DIY outside boot scraper and shoe brush

 This project is a great DIY that will save you money and can make a great gift depending on how fancy you want to get with it. 

    It is a basic shoe brush for knocking the dirt and mud off your shoes before coming into the house.     As you can see from the photo below I used a couple of scrap pieces of  2"X 8". The bottom one is approximately 14 inches in length and the side piece is about 7 to 8 in length. I screwed the short 2 x 8 at a right angle to the longer piece with 3" screws, making sure the screws are heavy enough to withstand being kicked and rubbed against.
The brushes are scrubbed brushes from the dollar store. They had a screw-on back that I removed and discarded and using the existing screw holes I used 1 1/2" screws to secure the brushes to the boards. Now I found these scrub brushes in the housewares section and could have just as easily used wooden brushes and simply predrilled my holes.
     And that was the complete project with a total cost of about four dollars. Now I could've gotten a little more fancy by adding a metal plate for scraping your boots on, but the heavy 2" X 8" I think will work just as well without. Now you could put Thompson's water seal on your project and that will help your project last a little bit longer. The main thing I was looking for was a shoe brush and boot scraper that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg. Most of the ones that I saw online were upwards of $15-$30 and the few that I tried didn't last more than one season. The worst-case scenario with this one is that I might have to replace the brushes at a total cost of three dollars.
     As it turns out, it also could turn into a moneymaker, as I've already had several people offer to pay upwards of $10-$15 for one.

So happy Nevada crafting and have a great day.

For other such projects sure to check out our website nevadacrafter.com and also be sure and check out our other blogs.

For free patterns and concept ideas http://patterns44.blogspot.com/
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DIY Bottle or Jar Cleaning Brush

Bottle or Jar Cleaning brush

This is a simple project with three main parts.

You will need the following.

1. Wooden spoon
2. Mop yarn
3. 4 inch foam mini paint roller
4. Hot glue - high temp.

The tools you will need are as follows

1. A sander of some type either belt sander or Dremel tool
2. quarter-inch drill bit and drill
3. hot glue gun with high temp glue.

Take the wooden spoon and sand the handle down just enough to fit inside the paint roller. Then drill 1/4 inch holes in the lower half the spoon, as shown here.

Then using a hot glue gun inject a small amount of blue inside the paint roller and long handle. Insert the handle into paint roller and immediately cool with cold water. The cold water is to keep the foam from melting and two quickset glue. Once you have glued the foam roller onto the handle it should not turn. If the roller rotates on the handle it will not do a very good job in cleaning bottles or jars. After you have assembled the foam handle you can use a crochet hook or latch hook or even micro forceps as seen here, to assemble the mop yarn. Mop yarn may be hard to come by at craft stores so I simply bought a mop from the dollar store and cannibalized it for the yarn. Yarn should be 6 to 8 inches in length and can be added to the spoon by either using half hitch knots or double knots on either side of the holes, so as to prevent the yarn from pulling through. You may want to add two or three strands per hole in order to get the right density of yarn. If you find that after assembly yarn is still too long you can simply trim with scissors. Once you have finished this your project is complete and you now have the best bottle brush ever. It's makes a great gift or a great project just for yourself.

    If you're going to make these for sale it is important to keep in mind that the cost of your materials is critical to whether it is profitable. Most of the materials were purchased at a dollar store and the cost of materials was kept under a dollar. Where you may lose some money as with any crafts is with the amount of time spent in creating the item. This may be offset by adding the item to a gift basket or similar project.  It may be possible to save a little bit of money by cutting out your own spoons out of quarter-inch wood stock. 

   Be sure to try different materials as well. Here we tried mop yarn, craft foam sheets cut into 1/2" X 4" strips and fabric netting. Each gives a different quality cleaning action. The netting is good for scrubbing tough stains, the foam works good at moving material and the mop yarn a good all around  material that holds water well.