The Art of Gifting

Latest TXDD creations!

By essentially using a ruler and letter stensils, we believe that the greatest gift you could give is anything that is unique to your family, friends, etc. that is one-of-a-kind.  A recent radio broadcast discussed the value of a personalized gift.  When internet users of a "gifting" Website were polled, approximately over 70% of participants recalled only those gifts that were made for them stuck in their fond memories.  Personally, as I try to recall what gifts meant the most to me, I remember the Batman card from my brother where he calls me "bub," the sparking cross from my daughter, or a cardboard frame designed with Crayola markers from my college roommate.  We hope that our designs below, will provide you with a means to make an unforgettable (and well budgeted gift).  !Bueno suerte!

Place: Michael's and New York (as in you can buy "parts" of your personalized gifts anywhere and everywhere).  Note that this particular client loves anything to do with Paris.

Materials: Flat canvas, glitter spray paint, and pearl buttons.

Cost: $10.00.

Place: Michael's and scrapbuck.com.

Materials: 12x12 wood, "sticky letters," flowers representing family initial (12 for $1), and metal birds.

Cost: $12.00.

Place: Michael's and Goodwill.

Materials: Mirror (Goodwill $5.95), paper, clock knobs (Michael's $1)-hang what you may from them, modge podge glue, and cardboard birds.  The square within a square was an accident, but turned out to give it a "3-D" dimension within the mirror.

Cost: $20.00.

Place: Michael's.

Materials: Large canvas, paint, and blank cardboard birds (decorate to your heart's desire).

Cost: $15.00

Place: Michael's.

Materials: Large canvas, paint, little birds representing each family member (20 for $1 Michaels) and wooden hearts.

Cost: $15.00.

Place: Michael's.

Materials: Medium canvas, spray paint, and bird stickers.

Cost; $10.00.

Place: Michael's.

Materials: Large canvas, paint, and wooden birds.

Cost; $15.00.

Place:  Michael's.

Materials: Wooden album, wood letters, and sticker embellishments.

Cost: $20.00.

Check out these AWESOME Websites for help:

Meaningofgifts.com

uncommongoods.com

etsy.com

pinterest.com

P.S. Google: Fly on Dime! Love it!

!Pièce de résistance!

Okay, although our most recent post displayed our "newest" business cards, we actually ditched that design and went with the porch-side brunette below:

Our motto in the back: "It's in the details."

T-shirts and new e-mail address to come...

A Crafter's Couture. "Chichi" it up a little!

 IT'S "IN THE DETAILS" MY COUTURE LOVERS!


Here are some of my partner's latest creations done with a simple ingenuity that anyone can do with just a few basic tools and instructions. Remember that each project is a one-of-a-kind, which remains our ultimate goal.  Even if you mess-up the first few times trying, it's always a good conversation piece relating to originality right?  Who wants to walk into a house and think "Oh yeah, I saw picture remake at [insert major corporation]!"  For those who continue to remain incredulous of the presented ease of our projects, here's a fun fact about the dumpster divas: We do this for fun.  


Now why would I say this is a "fun fact?" To reiterate how easy our projects are to begin and complete.  Neither of us are decorators, art majors, interior designers, etc.  My partner had discovered the world of crafting gifts for others long ago with the help of her family.  Slowly, but surely, I became intrigued with the many ways you can morph others' discards from Goodwill, resale shops, and the like into recycled mod.  Shabby chic is by no means a new term to be passed around in these circles.  As we were thinking of ways to "build gifts" for others, we decided to "Chichi tailor" our ideas and designs into the interior designs and ideals of others.  For example, we love the designers Rachel Roy (rachelroy.com), Michael Kors, and the Website shopruche.com.  We continuously seek to add vintage variations (such as CHANEL pumps from a resale shop) to modern and form fitting clothes.  This goes the same for our in and out of doors concepts.


Feel free to post comments, ask for ideas for your own personal style, and invite your friends to join!




Mother's day gift.
Tools: Wood shape hearts, black stones, Terra cotta pot and polka dot ribbon, scrapbook paper, and wood letters.
Cost: approx. $12.00.  Just .29 cents for Terra cotta pot at Albertson's!
Place: Hobby Lobby and Albertson's.

