Let's say I have 2 mods that conflict, and they both add awesome weapons/armor, but they both have conflicting gameplay changes. If I only want gameplay changes from one, both weapons/armor from both, can I "take" the weapons/armor out of one and place them somewhere?

Thanks.

From my limited understanding of how mods work, I'd say no, not just like that.

If the armour weapon is a retexture or will replace some existing stuff, then it might work.

If it's a new set then I'm sure there is an esp, esm or bsa pointing to it. So you need to have them activated for it to work.
Otherwise you'd need a small mod that simply adds the gear as standalone.

So how would I get make it a standalone mod?

Unless the weapons and armor conflict in some way, just load the mod you want the gameplay changes from later in your load order. The later mod will override any changes it makes to the same records. Now, if both mods have different gameplay changes and you only want one of their changes, you'd have to manually edit the .esp in the CK.

Actually, can't I just take the meshes and textures folders and start up a new mod in the CK, then add those folders, then place the armors and weapons where I want them?

Not quite the simple.
First you would have to re-create the objects in the CK, then point / use the meshes from the copied folder as the models.
(Well, that's how you would do it in the CS. Though with the CK, there may be addtional steps - I haven't done this myself yet.)
Then you can place them where you want.

If you're feeling lucky, you could contact either of the authors about a compatibility patch.