Up-cycle Craft

I have a wonderfully creative daughter.  She was drawn to a book at Barnes & Noble titled:  Re-Craft (Unique projects that look great) by Jen Jones & Carol Sirrine.  She dabbled in a few of the creations but loved the "Hey Good Looking" project.  She made one for herself, her cousin and most recently, one for her friend Taylor.  Here is what it looked like.

  She got the jeans for free from a thrift store (they had stains on the bottom of the legs).  The zippers for the zipper flowers cost $2.00 (lots of tutorials on YouTube on how to make zipper flowers or we can give lessons - after lots of hot glue gun burns, we've figure out the right way to do them!); the paint for the splatters was from leftover Cub Scout projects; the mirror cost $.99 from Michael's; and foam core was a gift from Grandma Carol.  We went to Justice and with the 40% off everything in the store, we bought nail polish, shoe laces, a belt, socks, hair ties and a key chain.  The whole gift cost about $25 - a little spendy for the average gift but this family had taken Hannah to Duluth for an extended camping trip so the $$ seemed justified.  Hannah made one for herself and only paid for the mirror.  She tucked her own brush, comb and hair do-dads in the pockets and made a ribbon belt for her pierced earrings.  I try to encourage her creativity because as Pablo Picasso stated: "Every child is an artist.  The problem is  how to remain an artist once we grow up."