The crafty things you find at Garage Sales

Last week was  my subdivision garage sale.  My subdivision  adjoins another one, and that one is holding one in conjunction with ours.

I am not allowed to have a garage sale every year.  It's a long story, but on the bright side I did my favorite 4 letter word - SHOP!

I do a lot of crafting as a hobby and there is NO craft type that I am NOT afraid of trying.  And at most of the new stuff I try to learn, I do a pretty good job at making cute items.OK, there was that knitting fiasco a few years back, but who is telling?

So me, being me,  the world's most practical crafter, if I am gonna try to learn a new craft,
 Say like  making beads. ( Say it.  Say it.  Say it -LOL)  I say I CAN make clay, paper or fiber beads.

Then I say to myself, "Okay, start slow and inexpensive, think used and repurposed etc."

So garage sale shopping has become a marketplace to crafting items.

What treasures can you get at a garage sale that can be used for crafts?

Below are some found treasures at garage sales. No, I did not buy all of them last week.

-Kitchen aide toaster oven $3- use for baking beads (one should not use the oven you cook in for baking clay beads- not healthy and the beads taste awful) The oven needed to be cleaned up and missing a control knob.  Cleaned it an found a knob.  I baked the first batch of clay beads in my garage, with no problem.

-Mini Cuisinart for $5- It had a bagful of attachments.  I had a regular size Cuisinart for years. As the years went on, I only used it once a year.  It was because leaning the sucker was not fun.  And then the death occurred.  The expensive full size Cuisinart died of old age about 5 years ago.  I didn't want to replace it.  I had placed another kitchen appliance in it's place to gather dust-LOL.  However about 2 years ago, my DD and I were into making all types of bath and beauty items.  You know, bath salts, body bars, and soaps.  I saw this mini Cuisinart and knew that I would use it to chop nuts, and mix stuff.  It worked perfectly!!!

-Yarn for $1 for 8 or 6 oz acrylic fiber.  I found white, orchid black, - Caron softie and Red Heart- colors that I use.

-Hard cover books for .50 each - these had beautiful designs on the covers, really gorgeous.  And they were published in the 1970's, so they don't make them like that any more.  These beautiful book covers will be re-crafted into journals covers and some are the right size to use inside e-reader covers or make the books into e-read covers.  The added value I can read the stories as well as use the covers- LOL!

-Art canvases for $3 ea - these were new and wrapped.  My DD loves to paint, so I loved to give this to her.  I got 3 and one set was a double.  Most were 8 x 10 in.  

-Jewelery - Anywhere from .25 to $2.  If the beads or charms are interesting, I grab it and recraft them. I found some great clip button earrings for .25 and one bracelet with skull charms for $2.

-Display items-
   Baskets for $1- giant, and I mean big size !
   Linen Table cloth for $1  to cover my craft table- neutral and nice
   Shadow box house for $1 - It originally was for a hanging on a wall.  I will make it so that it stands securely and use it for displaying my kiss em critter or something like that.  I also saw a kids toy that has a really cool wooden compartment box.  I thought instantly - line with fabric and you have a wonderful jewelery display box, but I am not really making much jewelery any more, so I passed on it.
 3 tiered rack for .75 - Think of a black metal mini 3 tiered  stand with a cute heart on it- portable and cute to add height.

And that is just some of the stuff I found. 

So what did you buy for crafting at your last yard or garage sale shopping trip?