blocks of wood here…This is a good idea if you don’t have one of those “workhorses” to keep your objects from moving around.

Using the tiniest drill bit you have on hand, make about 5-6 little holes in the middle of each bottle cap. I would use the 1.98 mm or 1.58 mm as they are the smallest in my collection.

4. Using a toothpick, run it through the little holes to give them a little definition. If the caps are plastic there may be some plastic dust pieces coming out…you will want to blow them off. (Canned air works well)

If your caps are metal (like mine) there isn’t much dust – but on the other side of the caps the holes you just made may be a little sharp and raw looking.

Turn them over and use something like an emery board to file them down.

5. Wash your bottles out again (with the caps on) so you won’t have any remaining plastic dust or metal pieces left behind that could get into the actual salt and pepper. Let them dry before filling them.

Planning to give these as gifts? You can fill them with salt and pepper to be extra nice ?? You may want to put the paper insert back under the caps so the ingredients won’t spill out, or if you lost the inserts, a piece of Saran wrap will work like a charm.

I eventually gifted the Jaeger shakers to my niece for Christmas 2018 – she thought they were cool -this is the set I made to keep for myself ?? Pretty much followed the same steps above , except I only put about three holes in the lids.

Hey that was fun wasn’t it? If you’ve got a bigger bottle collection, make several sets like this and give them as gifts! And keep one for yourself like I did – this is a great idea to add a little flair to your barware, kitchen and dining accessory collection!

DIY Light Up Sign With Christmas Lights

 Learn how to make an AWESOME lighted sign with Christmas lights and delight your friends and guests when they come to visit! Now if you are like me and put off by the technical aspects of lighting such as wiring, positive to negative blah,blah,blah, well you are going to LOVE this approach!

Other than what I needed to know to assemble the wiring from the kit I needed for my mason jar lamp, I don’t mess around with something that has the power to well, shock you…However this project will, in a good way!

Long story short, I used to have one of those light-up vintage clocks with a soda ad company name on it, but unfortunately the light burned out and I had no idea how to replace it, since it called for a fluorescent tube (?). Somehow I rigged it up with a set of midget sized Christmas lights and voila….Wow, what a fix that was!

Then I decided to create a sign of my own using this same technique. I loved it, and I think you will, too!

Materials Needed

It took me about three days tops to make this sign. First things first, the lights. Seasonal timing affects their availability; they tend to be plentiful on shelves during the fall months and nonexistent the rest of the year. They also should be midget-sized, clear, and between 15 and 25 lights on the string will give the best effect.

Sometimes  I’ve gotten the battery-operated type, but they’re usually less reliable.

Other items include: A small box of your choosing (a cardboard shoebox would work great!) A sheet of clear plastic or cellophane, x-acto knife, paint and glue.. Optional -some markers would be helpful.

Making the Design For Your Light-Up Sign

First…decide on your design – will it be a single word, or a simple image? Here is my box from the start, I decided on a homemade “exit” sign for fun, just like the kind you see in public venues.

Tip: Choose a simple word design like this -“Love” and “Joy” would qualify here; or if you happen to have a short nickname or name period, would be a great idea for your design.

Don’t think you have to use a word, you can come up with something like a star, heart, moon, your first initial, family surname initial, etc. Just make the design simple and sweet so it will be easier to handle when cutting early on.

Want a clever hack to craft a word? Check these signs out below I found on Instructables; the talented person who made these used a program like Word to create the design, chose a font and blew up the size real big .Image credit: Creativeman

I LOVE these signs…they’re AWESOME…too bad I didn’t find this method until AFTER I made my own sign? I think I am going to make another one, though, in the future with this approach when I get a chance!

Get your ruler and use it to mark where the word/design needs to be centered before starting them. Use an x-acto knife to cut out the letters.

It may look a little crude here, but I was willing to allow for marker error since I planned to paint it. I spray painted the box with black spray paint. Your box may have writing on it most likely, so after cutting your design would be a good time to paint it.

Now take your sheet of cellophane and place it over the design’s outline, like this. Apply a bead of glue around the perimeter of the sheet so it won’t seep out around the design cutout; press in place.

making a lighted sign

I carefully glued down a green tissue paper sheet (Also letting these two sit for awhile so they would not buckle). If you have access to colored cellophane,you can use that in place of colored tissue paper. I just kinda had to make do at the moment ??

make light up sign christmas lights

Let the whole thing dry for now, preferably overnight. We’ll get to those lights next!

How To Attach the Lights

So on to the midget light strand! I used a piece of thick foam poster board inside the box to have a place for the lights to be arranged on. I encourage you to do the same , just get some of that type of board and cut it to the width/length of your box. We will need this to secure the string so when the box is sitting upright the lights won’t roll around.

Your string of lights need to be “distributed” in a special way so they will not end up falling into a clump at the bottom.

To do this part I used a drill and made small holes at the corners. I wound the light string in a circle and secured three areas with twist ties. Then I pushed the board piece down. I made sure to carefully spread each light out …when done right, no one will know that’s Christmas lights in there!

Cut a notch on the side of the foam board (there is also a notch at the back of the shoebox too for the cord to thread through)

You know what’s coming…close up the box (the piece of board is pretty taut so it will stay in place on its own) and plug it in.

Time to Test Out Your Light-Up Sign!