Tools: 12x12 wood board, paper, wood letters and shapes.
Cost: approx. $10.00.
Place: Hobby lobby and Michael's.
Just pick your favorite quote!

Add the atheistic appeal of texture to your love!
Tools: Chipboard letters and yarn.
Cost: approx. $14.00
Place: Joann's Fabrics.
Use any fabric, yarn, etc. that you have.  If you have a little of this fabric and a lot of the other, it only makes it that much better and more original.  My partner ran out of white and used the rest black!  Less was indeed more.

Tools: Whitewash vintage window.
Cost $10.00.
Place: Canton, Texas.  We have seen windows just like these in speciality stores in the D/FW area for $55 and higher.  Why pay highway robbery prices, when you can just go to the mecca of home decor? If you don't live in the area, find a flea market run by your local hippy or vintage junkie store-remember to buy and build local!

Halloween party decor.
Tools: Terra cotta pots, paint, wood shapes and ribbon.
Cost: approx. $15.00.
Place: Albertson's and Hobby Lobby.

Tools: Terracotta pots, ribbon, paint, and branches
Cost: approx. $30.00.
Place: Tj Maxx.  we would prefer not to dry our own branches.  We get our eyebrows waxed and/or plucked, but we're not cave women...yet. Other stores used: Albertson's, and Hobby Lobby.

Homemade ethereal...
Tools: Fabric, pillow stuffing (Joann's)-Dumpster Divas don't do "down," wood (Home Depot), buttons, and staple gun (borrow this from a friend or make your husband find one).
Cost: approx. $30.00.
Place: Home Depot and Joann's Fabrics.
Go to YouTube  or Google and type: make your own headboard.  If you can read, you do it!

Contributing family inspirations...

Tools: Vase, different types of branches and feathers.  Whatever the bird, it doesn't matter, just make sure there are different colors with one eye-catching color (ours was red).
Cost: approx. $20.00.
Place: Hobby Lobby.

Tools: Wooden letters, paper, and "Mod Podge glue.
Cost: approx $15.00.
Place: Hobby Lobby.
Pick single sheet from anything people! A book, magazine, wrapping paper, old music sheets from your piano bench or resale shop, shopping bags, or anything at home that you find visually appealing, but can't find a place or reason for displaying.

Tools: Vintage window and sticker appliques (can find online pre-made or order your own words).
Cost: approx. $14.00.
Place: Canton, Texas and Hobby Lobby.

Tools: Vase, branches, and feathers.
Cost: approx $10.00.
Place: Hobby Lobby.
Once again, find your favorite "bam!" color and integrate differing textures.  Note: This is good advice to give to a bachelor or "gentleman folk" in your lives who continue to remain clueless and/or careless about the "vibes" their place gives off the visitors.

Contributing Family Inspirations...a new take on being full of beauty ;).

Project Gallery

It has been said that there is a fine line between love and nausea. With this said, there is also fine line between loving to accent your home with unique finds and being featured on a Hoarders episode. Just as one may see the same old crap at chain stores, one may add one too many one-of-a-kind additions to the homestead. We can't preach too much...we are indeed guilty of such a crime. Luckily and with cautious care, we haven't allowed ourselves to cross in the Steel Magnolias version of collecting an entire town's worth of baby Jesus mangers. Therefore we have a two-part/two-dumpster diva operation going on by doing our "damndest" to integrate the shabby with the chic (and the chic with the online cheap). Although your style may not be our style, the ideas behind the style is at the crux of the standard protocol with the Texas Dumpster Divas.

Keep in mind that the entirety of the pictures are an assortment of our different projects for different people and their personal styles and themes. One diva is primarily behind the construction and craft (purchase and paint) and the other is behind the thematic assembly (e.g. Great Gatsby meets contemporary Americana). Feel free to browse, comment, and/or inquire about the following gallery:

Cost: 10.00.
Location: Goodwill.
Letters: Online@craftcuts.com, vinyl, midnight blue.
Phrase: Lyrics from a country favorite: George Strait/I Cross My Heart.
Tools: Spray paint, sandpaper, and an old towel.
Note: Kids ravioli stain during design phase.

