I made a thingy. To hold coupons. Or perhaps it could hold other things, but for now it holds coupons. Behold! Clothespins on a board:

I found the board in our supply of scrap wood and stained and sealed it using some leftover stuff we had lying around. I probably would have gone darker with the stain if I was buying stuff specifically for this project, but I actually like how it turned out with the lighter stain.

I spent way too long scouring Pinterest trying to figure out the optimal way to color wooden clothespins. Spray paint, RIT dye, food coloring? Finally I realized I was waaaaayyyyy over thinking it, and dug through my box of old craft supplies. I found a 10+ year old bottle of metallic purple  acrylic and a little paintbrush, and just slapped it on, not worrying about it.

I wasn’t sure if wood glue would work with the polyurethane on the board, but the backs of the clothespins are still raw wood and I guess the glue is holding up okay.

Anyway, I’m using this to keep track of my coupons, since they didn’t do me much good stuffed in a drawer:

And I hung the thing on the back of the door so I don’t have to look at the inelegant coupon display if I don’t want to. Instead I can look at sad puppy-dog eyes:

Anyway, I bought some of those command strips to attach it to the door since I didn’t want it to be permanent, and eventually I’m going to paint the beige door so it’s white. So I didn’t quite manage to spend zero dollars on this project, but I’m still pretty proud of my thrifty scavenging around the house for most of the supplies. 🙂