Pretty awesome right? And you didn’t have to fool around with unfamiliar tools either. Just a regular old strand of midget lights! It was just as much fun as my party light strand here.

Oh, by the way, check out what this gal did…Very impressive! She pretty much created an exit sign just like mine but with a different approach (sounds easier I have to admit) and it became a nightlight for her son’s room…how cool is that?

(It looks like I may need to get out more and go to some yard sales, lol)

Now you know how to make a gorgeous lighted sign with Christmas lights, get busy and light up your living area now!

Turning 2 Sculptures Into Bookend Set

 Sculpey strikes again! THis time I took 2 figurines I've made from the magic sculpting compound and transofmred them into a set of bookends....

Built upon a base of flat rocks. Which are not easy to find.

Be sure to stick moleskin pads on the bottom so they don't scratch. Enjoy!

A Stud Earring Holder....From a CANVAS

 Make a diy stud earring holder and get those little buggers together! If you’ve got a lot of little bitty post earrings you know as well as I do how frustrating it can be to find just the pair you want when you’re getting ready in the morning.

Or maybe you are just fed up with them and their respective mates getting separated easily?

OR..is your story mostly like mine…you don’t even wear post earrings anymore for whatever reason maybe they’re not hypoallergenic which you need if you’re going to wear them, but your collection is too cute to just throw away..in other words, you want to give them an upcycle makeover.

Well, now we can stop the madness…

We’re going to discuss how to create a very special space for them all and make them easy to find when you want a specific pair and we’re going to do better than that – we’re going to make it pretty too!

DIY Stud Earring Organizer Materials List

Post/stud type earrings present a special challenge….because of their design, what the heck are you supposed to attach them to so they will stay on? Unlike the dangly/wire kind of earring, they can’t stay on a grid or something without falling off (duh!) Well have no fear, because I’m about to spill the beans on  some ideas. Update: I did end up making a holder for my dangly earrings, too!

You just need to find some material that has a tight weave to it….It can be burlap, it can be wire mesh if it’s got teeny tiny openings (like window screen) and a type that doesn’t have too much slack in it so when it is secured down it should be nice and tight.

Canvas or burlap are two materials that definitely fit the bill here. Another material that would work very well, it’s not fabric but it would work well, is some corkboard.Guess what I’m using for mine? (Wait for it…) That’s right….I’m using an actual ARTIST CANVAS!!

Suggested materials for the backdrop that you’ll attach the material to:

A nice, attractive picture frame, it can be one you own or an unfinished pre-formed frame. It can be any size you want, depending on how many earrings you need to get together!

Another cool idea is one of those round embroidery hoops. I’ve never used one but it would work great for this!

How to DIY This Earring Holder

An art canvas – now that’s quite the hack!Yep, that’s right, just like the ones I paint on. Think canvases are just for painting? Think again!

I didn’t have to do any pre-drilling of holes or anything – the earrings just pushed right on through. Canvases are strong, but don’t think they are invincible:)

Feel free to steal this one! A small canvas about 11 by 14 or so is all you need, paint and bling it up to your liking.

The only negative I can see, is that my canvas idea may be a tad prohibitive….I understand as I made this to display my collection (I don’t wear these)…The corkboard and tight mesh may suit your needs better.

Assuming you are wanting to use the materials in the list above,and a frame, here’s how to proceed:

First…paint your frame in the color of your choice, if you’ve got an unfinished one and want to make it look a little nicer. Oh, and I just wanted to share my video of this project right quick (Sorry I know it’s a little shaky)

Lay the mesh materials on the back of the frame of choice to determine where to trim it to shape. ( You may want to mark the perimeter with a pencil )

Use  a sharp trimming tool such as an X-acto knife or a box cutter, to trim around the perimeter of the material.

Get some craft glue and squirt out a ribbon around the edge of the frame on the back…Carefully place your cut material down on  the back of the frame.

Let it set up and cure for a few days before you start attaching your earrings to it.

Hanging Your Finished Holder

Now you’re going to need to attach a wire hanger to the back for easy hanging in whatever location you’ve chosen. Need a little assistance with that part? The first few instructions in this post will help with that. You should be all set!

Now you can enjoy your earring collection at easy reach, or just fun display! Hard to believe I once kept all mine in a jewelry box, but they just become one big messy clump.   As you know anything that is that small has a big capability to end up getting lost!

I don’t mean to toot my own horn but I love my canvas idea if I do say so myself…it just came out of nowhere one day ??  Post earrings, haven;t worn much lately, too pretty to give away, a recipe for – fun!

Well, there you have it, guys, this is the way to make a gorgeous diy stud earring holder for your collection! Hang it in the boudoir, bathroom,

DIY Ring Holder

 Making this cool ring holder form Sculpey....Whatdaya think??

I always loved that mannequin hand like the kind you see at jewelry shops used to display rings and other jewelry. They are usually made form some kind of hard plastic. If I'd had something like resin I coulda done that, but I use polymer clay instead.

I have made one out of Sculpey Light...trouble is it doesn't have enough weight to it. So I would use Sculpey Original instead. If you like colors you can use those too, but you may not be able to find them in bulk sizes which you'll need , each small brick is 2 oz, and it may take at lest 5 of them to be viable.

So best to get Original (white) and paint it later. 

But it turned out great (I painted it green gold)...And it holds all my rings.