It’s amazing what you can make with free stuff!  This year has been a huge year for free items (though each year we manage to rely heavily on free items).  Here are some choice items that have found their way to us:

1) Two giant branch/trees pre-cemented into pots.  We found these babies on the side of the road.  Don’t they look like coral?  Add a little paint and they are good to go!

2) Cardboard tubes.  My company was looking to unload these and I said, “Hey, I’ll take ’em!”  They got to live another day as tube coral for Nemo and his friends.

3) AstroTurf.  This was destined for the dumpster, but veered left and was invited to come be a part of our sea floor.

4) Tree stump.  A summer project in our backyard yielded a tree stump which when turned over and painted, makes a pretty good undersea plant.

5) Tree branches.  After our peach tree died, it, like the Giving Tree, offered its branches for the enjoyment of kids.

6) Cardboard.  When my wife brought home huge, flat cardboard from her work, I knew we would find something to do with it.  Yay! Now Nemo characters can greet trick-or-treaters when they arrive.

7) Rocks.  We needed some blue aquarium rocks to complete the Mount Wannahockaloogie scene and our backyard dirt area yielded up lots of fine specimens.

Isn’t it amazing what you can make with free stuff?