Summer is here, which means lots of time for the kids to have fun and lots of time to create. We’ve got a lot of loose crayons hanging around, so Faith decided to make a new crayon box to organize the crayons using a taco shell box, built-in crayon sharpener not included.
Most of us have at least one drawer in our house where we keep random objects, discarded game pieces, ticket stubs, pens, paper clips, bottle caps, toys, and lots more. The contents of a drunk drawer are unique to each home, but they share a common thread. While the items may appear to be forgotten, they can say a lot about where we’ve been and what we’ve experienced. They reveal a little bit about who we are and what we treasure. This junk can even serve as a beautiful work of art as our junk drawer collage shows. What does your junk drawer look like?
A great nature inspired bracelet idea from one of our little White Elephant creators using leaves, a hole puncher, and band made on a rainbow loom.
Using a Scrabble board and tiles, we made wall art as a gift for our brother and sister-in-law to display in our newborn nephew’s room. We decided to only use the tiles from a single set which limited our options for words, but it was a fun challenge. The board is sturdy enough to stand alone, but my dad custom made a frame to hold it since the board is basically a square and not standard frame size.
Scrabble is a fun game to play, and the tiles make great crafts as well. You can typically find an older version relatively cheap at yard sales and thrift stores. We have made many crafts over the years using Scrabble tiles. We even have a refrigerator magnet set for sale at our online store if interested. http://www.whiteelephantcreations.com/scrabble-magnets/
Christmas is often a time when you hear “White Elephant” being used, mainly at Christmas party gift exchanges. Gifts that are exchanged at these parties are often used gifts that can be stolen or “swapped” according to the rules of the gift exchange. It’s a lot fun to see people vying to take home someone else’s junk, but most probably never ask why it is called that or where the terms actually come from.
According to Wikipedia, a white elephant is a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. The term derives from the story that the kings of Siam were accustomed to make a present of one of these animals to courtiers who had rendered themselves obnoxious, in order to ruin the recipient by the cost of its maintenance. In modern usage, it is an object, scheme, business venture, facility, etc., considered without use or value.
My brother and I started using the name White Elephant when we were younger as a production company for our various creative outlets. We had first heard the term White Elephant while attending our church’s annual Christmas bazaar. Since the White Elephant idea often refers to turning trash into treasure, we thought it was a natural fit for our White Elephant Creations blog and store and our tag line “giving outworn objects a second life. So what unique gifts have you received at a White Elephant gift exchange?