Reuse and Recycle: My Soap Dispenser Tutorial

This is what I was excited about way back before vacation! 

So you know all those cute hand soap dispensers that you can get for $5, $10 or $15, well I didn't want to pay that. 

I have a small sink that is barely big enough to set anything on, and I didn't want to spend that kind of money on one to have it just fall off and break.

 (I know it would have fallen off because I have bumped my old ,regular, plastic one off more times than I can count.)

I have had this idea to paint and reuse an old soap dispenser for a long time, and thought there would be lots of tutorials about it on pinterest, but when I looked I couldn't find much about it at all. (maybe I wasn't looking for the right thing) anyway, I almost gave up on it, but decided that it wouldn't hurt to try. 

I decided to just use some of the things that I already had on hand  to see if my idea would work/ 

hold up. 

I used:

an empty bath and body works soap dispenser,

brown acrylic paint,

paint brush,

newspaper,

brown paper (like from a brown paper bag),

Mod Podge,

clear acrylic matte coating  

First,I washed it, then I took the labels off of the soap dispenser. I got the sticky glue off by applying vegetable oil and peanut butter to them a few times. (It ended up looking like a new bottle.)

I wanted a bronzed look so just stuck my finger in the opening to hold it, and painted the bottle. 

(I think I applied 3 coats of paint.)

You have to let it dry between coats of paint. (My room dehumidifier helped speed the process up.) 

When the bottle was dry and painted dark enough to suit me, I added some torn newspaper with the Mod Podge to give it a vintage, rustic look.

Then I googled soap labels, (or something like that, till I found a label that I liked.) I think it was a template, because I put the words on it.

I printed it on the brown paper then cut it out, and Mod Podged it on top of the newspaper.

I then added several coats of the clear acrylic paint, because I knew it was going to get wet.

We have been using this hard for about a month and it still looks good. It has had its share of crashes too, I can't even count the times that it has fallen off of the sink. I am impressed, because none of the paint has chipped off.

 (I just took these pictures this morning.)

I know that the pump probably won't last as long as a good, store bought, reusable one would, but I am fine with that. When it does stop working I will just replace it by doing this again!

If I had it to do over again I wouldn't have put the brown paint on the newspaper. 

I think "dirt" every time I look at it. 

(see my little friend on the bottle?)

I hope this helps someone! 

busy, busy little people

This past week we were outside a lot! 

We had lots of stuff to do in the garden and flower beds. 

(There is still lots to do...)

It is hard to get a picture of T. not moving..

K. is easier to get pictures of (when she is outside) right now . 

She is not quite brave enough to crawl in the grass yet.

(I think that will be changing soon though.)

And, just because she doesn't like to crawl in the grass doesn't mean that she doesn't like to eat it.

It is hard to believe that my baby is. 7.5 mo already.

These are the best pictures that I got of them together...

Mama was making all kinds of noises to get them to look and they just kept right on playing. (I think they might be a little to used to my craziness.) 

K. decided that she would eat the hot pad.. I can't blame her, they are pretty awesome feeling.

T. and his ceramic raccoon. He was carrying it everywhere this past week.

(The barrel in the background is for composting, Titus is trying to figure out something better than the compost pile that we have now. It is covered in nice healthy weeds.)

He even gave it a ride in his dump truck.

K. wanted to be down in the grass.

What our garden looks like right now..

She was content in the stroller for a little while.

Daddy has the tiller!

T. was picking the strawberry leaves off.

 I really think he was trying to weed, he just had the wrong thing.

He was working hard.

Irises in the garden.

We have some baby chickens!

T. likes to hold them.

There are 6 of them. 

My little cheeser.

Yesterday I organized in T's room.

I always know that I need to go through their clothes when I start piling the clean ones up instead of putting them away. It was bad this time, not only did I have the normal outgrown clothes I also had all the winter and summer things to go through. It was a little hard to do because it is still chilly here a lot, but I got it done. I mostly left out sweatshirts and jackets and a few long sleeved shirts. K. still has leggings out and T has long pants, (I think they will use them all summer) so I think we are done for a little while.

  It is so much more fun to put clothes away when there is room for them!

I always wonder why I ever put off organizing.