#Swap It Like Its Hot: Flea Market Swap

Morning friends! I teamed up with a slew of creative bloggers swapping flea markets finds and then making them over. Here's the deets, shop [items from a flea market, thrift store etc] for a fun item for another blogger to makeover, spending between $10-15 bucks and then send them the item and they get creative making it over. My Swap buddy was Yvonne from Stone Gable, she sent me a pair 100 year old baseboard molding. 

To be honest, I was a little stumped with what to do with them. My first thought was no to touch, and showcase them by making a shadow box. Then, thought about turning them into self brackets to hold a shelf. Still stumped, I called in for reinforcements and asked my friends what they thought. Some friends thought bookends, shelf brackets, kids blocks, then Shavonda suggested stacked wood block candle holders. Thanks to her, I had a light bulb moment!! I loved the candle holder idea it made perfect sense, I decided to cut them down into into wood blocks and turn them into tea light candle holders. 

I bought some tea lights from Target and a 1 1/2 inch drill bit to drill into the wood. I decided to cut down the baseboard wood into 3x3 inch pieces using my miter saw. 

I'm not a 'chippy wood' kind of girl, so I decided to using the backside of the baseboards to drill my tea light candle hole into. To drill the hole into the block of wood, I used a the clamp on my Miter Saw to keep the wood held in place and wore protective glasses. Remember its very important to wear protective eye wear,especially while drilling a circle into wood. Next, I marked an X on the wood and I used my Ryobi impact drill to make the hole in the wood and drilled into the wood. After I finished drilling the holes into the pieces of wood, I sanded the blocks and all the edges down to make everything more smooth. I also left some of the edges raw and untouched.

I planned on leaving the wood untouched, but the wood appears to be cedar and had sections of sap in it, that made it soft. For that reason, I decided to lightly stain the wood with walnut stain. I'm really happy with how my little tea light candle holders turned out, each one is unique and imperfect, love that none of them turned out identical. And now for the after, below. 

The tea lights don't sit all the way into the wood, due to the depth of the wood blocks plus it also makes it easier to remove them. 

I'm thrilled with how my Swap It Likes Its Hot project turned out, especially since I was originally stumped by what to do with the old baseboard molding. My swap partner was Lindsey from Makley School for Girls, make sure you pop over to her blog and see what I sent her plus, see what she did! I can't wait to head over there too! 

Also stop by the blogs below to see what my fellow talented blog buddies where up to with there projects! This is going to be a fun day, so looking forward to popping over to all the other blogs. Plus its always fun to discover new to me blogs! Also quick and huge thank you to Charlotte of Ciburbanity & Jessica of Gourley Girl & Guy for thinking up this one Swap Party idea and asking me to join in the fun!! 

2 Little Superheroes AKA Design A Chic Little House The Chronicles of Home Ciburbanity Decor Adventures Desert Domicile Finding Silver Pennies Gourley Girl & Guy The Happier Homemaker Hearts and Sharts A Home Full of Color Makely Home Making Lemonade My Passion For Decor Primitive and Proper Queen of Everything Rooms For Rent Shades of Blue Stone Gable Thoughts From Alice</ a> Town and Country Living Two Purple Couches While They Snooze</ a> White Buffalo Styling Co. Windgate Lane 

Quick question, how do you think my project turned out? If you received the 100 year old baseboard molding, what would you have done? Can't wait to hear your thoughts!