Basic theme: Old West saloon.
Desk= Modern element.
Chair: Antique/25.00.
Globe: Resale/6.00.

Basic theme: Francois.
Lamp: 2 for 10.00 (must be identical glass).
Lamp locale: Goodwill.
Tool: 1 can silver spray paint (to cover all brass).
Lampshades: Approx. 17.00 each/Tuesday Morning (think same color scheme, French theme, different blueprint).
Dresser=modern element.

Key element: Sage wall paint and khaki fireplace (due to color, keeping art black and white).
Fireplace stokers (to scale): 15.00/resale shop.
Framed art (to scale): 35.00 for both/resale shop.

Distressed dresser instead of the typical entertainment center.
Dresser knobs replaced with seashell-gold knobs by Anthroplogie.
Cost: 16.00 for both knobs.
         125.00 for dresser/antique store.
Note: Bouncer attachments left behind by toddler.

Plates: Cannot see, but 18th century Americana, romantic scenario (same scenario on each plate).
Cost: 15.00 for all 7 plates/resale shop.
Distressed frame (to scale): 39.00/antique shop.

Vintage silver mirror, reminiscent of the 1920s.
Cost: 50.00/resale shop.

Combo: antique chairs (green in chair brings out sage wall paint), modern bookcases, and chandelier lamp.
Cost: 50.00 for matching chairs/resale shop.
Entire lamp: Overstock.com (2 total)/150.00 each.
Distressed magazine holder: 12.00/antique store.

Chandelier lamp close up atop vintage-esque (i.e. new) record player/cd/radio.
A pairing of opposite concepts...

Handcrafted wooden horse atop modern bookshelf.
Cost: 150.00/antique store.
Sometimes you do have to spend a little to avoid the aforementioned Hoarders fine line.

Originally clear glass candle holders.
Tool: 1 can of silver/"antique" spray paint.
Perfect for a small, yet open space in a bookshelf.
Cost: Approx. 9.00 for all 3/resale shop.

Dumpster Divas Digital Grand Opening! Mission Statement: Build it, not Buy it.

Dumpster Divas Digital Grand Opening!

Mission Statement: Build it, not Buy it.

Two quotes: Chris Rock once asked, “How many of us work two jobs…just to be broke?”  Audrey Hepburn, in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, essentially said “No matter what I do, I only seem to have 250.00 in the bank.”  These are a couple phrases in which the Dumpster Divas can identify in their daily lives.  We have asked the question of what does one do with caviar dreams on a Sprite (or Shasta) budget?  Our answer: Build it, no buy it.

Our goal is to share with others and maintain the American ideology that we were born to build and invent, not born to shop what may be deemed “manufactured cool.” With kids and formula in the car, the husbands (or game wardens) not in sight, the 2 Texas ladies of the Dumpster Divas are on a mission to partake in the family juggling act of attempting to make a beautiful, Southern Living-esque home while reading the Penny Saver and using the creative portion of our frontal lobes. Simply said, we’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got!

How do we do it?  We have developed a strict standard of operation: avoid the scammers who sell overpriced junk.  We have a strict policy of intersecting creative and practical home décor ideas and not spending more than 20.00 on a pair of accent chairs.  Read our future Dumpster Diva posts for quick and cheap ideas, opinions of where to go and what to avoid (especially when toting kiddos), how to assemble projects from the store to the living room, and our embarrassing yet hilarious misadventures!

Goodwill, quaint antique malls, and resale shops are a much-needed staples-feel free to browse our posted projects!  Let us know your ideas and thoughts!  See you on the digital road to “creative cool” and aid us in adhering to the following sentiments:

“She was a triumph over ugliness, so often more beguiling than real beauty, if only because it contains a paradox.  In this case, as opposed to the scrupulous method of plain good taste and scientific grooming, the trick had been worked by exaggerating defects; she made them ornamental by admitting them boldly.”

-Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Signing off,

The Texas Dumpster Divas